THE NUMBER SEVEN
One of the key features in John's gospel is that it is structured around the number SEVEN. There are SEVEN "I AM" statements: The bread of life (6:35, 48), the light of the world (8:12; 9:5), the door (10:7), the good shepherd (10:11-14), the resurrection and the life (11:25), the way, the truth, and the life (14:6), and the true vine (15:1, 5).
Jesus performs SEVEN signs: water to wine (2:1-11), healing of the royal official's son (4:46-54), healing the paralytic (5:1-18), feeding the 5,000 (6:5-14), crossing the rough water in a boat (6:16-24), healing the blind man (9:1-7), and resurrecting Lazarus (11:1-45).
Some have even observed that Jesus was the SEVENTH resurrection in the Bible and that the resurrections from the Old Testament and the New Testament parallel each other! Take a look for yourself:
The Old Testament || The WIDOW'S son by Elijah (1 Kings 17:17-24), The WEALTHY Shunammite's son by Elisha (2 Kings 4), The corpse touched by Elisha's dead body in his TOMB (2 Kings 13:20-21). The New Testament || The WIDOW'S son by Jesus (Luke 7:11-15), The WEALTHY ruler's daughter by Jesus (Mark 5:21-43), Lazarus called out of his TOMB by Jesus (John 11), Jesus' RESURRECTION.The validity of this observation would, of course, depend on John being familiar with the writings of both Mark and Luke who record the other two New Testament resurrection accounts.
THE CREATION THEME
So why is the number SEVEN such a big deal in John's gospel? Well, the opening chapter provides the answer.
IN THE BEGINNING was the WORD and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was God...Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the LIGHT of all mankind. The LIGHT shines in the DARKNESS, and the DARKNESS has not overcome it. (John 1:1-4)This passage (coupled with John's obsession with the number SEVEN) makes it clear that John is trying to identify Jesus' life with the CREATION account in the book of Genesis ("In the beginning God created..."). Just like God created light out of the darkness so too did Jesus bring LIGHT into the DARKNESS. Also, Jesus uses WORDS (just like Yahweh did in CREATION!) to perform each of the SEVEN signs (mentioned above).
And so when Jesus turns the water into wine, He doesn't use a magic wand (or a staff like Moses or a cloak like Elisha) to perform the SIGN. NO. He simply TELLS the servants what to do and something supernatural happens. Likewise, He TELLS the royal official "Go, your son will live"; He CALLS Lazarus out of the tomb; He BLESSES God when multiplying the fish and the bread; He TELLS the paralytic, "Get up, take up your mat and walk"; He uses the WORDS "I AM, do not be afraid" to reassure his disciples and bring them to safety across the rough waters; and He uses the WORDS "Go wash in the pool of Siloam" to heal the blind man. By doing this, Jesus is not only reminding us that God originally CREATED through His divine WORD ("And God said..."), He is also making the claim that God is now RECREATING through His divine WORD (that is, through Himself!...the Son FROM God!).
Of course with the healing of the blind man, Jesus doesn't just use WORDS...He also uses MUD. So why did Jesus use MUD for his SIXTH sign if He could have just as simply healed the blind man with his WORDS? Might this be a symbolic act by Jesus? And might Jesus be intentionally casting his miraculous SIGNS in the context of the creation story of Genesis where humans were created out of the MUD on the SIXTH day? Or are all of these parallels just coincidences?
THE BOTTOM LINE
It seems clear to me that John is identifying Jesus and His life with the CREATION account in Genesis. But is John making this connection just to show people that Jesus is GOD IN THE FLESH or is John ALSO trying to make a more practical (less apologetic) point? Certainly, John's gospel affirms Jesus' DEITY and EQUALITY with God. And this would certainly address some of the heresies (like early forms of gnosticism...google this!) possibly present at the time of John's writing. However, I believe that John's PRIMARY intention for writing his gospel is more practical (and less academic). I believe John is trying to help people understand HOW to FOLLOW JESUS.
So how does this CREATION theme factor into what John thinks is at the CORE of following Jesus (according to Jesus)? Well, there are other themes in the Gospel of John that need to be unearthed before we answer this question...so stay tuned!
As an FYI, some people believe that Jesus only performed SIX signs and that His resurrection constituted the SEVENTH sign. This is a valid possibility. Why? Through his structuring of the narrative (John 6:1-59), it does seem like John combines two of the signs (the feeding of the 5,000 and the crossing of the rough water). You'll notice in this narrative that Jesus feeds the 5,000 (6:1-15), helps his disciples cross the rough water (6:16-24), and then John resumes the story of Jesus' miraculous feeding (6:25-59). It is when the story of Jesus' miraculous feeding resumes that Jesus discloses that He is "the bread of life" and the "the bread that came down from heaven." John clearly wants the reader to view these two signs together. Why? This will be taken up in the next blog. But in the meantime, think MOSES.
ReplyDeleteAnd so both conclusions can be ably defended. But both conclusions reinforce to the same idea: John is using the number SEVEN to make allusion to the CREATION days in Genesis.