But take away the possibility of offense, as has been done in Christendom, and all Christianity becomes direct communication, and then Christianity is abolished, has become something easy, a superficial something that neither wounds nor heals deeply enough; it has become the false invention of purely human compassion that forgets the infinite qualitative difference between God and man.

Søren Kierkegaard, Practice in Christianity

If you ever choose to become a teacher or a professor, it is a good thing to remember what it was like to be a student. I remember being completely lost in some classes. It wasn’t until much later that I realized the problem was that the subject matter was presented as a series of “facts” whose only connection to each other was chronology (that is, when they happened). If you have a good memory, you may be able to remember them that way; but do you actually know them? Not really. Knowledge only comes from the full story, from the interdependence of the facts: how one can be derived from another, how they support each other, and how, together, they compel us to reach new conclusions. Context is everything. This is especially true in the Sciences; it is also absolutely true when reading the Bible.

Faith is not Faith unless it is tested. And a test is not a test unless it puts before us the possibility of being offended at God. The stumbling stone can only do its job if it is placed right in the middle of our path.

John’s gospel is not one of the synoptic gospels. That simply means it does not “look like the other” three. That doesn’t mean that the others were somehow derived from a common previously existing “original text” that is now lost whereas John’s followed a different tradition. There is no proof of that that could stand up in court. Remember, Scholars have to make a living too. And beyond the objective detective work they engage in when examining ancient witnesses, they also can have their own subjective opinions. But since not one of us can hop into a time machine and go back and see the original compilation of the gospels, all we can do is take the gospels we have at face value.

As Jesus and his disciples were traveling together through the villages around Caesarea Philippi, he asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” And then Jesus asked: “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:14-15). If you have read the story, you know that it was Simon Peter who had a definite answer. But the more important question today is: What do you think? What is your answer?

Today I want to wrap up Chapter 5 of the Gospel of John. And we get again to a point where it seems to me that John assumes we are already acquainted with the events in Jesus’ life that are recorded in the other (synoptic) Gospels. If you follow them chronologically, you realize that by the time Jesus heals the man at the pool of Bethesda, he has had several adversarial encounters with the religious leaders: They have even accused him of doing miracles by the power of the Devil. Jesus, in turn, has challenged their hypocrisy openly. We need to keep this dynamic in mind as we come to the rest of Chapter 5.