John Blackwell - A Whole New World: The Gospel of John

Chapter 1

The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory.

John 1:14 (NRSV)

I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Jesus, in John 11:2526 (NRSV)

I t may have been my first insight into the Bible. I was in high school. I had just started reading the Bible. I had an inkling: perhaps God was calling me. I certainly felt some nudges and inspiration. At the ripe old age of seventeen, I was struggling with what to make of what I was reading. My youth counselors were more than patient. They didn't want to throw water on the fires of my enthusiasm. But when it came to interpreting the Bible, I was clueless.

Then along came Roy Ford. He was our new pastor. He also became one of my most important mentors during my teenage years. Roy expressed a genuine love for all of us. He was involved in our lives. He coached his sons' little league baseball team. He came to our youth group regularly. Roy Ford gently, but firmly, guided the early stage of my journey of learning.

Roy also loved the Gospel of John. This Gospel mesmerized me. I knew that I didn't understand it, but I also knew that I wanted to. It seemed to contain so much mystery, and it was packed with meaning. Still, John's Gospel was difficult for me to understand. Why was it such a challenge? This Gospel provided my first serious encounter with metaphors. John's Gospel is full of them. Jesus says, I am the light. I am the vine. I am the way. I am the door. I am the bread. I am the water. And so on. My problem was that I was unprepared to deal with metaphors. I hadn't yet learned that a metaphor is the first cousin of a simile. A simile says that x is like y. A simile is all about comparison: When it came to subtlety, he was like a truckload of turkeys. That's a simile.

A metaphor is like a simile, but it has an unmistakable, mysterious quality. A metaphor doesn't say x is like y, it says x is y. Jesus doesn't say, I am like a shepherd; he says, I am the shepherd. And yet, Jesus didn't tend sheep as a vocation. When he says, I am the shepherd, he is not only telling us something about his own character; he is drawing us into a relationship of guidance, where he becomes our mentor. A metaphor not only makes a comparison, but also draws us into a relationship with the world in which the metaphor belongs. Metaphors give us a place in the story. They transform our vision. They help us see, imagine, feel, and act in new ways.

Roy Ford became my mentor of metaphors. It was in his study that I was first drawn into a whole new world of John's metaphors. In the of the Gospel of John, Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. I had been wondering what this meant. How was I to understand this extraordinary claim? How was I to live with it? To help me, Roy went to his bookshelf and took a volume entitled The Message of the Fourth Gospel, by Eric Titus. Dr. Titus was Roy Ford's professor at the University of Southern California. Roy turned to the chapter on the story of the Resurrection of Lazarusthe place where Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. I stared at the title to that chapter. If my memory is correct, it read, The Giver of Life.

I stood transfixed. What was I reading? What did it mean? It would take years to sink in, but already I was beginning to recognize that when Christ says, I am the resurrection and the life, it speaks not only of identity and character, but also conveys something of who he is in relationship to me. When Christ says, I am the resurrection and the life, he is drawing me into a relationship that is life-givingthat enlarges my capacity for living.