The Gospel According to John

You have to love the Gospel of John. There are four Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — but the book of John stands alone in its approach to telling the story of Jesus' Earthly ministry. I think I'm drawn to it because of the thinkers mentality he takes to breaking down the key points.

Consider the famous passages we get from the book of John, starting right at the beginning. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." A key foundation of our faith, right there at the start of the Gospel. And, of course, even those who aren't Christians are familiar with the keystone verse of our faith — again from the book of John — John 3:16.

But it isn't just his approach to the material, but the material he chooses to include. Consider the miracles of Jesus. While Matthew, Mark, and Luke — often referred to as the synoptic Gospels — frequently include variations of the same stories, John stands alone. Yet it is the miracles included in the book of John that often are some of the most memorable.

Consider, John is alone in writing of Jesus' healing at the Sheep's Gate Pool. It's a fascinating and transformative story, but only the Gospel of John includes it. Or how about the story of Lazarus. We know Jesus raised a couple people from the dead, but his raising of Lazarus is the one most often talked about. Yet, it appears only in the Gospel of John. The other three Gospels all include a story of Jesus raising Jairus's daughter, but it is John's account of raising Lazarus that seems to spring to mind most. Of course John includes the most famous verse, and shortest, regarding this miracle. John 11:35 reads, "Jesus wept." It's the emotion that really drives the story in our minds.

The same is true of our text from Sunday, Jesus' first miracle. If you were to ask most people, they would recount turing water into wine as one of Jesus' miracles, yet only the Gospel of John includes the story of this miracle at the wedding in Cana. And I think, if you consider it for a moment, the inclusion of this miracle brings up an interesting idea of faith. Jesus turned water into wine, but it's not just the act that is significant to me, but how he did it.

Jesus used the water in the ceremonial washing barrels. Ceremony and purification and cleansing rituals were important to the Jews. We get a sense of this in the Old Testament, particularly in the Levitical codes. Jesus used this water and turned it into wine, which would later be a symbol of the new covenant created in his sacrifice on the cross.

There's a beautiful symbolism in John including this as the first miracle in his Gospel, because it's symbolic of how Jesus changed our interaction with God. He became the new covenant, replacing the purity codes and changing what it means to be a person of faith. I like to think that was John's intent in laying out the wedding of Cana.