 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
Signs of the Times Australia / NZ edition — lifestyle, health, relationships, culture, spirituality, people — published since 1886 |
||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
Signs of the Times Australia / NZ edition — lifestyle, health, relationships, culture, spirituality, people — published since 1886 |
||||||||||
Although he says in the book’s foreword that he has found many commentaries, particularly Thomas Brodie’s, useful in his study of the Gospel of John, Jean Vanier suggests at the end of his own book on the particular Gospel that it should be read as a “letter from a friend,” not an “academic exercise.”
This just as well summarises Vanier’s own book exploring the Gospel, which, rather than a scholarly commentary, is like a conversation with a friend sitting across the coffee table. Written in what Vanier calls “meditative prose,” which breaks up the sentences into loose lines of verse, the tone is gentle but insightful. As fitting Vanier’s background, and the beloved disciple’s place in this gospel, Vanier’s emphasis is on relationships: “The glory of human beings is not first and foremost to do or produce beautiful things. The glory of human beings is to communicate life.” In particular, he sees that Jesus came to invert the hierarchical structure of our society. “We all want to be winners,” he writes, “though in reality so few can be.” John’s Gospel focuses on Jesus’ service to those without money or power.
Vanier himself knew a little about money and power. He was the son of the Governor-General of Canada, and served in the Canadian Navy for a time. However, he felt called to minister to the disabled—an “intuition” he calls it—and started the first L’Arche community in France with just one disabled person, and virtually no experience. Living with the disabled, however, was an essential element to L’Arche’s success, so that the ministry became one of communion with, not simply service to, the disabled. This experience, as Vanier points out, informs his reading of John’s Gospel so that “these insights flow from my life with people who are weak and who have taught me to welcome Jesus from the place of poverty in me.”
The relationships Jesus establishes become the models for our own relationships with the weak. To reach out properly to someone requires relinquishing power, as Jesus does when He approaches the woman at the well, asking for water. The disabled need our compassion, not our condescension.
Instructive, also, is how Jesus relates to the blind beggar in John’s ninth chapter. While the disciples view him as a theological problem, Jesus responds with healing words and touch. Too often we see disabled people as a problem to be fixed, rather than individuals like ourselves who require love and care.
Crucial to our relationships with others is relinquishing power in order to accept Jesus. Vanier suggests that the word “dwell” is an important one in John’s Gospel and that sin is primarily a failure to be open to Christ dwelling in us. Here, he says, the disabled give us a valuable lesson. Often they are more accepting of Jesus in their weakness. Those who are empty can be more easily filled. Many in the Gospel are unwilling to be filled: the disciples who were jealous of Mary of Bethany’s display of perfumed affection, the Jewish authorities who feared losing power and disliked hearing the truth, Pilate who chooses a miscarriage of justice over accepting the King of Peace.
Vanier is especially good at being able to give a more complex picture of these people, at revealing their thoughts and what motivates their rejection. He takes them from “New Testament characters” to real people. Vanier’s empathy extends even to Judas—usually cast as the villain—who is broken, who hates Jesus and himself, and who cannot allow himself to be vulnerable to love.
Like Judas, and Peter too, we all find it hard to want the “real, living Jesus,” because Jesus does not fit our idea of “triumphant.” Even Jesus’ resurrection is not triumphant in an earthly sense—He appears to His friends, not the leaders of Jerusalem. But Vanier stresses the gritty reality of Jesus’ presence. The much quoted opening passage of John’s Gospel—about the Word becoming flesh—underlines Jesus’ divinity. But the writer also emphasises Jesus’ humble, earthly origins because, Vanier suggests, Jesus’ message, far from being a utopian fantasy, makes a difference in the routine of our daily lives.
This, Vanier believes, is the reason the evangelist tells us about Jesus meeting the disciples on the shore of Lake Galilee after the resurrection—“Jesus meets us wherever we are.” In our society we make money for the sake of it, and people become desirable objects. But when we’re filled with the Spirit and are animated by, rather than simply emulating, Christ, our daily relationships are transformed. Vanier uses the wedding feast at Cana to remark that behind the miracle of water to wine is the symbolism of Jesus turning “dailiness” into rejoicing.
Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus Through the Gospel of John, Jean Vanier, John Garratt Publishing.
Extract from Signs of the Times, April 2005 .
Home - Archive - Topics - Podcast - Subscribe - Special Offers - About Signs - Contact Us - Links
Copyright © 2006 Seventh-day Adventist Church (SPD) Limited ACN 093 117 689
Unassociated
advertisement:
This article comes from a
regular column in
Signs
of the Times.
