Hi everyone, welcome back to our daily Gospel exegesis which is
produced by the Logical Bible Study.
Thank you again for tuning in. This is a Catholic ministry
where we look at the the Bible and in particular the Gospel
reading from today's Mass, and we're giving you the tools to
help you dive into the text to help you really understand what
it means on the literal level. Today we're looking at John
chapter 3, verses 31 to 36. This might be a passage that you
have never heard before. It's one that's not talked about
that often. John the Baptist said to his
disciples, he who comes from above is above all others.
He who was born of the earth is earthly himself and speaks in an
earthly way. He who comes from heaven bears
witness to the things he has seen and heard, even if his
testimony is not accepted, though all who do accept his
testimony are attesting the truthfulness of God.
Since he whom God has sent speaks God's own words, God
gives him the Spirit without reserve.
The Father loves the Son and has entrusted everything to him.
Anyone who believes in the sun has eternal life, but anyone who
refuses to believe in the sun will never see life.
The anger of God stays on him. So it's another quite complex
passage from the Gospel of John, where each phrase is quite
densely packed with theological meaning.
Let's talk about the context. Just prior to this, John has
been talking to his disciples. So John the Baptist has his own
group of followers and they come and they ask him a question
about Jesus because they notice that Jesus has started baptizing
people as well. And in that passage in John
chapter 3 before where we get to today, John the Baptist says he
is the bridegroom. I am the friend of the
bridegroom. He must increase, but I must
decrease. So that's what John the Baptist
has said, and we've looked at that at other times in the
podcast. Our reading today is the very
next thing he says. So the text flows right into
this next bit. But there's a bit of a caveat
here. Our lectionary has these words
at the start of our reading today.
If you've got the reading in front of you, you'll see that
the first words are John the Baptist said to his disciples.
Now, that's not in the original text.
If you look up John chapter 3 verse 31, it doesn't say that.
It just continues straight into He who Comes.
So the lectionary translators for the Catholic Church have
added in that phrase John the Baptist said to his disciples to
help make it clearer what's going on.
The problem is it's not entirely clear if it is John the Baptist
who is speaking here. And the reason is because in the
original Greek text, there's no quotation marks.
It's very hard to see when someone starts talking and stops
talking. So it could be that John the
Baptist is continuing to speak because he was definitely
speaking the last time we saw him in John chapter 3.
So it could be a continuation of John's speech, or it could be
the author, John the Apostle offering his own editorial
comments. This could be kind of an
extended description of Trinitarian theology from John
the Apostle himself. There are other places in John
where the apostle John the author does do that.
So let's keep in mind that it's not entirely clear if this is
John the Baptist who's continuing to speak to his
disciples, or if it's the apostle John the author who's
just written this stuff down himself.
To make it easier, we'll say that it's John the Baptist who's
continuing to speak. So we'll go with what the
lectionary has here at the start.
So he starts by saying he who comes from above is above all
others. So John here is talking about
the Messiah Jesus and he's saying the Messiah from heaven.
And earlier in John chapter 3 we saw that the Messiah is from
heaven, he's from above and he ranks before all others,
including John the Baptist himself.
So this is an answer to the disciples questions who come to
John and say why is this other guy baptizing?
This is John the Baptist's answer.
He says, well, the Messiah ranks above all others, including me,
so we should expect people are going to flock to Jesus.
That's what John the Baptist is saying.
He said he wants his disciples to be OK with it.
It's not a problem. John the Baptist goes on.
He who is born of the earth is earthly himself and speaks in an
earthly way. So if this is John the Baptist
talking, he's probably talking about himself here.
I'm earthly whereas the Messiah is heavenly.
Although John the Baptist is a prophet inspired by God, he's
not from heaven like Jesus is. On the other hand, if it's the
apostle John speaking, adding his own comments, then someone
who is of the earth is probably John the Apostles way of saying
someone who does not accept the testimony of the one who comes
from heaven. And John here is calling people,
if that's the case, to change their way of thinking and to
accept Jesus as a Messiah. Verse 32.
He who comes from heaven bears witness to the things he has
seen and heard. So Jesus the Messiah who's come
from heaven, tells the world of the things he has seen and heard
in heaven. In other words, he imparts the
information that he's received from God the Father.
And this is a big theme in the Gospel of John, even if his
testimony is not accepted or more literally, other
translations have it as stronger than that.
No one receives his testimony. So John the Baptist here wants
to ensure that his disciples are not deceived by external
appearances. Even if Jesus message is not
accepted, John the Baptist says to his disciples you need to
know this is the Messiah from heaven.
Even if people aren't accepting him though, all who do accept
his testimony are attesting to the truthfulness of God.
Or another translation of verse 33 is he who receives his
testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.
So anyone who accepts the message of Jesus indicates that
they believe in God. Basically, there's a strong
connection between believing in Jesus and trusting the
truthfulness of God. And if you do that, then you act
as a testimony to God himself. And Jesus explains this a bit
further in the next verse because that is a bit confusing,
this idea of testifying to the truthfulness of God, verse 34,
since that keyword there is since.
So Jesus is now going to give us a reason, since he whom God has
sent speaks God's own words. So Jesus the Messiah speaks the
words of God the Father. John the Baptist teaching here
is if one listens to Jesus, they're listening to God.
If one accepts Jesus, they accept God.
And that's been a theme even earlier in John chapter 3 when
Jesus spoke to Nicodemus. God gives him the spirit without
measure. So God the Father does not
withhold himself from the Son. This is quite a profound
theological teaching. God the Father completely
discloses himself and His will to the Messiah.
So that means Jesus, as the Messiah knows God the Father's
will perfectly, and his mission is to communicate the Father's
will to others on earth. That's what the Messiah is
trying to do. In fact, we learned from later
in the New Testament that the Son is the exact representation
of the Father. He's not just a messenger.
He has the very nature of God. Verse 35, the Father loves the
Son. Notice that the Father loves the
Son. So there's an intimate
relationship within the Trinity. Earlier in John chapter 3, Jesus
has indicated that God loves the world, and apparently it's a
similar kind of love that he has for his Son.
All people, all Christians, but even people who aren't
Christians are called to hear these words in the Gospel of
John and to become a part of this intimate Trinitarian
relationship if they want to, if they want to accept Jesus as the
Messiah, then they can become a part of this intimate
relationship that already exists between the Trinity and has
entrusted everything to him or and has given all things into
his hand. So the Father has designated
complete authority to the Son, the Son of God.
Jesus the Messiah represents God and the Kingdom of God on earth.
He's been given authority to do that.
Verse 36, he who believes in the Son.
So someone who trusts Jesus the Messiah completely has eternal
life. We've talked about eternal life
a bit in this podcast. Eternal life means life to the
fullest in this life and in the next, and in particular refers
to deep communion with God himself.
Anyone, anyone who refuses to believe in the sun will never
see life. So this is sort of the other
side of the coin. If you refuse to believe in the
sun, you'll never see life. We looked at this in yesterday's
podcast in John chapter 3, verses 16 to 21.
The teaching here of Jesus and of John the Baptist here is
those who willingly refuse to accept God's messenger, the
Messiah, reject God themselves and they forfeit eternal life.
This applies primarily to those in Jesus time who are literally
listening to Jesus and yet rejecting His message, though it
can be extended to our time as well.
We can't on the one hand say we accept God but then reject His
messenger. That doesn't make sense.
If we do that, we forfeit eternal life and the anger of
God stays on him. Or more literally, the wrath of
God rests upon him. Notice the present tense rests
upon him, not will rest upon him.
So the teaching here is those who in the present, right now
reject Jesus as the Messiah. They reject God and they reject
fellowship with him. So in the present, if you reject
Jesus as the Messiah, God's wrath remains upon you.
That's the teaching here. And if someone was to die in
this state, they would be separated from Him for all
eternity. What happens in eternity is an
extension of whatever your soul is in the present moment in this
life. Now the good news is you can
change. You can change from having God's
wrath resting upon you to not having God's wrath resting upon
you. But that involves trusting in
Jesus and believing in Him. That's what belief means.
Belief means to put your trust into something, and in this case
the Messiah, Jesus. Now this last verse has
generated a lot of discussion. Anyone who refuses to believe in
the Son will never see life. The wrath of God rests upon him.
Sometimes you'll hear people say that the God of the Old
Testament is judging and mean, but the God of the New Testament
is loving. Well, here's one of these verses
where in the New Testament where we have a reference to God being
angry, the wrath of God. So at a minimum here what we
learn is that we cannot separate God's justice from his love.
They're both part of God's character.
Similar thinking to this is echoed in One Thessalonians and
in other places in Paul's writings.
God gives people the opportunity to come to him, but he's never
going to force anyone to come to him.
And those who willingly refuse to have the wrath of God abiding
on them, this is part of Catholic teaching.
That's the end of our passage, John chapter 3.
The next section of John is John chapters four and five.
Now that doesn't occur. Those chapters don't appear in
the lectionary at this particular time of the year.
They are in week 3 and 4 of Lent.
So we've covered John chapters 4:00 and 5:00 earlier in the
podcast. So you can go back and find
those episodes. John chapter 4 and five from
week 3 and 4 of Lent. However, interestingly, the
first four chapters of John chapter 4, so John chapter 4
verses one to four are never covered in the lectionary at
all. So you will never hear those 4
verses at Mass ever. So if you want to hear those
verses and if you want to hear an exegesis of those verses,
just like we've been doing every day on this podcast, then that
bonus exegesis is available to you if you become a Patreon
supporter of the podcast. In tomorrow's episode, we're
going to start at John chapter 6.
That's where the lectionary jumps to tomorrow.
Let's have a look at a few catechism passages to see how
the Catholic Church understands this passage.
Paragraph five O 4 has an interesting link here.
It links it to Mary's virginal motherhood in God's plan.
And there's a lot of discussion in these next few passages that
we'll look at or paragraphs of the Catechism about this phrase
where God pours out the Spirit on Jesus completely.
So paragraph five, O 4 says Jesus is conceived by the Holy
Spirit in the Virgin Mary's womb because he is the new Adam who
inaugurates the new creation. The first man was from the
earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven.
From his conception, Christ's humanity is filled with the Holy
Spirit, for God gives him the Spirit without measure.
From his fullness as the head of redeemed humanity, we have all
received grace upon grace. See here.
There, that quote about God has given him the Spirit without
measure. That's from John chapter 3 here.
A similar theme is taken up in paragraph 690.
Jesus is Christ anointed because the Spirit is His anointing, and
everything that occurs from the Incarnation on derives from this
fullness. The notion of anointing suggests
that there is no distance between the sun and the Spirit,
just as between the surface of the body and the anointing with
oil. Neither reason nor sensation
recognizes any intermediary. Just so, the contact of the sun
with the Spirit is immediate, so that anyone who would make
contact with the sun by faith must first encounter the oil by
contact. In fact, there is no part that
is not covered by the Holy Spirit.
That is why the confession of the Son's lordship is made in
the Holy Spirit by those who receive Him, The Spirit coming
from all sides to those who approach the Son in faith.
So that paragraph quotes from one of the Church fathers to
show that the Son and the Spirit are deeply united.
And again, in paragraph 1286, which is about the sacrament of
Confirmation, it says Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit.
His whole life and His whole mission are carried out in total
communion with the Holy Spirit, whom the Father gives him
without measure. Lastly, paragraph 161 is in the
section about the necessity of faith, and that's a commentary.
Well, it includes a reference to John chapter 3 towards the end
about judgement and what it requires in order to get into
eternal life. Believing in Jesus Christ and in
the one who sent Him for our salvation is necessary for
obtaining that salvation, since without faith it is impossible
to please God and to attain the fellowship of His sons.
Therefore, without faith, no one has ever attained justification,
nor will anyone obtain eternal life but he who endures to the
end. So an interesting link there to
the Catholic teaching on salvation.
I'll include those paragraphs in the show notes.
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This is the only Catholic podcast of its kind which dives
into the literal sense of the Gospel every single day to give
you the tools to help you understand the Bible and to make
your walk with God more passionate and more informed.
We'll see you again tomorrow when we do a new exegesis on
John Chapter 6.