Day 226: John 21:24–25

There are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if they were written one by one, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written (v. 25).

In the very early years of the New Testament church, Eusebius penned the following statement from Clement of Alexandria: “John, last of all, conscious that the outward facts had been set forth in the Gospels, was urged on by his disciples, and, divinely moved by the Spirit, composed a spiritual Gospel.”49 If Clement was accurate, John was familiar with the synoptic Gospels and had neither the desire nor a compelling of the Holy Spirit to repeat the biographical approach of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The Gospel of John shares only about 10 percent of its content with the other Gospel writers. Clement did not mean all four were not equally inspired. He simply suggested that the last Gospel can draw us further into spiritual truths.

Though John’s approach is vast and deep, my Greek teacher tells me that John’s Greek is the most easily read of all the New Testament books. Perhaps Augustine had these facts in mind when he wrote, “John’s Gospel is deep enough for an elephant to swim and shallow enough for a child not to drown.”50 So whether we’re elephants or children in our relationship to the Word, you and I can splash to our delight in the living water of this Gospel.

Like several other New Testament books, the end of this Gospel explains why the book had a beginning. I never hear this verse (John 21:25) without thinking about my first guide in Israel who told me that the ancient Hebrews often spoke in pictures and images. He said, “For instance, we would read John’s intent in this final verse like this: ‘If all the trees of the forest were quills and the oceans ink, still they could not record all Jesus did.’ ” Ah, yes! That’s my kind of wording!

Whatever your preference in rhetoric, we can conclude from John’s ending that the elements shared in the pages of his Gospel were purposefully selected by the leadership of the Spirit working through the personality and priorities of John. No other Gospel writer surpasses his determination to express Jesus’ absolute deity. John wrote his Gospel so that the reader would behold truth from an utterly convinced eyewitness that Jesus Christ is the uncontested Christ. The Messiah. The Son of God.