The Gospel of John

Having just finished the Gospel of John, I am left in what some would call a loss for words. John's account is packed with miracles, lots of I am the Lord and He is me talk, torture, traitors, Peter denouncing Jesus, and crazy resurrections. Today in American Lit II we discussed a poem by T.S. Eliot called The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. It reads, "...To roll it towards some overwhelming question, To say: 'I am Lazarus, come from the dead, Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all'--If one, settling a pillow by her head, Should say; 'That is not what I meant at all. That is not it, at all.'" T.S. Eliot seems to have a God-complex here (which I admittedly might have myself). However, when the name Lazarus popped up again in the Gospel of John I was amused. I didn't pick up on the Biblical connections simply because I didn't know who Lazarus was. I suppose this is just one more example of reading the Bible makes me, gasp, a better reader? The horror.

At first glance, the Gospel of John does appear to have a lot of jew bashing. "They" not only renounce Jesus at every chance, they also throw stones at him on many occasions. Afterward Jesus reminds us that by not believing in his divenhood you do not believe in God, and you are therefore the child of Satan. It only gets worse for the jews reputation after that. Pontius Pilate is shown in a kind light. He tries to save Jesus over and over again (who doesn't want to be saved), but the jews don't want none of that noise, they want Jesus killed. (Gruesomely, I might add. But what death wasn't gruesome in those days?) "They" mock Jesus by trying to change what was written on his cross from "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews," to "Jesus of Nazareth, this man said, I am the King of the Jews." It's easy to find a hint of antisemitism in this Gospel, but I think Dr. Sexson is right in reminding us that Jesus is in fact a jew (though other jews might not have thought him that at the end), Jesus' followers were jews, Jesus' mother and father were jews, everyone Jesus knew were jews. They are certainly not to blame in a world that is filled with sin. In fact, by dying, Jesus was saving the jews from their own sin. Besides that fact, there is another important lesson to get across: we are all capable of hanging Jesus on that cross. The band, Brand New, lyrics also speak to this. From their song, Jesus Christ, the lead singer, Jesse Lacey, fears death, but more than that, fears what he might do to Jesus if he sees him in person:

Well Jesus Christ, I'm not scared to die,
I'm a little bit scared of what comes after
Do I get the gold chariot?
Do I float through the ceiling?

Do I divide and fall apart?
Cause my pride is too sly to hold back all my dark
And the ship went down in sight of land
And at the gates does Thomas ask to see my hands

I know you'll come in the night like a thief
But I've had some time alone to hold my lies inside me
I know you think that I'm someone you can trust
But I'm scared I'll get scared and I swear I'll try to nail you back up

So do you think that we could work out a sign
So I'll know it's you and that it's over so I won't even try

I know you'll come for the people like me
But we all got wood and nails
Tongue tied to a hating factory

But we all got wood and nails
Your tortured (and hanging) factory
Yeah, we all got wood and nails
Your tortured (and hanging) factory
Yeah, we all got wood and nails
And we sleep inside of this machine