Introductory
The language of John’s Gospel is usually very simple, but it is also often laden with symbolic significance. So we read often of light, water, or bread, and these are all symbols of spiritual realities. John also writes within a setting of beginnings and endings: "In the beginning" and "It is finished". Jesus knows from the beginning who they are that do not believe and who will betray Him (6.64). His rejection by the Jews is a refrain from ch.1 – "His own received him not" (v.11) - throughout the book. The challenge to His authority, which led to His cleansing the Temple, is in 2.12-16, not, as in the other Gospels, towards the end of His earthly life – whether we believe in one cleansing or two.
This paper picks up symbolic hints from ch.10 to ch.18, which show the spiritual climate or temperature in Israel. A further episode could also be examined (20.1) to provide a beautiful contrast to the climate of rejection and failure, but it is not included in this paper. Perhaps the overall theme could be summarized: His own received Him not, but to as many as did receive Him gave He the right to become the children of God (1.11-12).
It was winter (10.22) - Rejection
There had been a build-up to this point. In ch.2 they had asked sceptically for a sign of His authority (v.18). In ch.5 they had sought to kill Him (v.18) because, said they, He made Himself equal with God. Again, in ch.7 they sought to kill Him (v.1), and in ch.8 they took up stones to cast at Him (v.59). Chapter 10 seems to be the climax: "He hath a devil and is mad" (v.20). This was at the Feast of Dedication, which celebrated the rededication of the Temple some 200 years before, after it had been desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes. This feast took place in winter, but John uses the simple statement as an indicator of the hardening of His rejection by the Jews - "and it was winter".
Significantly, this exchange is followed immediately by the Lord’s explanation that His sheep hear and obey His voice and are eternally saved. Others, He says, do not obey Him because they are not His sheep. Incidentally, this is another implicit claim to deity. The language brings back memories of Ezekiel 34 where God expresses indignation that the leaders in Israel have not shepherded His flock. We note that the flock is God’s, though the leaders had under-shepherd responsibility. The message is like that contained in the statement (Mt 9.36) that He saw Israel as sheep not having a shepherd. The winter of His rejection by Israel’s false "shepherds" had become firmly established.
And it was night (13.30) - Betrayal
It was, of course, night when Judas went out, but why is it made explicit? It was Passover, therefore mid-month and full moon, with perhaps clear moonlight. Yet, in the symbolic sense, it was deep night and very dark. We have seen that Judas was known to Jesus "from the beginning" (6.64) as the traitor. That statement is followed almost immediately by the charge, "one of you is a devil". The explanation is given that this referred to Judas "that should betray him, being one of the twelve" (v.70).
In ch.12, Judas was the one who criticised the worshipping woman. He said that the precious ointment should have been sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor (v.5). John sets the treachery by Judas in stark contrast to the worship by Mary. She set a high value on her Lord as she was about to see Him die (see 12.7). Judas was about to betray Him for 30 pieces of silver and he valued the ointment at 300 denarii. The 30 pieces of silver may have been worth 120 denarii. What a calculation for a man to carry with him to a suicide’s grave, and beyond! The Lord of glory worth less than half as much as a pot of perfume! Or should we say that Judas sold himself for the 30 pieces of silver?
But that is not the most extreme point in Judas’ betrayal. In ch.13 he is at the table with the Lord and His disciples. But he is not with them in spirit, for they are troubled at the sense of crisis facing their Lord, while Judas’ heart is being taken over by his master, Satan (v.2). During the supper the Lord gave Judas a sop, a mark of friendship and favour, perhaps a last appeal to him. Judas must know what a monstrous betrayal he is perpetrating. Again, what a memory to carry with him when he went "to his own place" (Acts 1.25)!
Later in the night the men came to arrest Jesus. They came with lanterns and torches, and Judas "stood with them" (18.5). Next day brave women stood by the cross. This was the night when Judas took his stand against Jesus. What a night! How dark and lonely!
It was cold (18.15-18) - Peter’s courage fails
None of us should ever dare to join Peter’s critics who condescendingly refer to his "thoughtless impetuosity". He was a man of outstanding spiritual perception and devotion. It was he who said, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (6.68-69). When he mistakenly objected to his Lord washing his feet he was corrected, and with warm emotion said, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head" (13.9). His devotion led him to protest his willingness to lay down his life for his Lord; but he appears to have made his protestation on the basis of his confidence that he could keep his word in his own strength.
Chapter 18 finds Peter still following Christ, mistakenly making a violent assault on the high priest’s servant. Verse 15 of this chapter tells us that "Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple". This other disciple we take to have been John, according to his normal practice of remaining anonymous in his record of the doings of the disciples. John, familiar with the court, went on in and Peter remained standing at the door. Maybe it is unfair to fault him for stopping at that point, when we consider that none of the others, except John, came even so far as that. Though Peter "followed afar off", as the other three Gospels tell us, yet he did follow and it seems that only John was with him. We get the first hint of his ardour cooling when "he stood at the door without" (v.16). John managed to get him in past the door-keeper, and his nerve failed when she identified him as one of "this man’s disciples". How wretched he must have felt, having come bravely so far, to lose his nerve at the word of a girl. Soon we find him standing, not alone as at the door, but with the servants and officers of the high priest, warming himself as they did at the fire they had lit. The pressure was really on Peter now; his courage was at its lowest – "for it was cold"; this was at v.18. Verse 25 repeats, "And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself". And by this time his courage was shattered. (Incidentally, there may be a symbolism in the references to the places where Peter stood during this period. There was an ambivalence about his standing.)
The repeated explanations of why Peter found himself seeking warmth at the fire in that hostile place are symbolic. His confidence in his own ability to follow had compromised him, and the threat to his own life was very real. Perhaps it was the lessons learnt that night that enabled him in Acts 12 to sleep in prison on the night before he was to be brought to trial before Herod, asleep between two soldiers, "bound with two chains". In Acts Peter preached boldly and served fearlessly, for his confidence was now in God. He was a great man, capable of rising to new heights as he learnt the lessons of his mistakes. We are unlikely to make his mistakes, for we are unlikely to have the level of devotion which might bring us into the dangers which he faced! Fail he did, but he stands in marked contrast to the other people in this study, for his loyalty to Christ would always rise again if it faltered, whereas their opposition to Christ is consistent and bitter.
To be continued.
