”Because three there are the [ones] witnessing...the Spirit and the water and the blood, and the three unto the one are.”
-Jewish law stipulated that facts were confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses - this was a long-standing, widely accepted cultural norm (Deuteronomy 19.15, cf Numbers 35.30, Matthew 18.16, 1Timothy 5.19, Hebrews 10.28). We understand that this judicial process was put in place in order to help mitigate any violation of the 9th Command, which forbade bearing false witness. One person could concoct a selfishly-motivated false story about something or someone. But two or three independent witnesses who would agree about the circumstances surrounding a matter were a sound safeguard against unjust verdicts. Jesus Himself appealed to this law, and Paul also validated it. John here is channeling that same principle to further validate the truth about Jesus. There’s not just one witness testifying about Jesus - there are in fact three.
-Now we have the Spirit, which is one witness. You’d think that this one witness would be enough to verify the truth about Jesus - esp when the very same Spirit was producing all kinds of attesting signs and wonders and the like. But John maintains that there are these two other witnesses - and the only potential problem is that they are not persons but rather metaphors for actual events. The water and the blood. We have already established that the water represents either the Incarnation or the Baptism of Jesus, take your pick. Both were accompanied by rather miraculous manifestations and heavenly affirmations, and speak to the truth about Jesus. The blood certainly speaks to the Crucifixion, which is rather inseparable from the Resurrection on the third day. No one else has paid the penalty for our sins, and of course the grave couldn’t hold Him, this Son of God. Both His Baptism and Crucifixion/Resurrection speak to the truth that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. He is the Way, God’s appointed Messiah. He is the Truth on which we should stake our life. Because He is the Life.
-It is possible that John is addressing a certain heresy which maintained that “the Christ” was not human and only came on the man Jesus at His baptism and was subsequently removed at the Crucifixion. These insist that it would be impossible for God to die. Obviously many a heretic got their start when they insisted on attempting to understand and fully explain one of the manifold mysteries of the Christian faith. To bring one of these sublime truths down to a human level you run the risk of robbing it of its divine essence. The truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, fully God and fully man, is one of these. Both facets of this mind-blowing truth are found in the Gospels and throughout the pages of Scripture. To try to fully understand how Jesus could be both fully God and He fully human, how limitless power and perfection could somehow be mingled with frail and feeble flesh is far beyond the capacity of our finite minds, yet to deny either aspect is to strip away the power and majesty of the truth. It is one of God’s glorious mysteries - and in fact the truth that Jesus is the Son of God touches on yet another glorious mystery. We could fairly consider how God could be Father AND Son (AND Spirit)? Son of God means God, but not the same person. We have one God - something which God has affirmed about Himself from the very beginning (Deuteronomy 6.4) - and yet here we come to understand that He somehow exists in multiple persons. Three to be exact - Father, Son and Spirit. Here we thus also touch on what is called the Trinity, another one of God’s glorious mysteries. How can God be one, yet three? Again, heresies abound which try to exclude either aspect of this marvelous mystery. Inexplicable, yet true. To this Truth, these truths the Spirit and the water and the blood also attest (Matthew 3.16-17, Luke 23.46). With these three witnesses we have an open and shut case. Case closed, John says.
-The human mind is of course wired for truth, an innate drive to know and understand, to explore and explain, put there by our infinite Creator Who of course knows and understands all things. And yet is not our “finity” that which allows us to awe? There are things which we cannot fathom or fully explain, and that is entirely how it is supposed to be. We reach the end of our ability to understand, we bump up against the infinite, against that which is beyond us, and we stand back in wonder, and hopefully fall on our knees in stunned silence, in rapture and awe and in wondrous worship at those things which are so far beyond us, at the One Who is beyond and above all things, beyond fully knowing or understanding. At least, this is how God designed it. Now, we know in part. We can know and understand and explain some things. To be sure, there are those who, rather than stand back and fall on their knees, choose instead to stand back and raise their fist and rail against heaven. They insist on pursuing knowledge, on being able to fully explain the universe and its divine mysteries apart from the One Who made it and Who made them to know and worship Him. To these, the Spirit and the water and the blood have something to say, to testify to the truth about Jesus, if they would only have ears to listen...
No comments:
Post a Comment