Peter has been given a commission -- and we may doubt the extent or nature of it is what church dogma and tradition has said but it has clearly been a commission to feed the Shepherd's sheep. And Peter's response, this Peter who denied Jesus three times and was forgiven three times looks back to the Beloved Disciple, the one Jesus loved, the one who did not deny him but rather followed him into the prison, and asked Lord, what about him?
The young and growing faith community has taken Jesus' response to Peter and interpreted it to mean the Beloved Disciple would live until the Parousia -- the return of the Christ to judge to living and the dead and to make all things ready for union with the Almighty the one he called Father. And the author of this gospel or at least the author of this postscript -- assumed by tradition to be this same Beloved Disciple -- asks us not to make that assumption and to not interpret his Lord's words in that way.
This tells us something about how the scriptures mean. It is not the basis of our faith because our faith is older than the scriptures. It is a co-witness to our faith. A co-witness that stands along side our ideas about God and Jesus and faith and religion and calls us to account regarding them.
3 comments:
David, I think the idea that the beloved disciple might not have died is pretty interesting. A novel I read a few years ago - In His Image by James BeauSeigneur - had the apostle John still living in the present day, waiting for Jesus. I wonder what Jesus meant by his comment?
David, I appreciate your comment here about the meaning and place of the Bible. Would to God that all Christians could relativize it instead of worship it.
I tried to develop a comment and it came out all wrong. And then Larry spoke it for me. Exactly what I was wishing to say - that there are many that worship the Bible rather than seeing it as a co-witness to faith that David describes. With the experience of this study, the scripture in John has centainly been revitalized for me! I thank you all for allowing this flowering to occur. but I cannot imaging worshiping the Bible. The living experience, the pure truth it points to - yes.
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