John 20:30–31; 21:20–25 – “The Endings of the Gospel of John”
(Josiah Hall)
Editor’s Note: This will be our final post in the Spring reading program. Tomorrow’s sermon will conclude our reading program in the Gospel of John as we look at the restoration of Peter in John 21:1-19. Special thanks to all who contributed – but especially to Dr. Josiah Hall, who directed the structure and wrote so many entries. We have been blessed by his investment. The link for tomorrow’s worship service (and sermon) is here. Thanks for joining us for this journey through the Gospel of John. (MK)
John 20:30–31; 21:20–25
20:30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
21:20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” 23 So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”
24 This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
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Most commentators understand the Gospel to conclude formally in 20:30–31 where John spells out the Gospel’s purpose. Chapter 21 then functions as an epilogue. In this final blog post, we’ll consider these two endings of John.
The first ending (20:30–31) reminds us that John has been selective in what he has included in this Gospel. What John has chosen to include has been governed by the purpose of helping his audience (us) believe. Belief has been a theme throughout the Gospel, and as we’ve seen, it doesn’t refer simply to a single moment of decision. Rather, belief in John refers to a journey, a progression of continual decisions to follow, remain with, and grow closer to Jesus. Likewise, here in the Gospel’s closing verses, John is not telling us that he wrote the Gospel simply to convert unbelievers. Rather, John chose to include specific stories about Jesus that he (under the inspiration of the Spirit) considered necessary to help us continue in belief.
This is not the first time John has linked “signs” and “belief”. Recall John 12:37, “Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.” This verse reminds us that simply hearing about what Jesus does not on its own equal belief. Throughout the Gospel, John has recorded multiple reasons why people objected to Jesus: his humanity (including his lowly Galilean origins), his misalignment with their messianic expectations, his provocative and difficult teachings, and the way he threatened the status quo. Each of these objections blinded people’s perceptions of the signs which Jesus did so that even though they physically beheld him provide miraculous food, give sight to the blind, and life to the dead they did not continue in belief.
In these final verses, then, John is calling us not simply to acknowledge that Jesus is a miracle worker who performed signs. Rather, belief means accepting the Gospel’s message that Jesus is who he claimed to be: the presence of God in human flesh, the light who came into darkness to expose our sin and bring us into the family of God. I love the Gospel of John because it is deeply honest about how hard belief in Jesus is, about the human proclivity to love darkness and to run from the light. And, in response to the challenges of belief, John gives us a clear picture of Jesus, who seeks out the unexpected outsiders, who loves his own, who weeps with us in our experience of suffering, who prays on our behalf, and who has given us his Spirit, so we are not left orphaned. The Gospel of John rewards us when we read and re-read it because it a Gospel designed to encourage us and present us a vision of Jesus that enables faithfulness along the road of discipleship.
The epilogue illustrates this point as the Gospel acknowledges two objections that might hinder us in our Christian faithfulness. (1) The explicit objection is Peter’s, who when Jesus foretells the painful way his life of discipleship will end (21:18) wonders about the fate of the Beloved Disciple. Jesus reminds us that although each of our journeys of discipleship may take a different path, we are each called to faithfulness on the path Christ has placed us. (2) The second objection is likely less obvious to us but is present in the misunderstanding that John corrects regarding the status of the Beloved Disciple. Jesus had seemed to link his return to the Beloved Disciple remaining alive (21:22), which led to speculation about whether the Beloved Disciple would not die or what his death would mean about the reality of Jesus’s promised return. John corrects this misunderstanding by confirming that Jesus was rebuking Peter’s concern about the Beloved Disciple’s fate rather than making a definitive statement about that fate. For we who read the Gospel long after the Beloved Disciple’s death, the years of Jesus’s delayed return can threaten our resolve and confidence. John concludes the Gospel, therefore, with a reminder of the dependability of his witness as one who saw the risen Jesus. The same Jesus who kept his promise to rise again will also keep his promise to come again.
At the end of 8 weeks in the Gospel John, our hope is that you have seen God work out the Gospel’s purpose in your own life. That as you have read and meditated on it, you can affirm what John said at the beginning of the book: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:14).