So the fourth Gospel is different. It’s like a fourth dimension. When we consider the Gospels, it isn’t long before we come to this conclusion. We think in the same way about a Rolls-Royce when we compare it with, say, a Land Rove, half-track and a JCB. They’re different because they do different jobs, serve different purposes. They are not interchangeable. They each have to be considered separately. Each has its proper virtues and capabilities.
What makes the fourth Gospel different? This is the kind of question that might be asked about Conan Doyle compared with Michael Innes (J.I.M. Stewart) Margery Allingham and Donna Leon. Recognising the difference, the distinctiveness, is part of the pleasure of reading detective novels. It’s rather like enjoying the different kinds of chocolate or cheese.
So the fourth Gospel is different. It has no birth narratives, no transfiguration, no institution of the Lord’s Supper. It has a different order of events (with the cleansing of the Temple coming at the beginning). It is organised around seven signs. These take the place of the parables in the synoptics. The Kingdom of God hardly makes an appearance. Jesus has long conversations with people.
When we think of the difference between artless chronicle and mature composition, it may help to consider what happens when a school-child embarks on the task of describing a school trip. Such a report almost always takes the form of a chronicle, with one event succeeding another in a chronological sequence. There is no attempt to shape the material. In the case of the fourth Gospel we see events shaped into a pattern. The writer is pursuing a theme: ‘Glory has come into the world and here are examples of it.’
Chesterton’s donkey knew all about this. He realised something special was happening when he heard the shout about his ears and felt the palms before his feet. This kind of experience pervades the fourth Gospel. In the synoptics it is reserved for the transfiguration. The fourth Gospel is not so much about the Kingdom of God as about entering into glory.
Having read John’s Gospel, we do well to ask ourselves: Is glory in the forefront of our thinking about the Christian faith? Is our worship a foretaste of glory? Should worship be to the greater glory of God before any other consideration? And are we embarking on a vain quest if we try to conflate the fourth Gospel with the other three?
OUT OF ITMA
Those with very long memories will remember Colonel Chinstrap, Mrs Mopp, Mona Lott etc. in the BBC’s war-time show presided over by Tommy Handley. The current Long Preston parish and village magazine looks back to those days with recollections of Norah the Nit Nurse, the rag and bone man, the knife and scissor sharpener, Gypsies selling pegs and pedlars of liniment.
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