Hello friends and welcome back to the Gospel of John. Today we transition to part 2 of John's gospel which is the account of Jesus death and resurrection. With 8 chapters dedicated to this section it's by far the longest of all the gospel accounts taking up over 1/3 of the entire book. This makes sense as the Gospel of John is theorized to only account for 22 days of Jesus ministry rather than the 33 years covered by the synoptic traditions. Of those 22 days, his last day was certainly the most meaningful to the Christian experience and movement as its the crux of our faith. As it is so much longer there are number of stories and teachings that are included here that are not found in the others. Of all the gospel accounts I believe you will find John's the most meaningful for the passion narrative.
Scripture to Read
Audio Bible
Questions to Consider
What does this teach me about Jesus?
What is the "moral" of the story here?
What, if anything, is meaningful to me in this reading? What does it inspire me to do as a result?
I don't have any context to share for today's reading but there is a video from the Bible Project that gives a really great overview of the remainder of John's gospel. Take a look!
Praying the Hymns
Our prayer for today is Silence, Frenzied, Unclean Spirit. This hymn is inspired by Jesus' casting out of the demons which took up a large part of the early sections of John. I invite you to recall those stories and conjure up the images of those healings as you give praise to God for brining peace to those afflicted by "demons" that cause them to feel frenzied. I find this hymn to be really haunting..what do you think?
"Silence, frenzied, unclean spirit!"
cried God's healing Holy One.
"Cease your ranting! Flesh can't bear it;
flee as night before the sun."
At Christ's words the demon trembled,
from its victim madly rushed,
while the crowd that was assembled
stood in wonder, stunned and hushed.
Lord, the demons still are thriving
in the gray cells of the mind:
tyrant voices, shrill and driving,
twisted thoughts that grip and bind,
doubts that stir the heart to panic,
fears distorting reason's sight,
guilt that makes our loving frantic,
dreams that cloud the soul with fright.
Silence, Lord, the unclean spirit
in our mind and in our heart;
speak your word that when we hear it,
all our demons shall depart.
Clear our thought and calm our feeling;
still the fractured, warring soul.
By the power of your healing
make us faithful, true, and whole.
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