Crossroad

Some people had a problem following the timeline presented in the sermon ‘40 Days.’  Here is an explanation of how to merge the Synoptic and Johannine versions . . . When one reads the Gospels, one must take into account the difference between the Synoptics (Mt, Mrk, Lk) and John’s Gospel.  This is a huge generalization, but the Synoptics are more concerned with telling the story of Jesus, John on telling who Jesus was.  Consider John’s summary statement in 20:30-31- “these are written so you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God . . .”  Consider Luke’s opening statement in 1:1-3- a narrative of the things accomplished among us, seen by eyewitnesses, write an orderly account, etc.  

So when we deal with John, we must understand he was not arranging a historically linear biography.  That does not mean that the things he recorded didn’t happen, just that the order of them is not the key issue.  We write this way as well.  Say I was going to write a biography of Winston Churchill.  You would expect a certain flow of events.  Then say I was going to write a book claiming that W.C. was the greatest political leader who ever lived.  You would not hold me to a linear account if say I used an example from ’38 and then went to ’41 and then back to ’49.  My purpose would not be to show a linear account of why W.C. was the greatest, although I could do that.  It would be to show why W.C. was the greatest.
John is doing the same thing.  One has to grab on to the fact that throughout his Gospel, John arranges things symbolically.  Let me give only one example for the sake of not making this the longest thing ever.  In John 3, Jesus has the encounter with Nicodemus where the famous line born again is mentioned.  This is a shock to Nicodemus because he is everything ‘right.’  He is male, Jewish, Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin (Jewish High Court).  That he of all people would have to ‘start over’ is crazy.  What is the next story?  In John 4, we have the adulterous woman at the well.  She is everything ‘wrong.’  She is female, Gentile, pagan, sinner.  But it is to her that Jesus confirms who he is.  This is the symbolism of what John is doing.  These two stories are ‘bookends’ if you will.  No doubt the stories happened, but they are arranged to bring out a powerful point.  Jesus is the Christ who has come to save the world, not just the Jews.
Which brings us, finally, to the point of this thing.  Let’s examine the timeline John is proposing.  The timeline begins in John 1:24-28 (I’m going to summarize rather than type out the whole thing) when the Pharisees begin to question John the Baptist and he announces the coming of the One (not the Matrix.)  The second day is recorded in 1:29-34 when John announces Jesus.  The third day is the one we talked about, found in 1:35-42.  Day four is recorded in 1:43-51.  Then we hit chapter 2.  Now note this, it begins in 2:1 with ‘On the third day . . .’  So, we have 4 days, then 3 which makes 7.  What happens on that ‘7th’ day?  Jesus turns water to wine and to quote John from 2:11 ‘manifest(s) His glory.’  This is a picture using the Jewish notion of God.  God rests during His 7th day of creation, but through Christ, He is picking it back up.  The story is Jesus using Jewish washings basins to transform the wine.  A ‘this old creation will not do, I will transform it’ parable, if you will.
The Synoptics are clear that the Temptation occurred after the Baptism.  We must recognize that if John’s timeline is meant to be historically linear, there is an irreconcilable conflict.  None of this even mentions the impossibility of being in Judea one day and traveling all the way to Galilee the next, although that is an entirely different thing.  Rather, recognizing the high use of symbol in John (study it sometime, its fascinating and edifying) we can see there might be another way to engage the text that is not dishonest or ‘skirting.’