Design for the new community: An alternative community in the world; Imagery of grain of wheat, shepherd and the sheepfold, vine and the branches

Introduction

First century, the Johannine community was engaged in religious conflict with the Jews who were faithful to the synagogue. Christians in Palestine faced excommunication from the synagogue and even death because they believed that Jesus was the Christ. A dualism exists when there are two substances, or powers, or modes, neither of which is reducible to the other. This paper deals with minority living in world of powerful majority, imagery of grain of wheat, sheperd and the sheepfold vine and the branches, worship and sacrament in the new community, imagery pf eating the flesh and drinking the blood.

1. History of the Johannine Community

First century, the Johannine network turned into engaged in spiritual warfare with the Jews who have been devoted to the synagogue. Christians in Palestine confronted excommunication from the synagogue or even loss of life due to the fact they believed that Jesus turned into the Christ. The Gospel of John appears to mirror this kind of situation (9:22, 12:42, 16:2) Although positive Jews believed in Jesus, the following context suggests the character in their notion they had to be let loose from sin, But they understood in the main Jesus turned into in opposition to a Mosaic background (as awesome from Davidic one), and the attractiveness of this organization catalyzed the improvement of a high, pre-lifestyles Christology that leads to discuss with Jews who notion that Johannine Christians have been forsaking Jewish monotheism through creating a 2d God out of Jesus. Ultimately the leaders of Jews had Johannine Christians expelled from synagogue (9:22, 16:2). The latter alienated from their own, became very opposed to the Jews, whom they seemed as youngsters of the devil (8:4). At the identical time the Johannnine Christians despised believers in Jesus who did now no longer make the identical public destroy from the synagogue (exemplified through the dad and mom of the blind guy in (9:21-23, 12:42-43). Since the Jews have been taken into consideration blind and unbelieving (12:37-40), the approaching Greek turned into visible as God’s plan of fulfillment (12:20-23). The network or a part of it could have moved from Palestine to the diaspora to educate the Greeks (7:35). This context introduced out Universalist opportunities in Johannine notion, in an strive to talk to the broader audience. Rejection and Persecution, however, satisfied Johannine Christians that the global (just like the Jews) turned into against Jesus. They seemed on themselves as now no longer of this global which turned into beneath the energy of Satan, the prince of this global.¹

2. The Origin of the New Community

All the varieties of early Christianity tried to relate themselves to Jesus’ teachings and activity in one way or another. Among the four canonical gospels, John is the most explicit in its claim that the writing is based on the testimony of an eyewitness (John 19:35; 21:24). In recent scholarship, there has appeared a renewed interest in defending the reliability of these mentions and reading the Gospel as an eyewitness account. However, scholars have surprisingly seldom analyzed the Gospel’s references to Jesus’ Beloved Disciple in detail and they quite often simply ignore the basic observation that the figure of the Beloved Disciple is absent from the synoptic parallels. In light of this observation, the references to the Beloved Disciple “seem to be a secondary addition to earlier tradition. They tell us a great deal about the Johannine community’s regard for the witness who stood behind their traditions, but they tell us little about events at the death and resurrection of Jesus”²
The figure of the Beloved Disciple is exceptional among canonical writings, but Ismo Dunderberg has shown on the basis of the evidence from non-canonical early Christian texts how this figure is a part of a growing tendency to provide detailed accounts of how early Christian texts were produced. Dunderberg concludes that “the more aware early Christian writers became of the diversity within early Christian traditions, the more important it became to convince their audiences that the specific branch of tradition they were representing was the most reliable.” The Beloved Disciple can be taken as part of the production of a distinct early Christian social identity rather than as a mirror image of some historical person – no matter whether we speculate that there is an actual, otherwise unknown and anonymous early Christian teacher behind this figure or whether we are content to conclude that this figure is a literary device. In a sense, the Gospel of John projects the origins of the community of believers further back in time. It is stated several times that the Scriptures, Moses and other foundational figures in Israel’s past have testified on Jesus’ behalf even though his opponents’ do not accept this testimony (John 5:39, 45–46; 8:56). Moses and Abraham have positive functions in John as Jesus’ witnesses, but Jesus’ superiority over them is made clear and there is no room for any continuing independent role of these figures from the past. John’s ambiguous references to representative scriptural figures can be taken as an example of the unresolved tension that characterizes his relationship to Jewishness. On the ideological level, John emphasizes continuity with the past but many features in his narrative suggest a growing social discontinuity between the followers of Jesus and their Jewish contemporaries. John was, of course, not the only early Christian writer who struggled to emphasize continuity with the past in a situation where novel beliefs and practices moved many Christian communities away from other Jews. Heikki Räisänen has shown how “ambiguous continuity” characterizes what is said of Jews and Jewishness in various early Christian writings. The claims for continuity with scriptural tradition in various early Cristian writings are in agreement with how various kinds of communities claim to preserve genuine cultural, social, or religious heritage while they, at the same time, introduce new and innovative ways to express their distinctive identity. When the issues of leadership have been examined from a social identity perspective, it has become clear that, in periods of social change, successful group leaders are able to root their account of who they and their group are in common cultural and historical traditions. They know how to select and reshape collective symbols and use them in new combinations and in this way establish “a continuity over time within the context of the salient group membership” so that “the speaker’s version is no longer one version amongst many but rather the only valid version of identity.” Abraham and other representative figures of the scriptural past are particularly convenient symbols who guaranteed the authenticity of the newly introduced faith in Jesus. In antiquity the old age of an ethnic group was held in high esteem, and many non-Jewish and Jewish writers frequently refer to Abraham, Moses or other patriarchs with admiration for their nobility and age-old wisdom. Such symbolic figures are valuable in the construction of a community because – to use Anthony Cohen’s words – “symbolism does not carry meaning inherently” and is thus “highly responsive to change.” According to Cohen, communities often use various symbols to express their identity because “symbolic form has only a loose relation to its content” and, therefore, it “can persist while the content undergoes significant transformation. Frequently, the appearance of continuity is so compelling that it obscures people’s recognition that the form itself has changed.” It is clear that John was convinced that there was only continuity in his portrait of Jesus as the fulfilment of the Scriptures but it is equally understandable that other Jews would have recognized a significant break in his fusion of past and present.³ Colleen Conway has argued that John’s “supplanting of Moses and of the ancestors” should be recognized as a “counter history in the making” that reads “against the grains of the adversaries’ trusted sources” and in this way deprives them of their positive identity and replaces it with “a pejorative counter image.” John’s seizure of Israel’s scriptural history anticipates later apologetic writers who tried to counter the claims that the faith in Jesus is a recent innovation by asserting the antiquity of Christian wisdom and by inventing a worthy past for Jesus’ followers. The inventors of Christian identity – including John – did what successful group leaders have always done; these pioneers “don’t just repeat traditional stories of identity … [but] weave familiar strands into novel patterns. They are careful not to violate what we know of ourselves. Their genius is to make the new out of elements of the old and thereby to present revolution as tradition.”⁴
John not only appropriates Israel’s history but anchors his story of Jesus to mythical beginnings. It is generally accepted that the opening of the Gospel (John 1:1–4) with its reference to “the beginning” is a rereading of the creation myth in the book of Genesis (Gen 1–2). John reclaims various Jewish wisdom traditions and describes Jesus as the eternal Word (k|cor) who was with God already before the creation of the world. The myth of the eternal Word effectively moves John’s story of Jesus above the contingencies of time and contributes to the construction of a vision of the world that supplants all competing visions. In the framework of a myth, constructed identities that are subject to historical change and renegotiation appear as stable and beyond contestation.

Dualism

Dualism denotes a state of two parts. The word’s origin is the Latin duo, “two.” The term “dualism” was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general usage. Dualism is a legal concept which contends that national law and international law are two separate and distinct areas of law. It can be contrasted with the legal theory of monism which contends the opposite. The doctrine that reality consists of two basic opposing elements, often taken to be mind and matter (or mind and body), or good and evil.

3. John’s Dualism

Johannine writings there are a proper dualism that units out essential problems with stark clarity. The polarities of this dualism (existence and death, mild and darkness, flesh and spirit, falsehood and spirit, above and under) are absolutely withinside the fourth gospel. In the Fourth Gospel, the exceptional worlds are represented through Sets of forces.⁵ The pressure from above is Christ (who’s the Logos and divine most effective begotten son of God) who’s hostile through this world. The pressure from above is one (1:1, 14; 17:3, 21) however the pressure from under is manifold (8:23ff; 13:27; 12:31 etc.). The principal actors inside this framework are Jesus and the Jew.⁶

4. Design for the New community

4.1 Sheepfold (Jn. 10:1-18)

Jesus uses the image of sheepfold for his new community. In this image, Jesus identifies himself as the true shepherd and the believers as the sheep. Just as the shepherd knows his flock, Jesus knows his and just & the sheep knows the shepherd’s voice, so also do believers know Jesus’ voice. Jesus claims that he is the good shepherd who lay down his life for the sheep. He is the master of the new community. The leadership role of the community is projected in these verses. Jesus laches the true characteristics of both a pastor and a congregation. In this new community there is a dynamic relationship between a leader and the congregation. The punch of this image is the comparison W the community as the sheepfold who are supposed to be submissive othe leader, Jesus and his successors, the leader of the congregation. ln the meantime, another emphasis, that is, the leadership role of the ‘community is vivid here. Good pastors know their congregation.⁷

4.2 Grain of Wheat (12:23-25)

This verse Jesus connected his death with the believers that in him the believers may be infused with divine life and form one new community- a community that includes both Jews and non-Jews alike. Just like the dead grain of wheat produces fruit, so does Jesus’ death. Jesus’ death will produce much fruit, which means the glorification of Jesus in his death will form a new community. According to the OT, Jews and gentiles would only be united at the end-time (Is. 56:6-8; Zech. 14:16-19). But for John, the end-time has already come in the life and ministry of Jesus. The community formed by Jesus is inclusive and is under the headship of Jesus as the Lord.⁸

4.3 Vine/Vine Branch (Jn. 15:1-11)

Jesus uses another metaphor, vine for himself and the branch for the believers. God the Father is the Wing, of this vine. Just as the vine bears fruit, Jesus, the vine also bears fry, that is, his disciples. This sense is inclusive, denoting the many branches, that are attached to the true vine. This refers not only to the Cleve remaining disciples but universally to all those who believe in Jesus. Jesus’ new community is based on him just as the branch is attached to the vine. He speaks of pruning or cleaning of believers with an example of pruning the branch of the vine. The branch that does not bear fruit is thrown away. Similarly, the believers are also expected to bear fruit. To bear fruit, one has to abide in Jesus. The new community is characterized by fruit-bearing and purity. In other words, the believers who do not abide in the head, Jesus, are to be thrown away as they do not bear fruit. The new community is a fruit bearing community.

4.4 Minority Living in a World of Powerful Majority (17:14-19)

There is a dualism between Jesus’ followers and those who opposed them. The people who are attached to the evil in the world hate the followers of Jesus. In these passages, we can conjecture that the evil is ruling over the minority, the believers here on earth. They are hated by the world. The world’s hatred is not merely emotional and passive; it is an active hatred that leads it to inflict suffering and even death to Christians. Amidst this the Christians are projected as the minority living in suffocation under the evil oppressor, the majority. In the meantime, Jesus’ prayer for this minority sufferer is not to take them out from the world but so that they will be sanctified or set apart or consecrated for the purpose of doing God’s appointed tasks. Jesus prayed that the believers be kept from the evil in the world. The word ‘evil’ here can mean either an ‘evil person’ or an ‘evil thing’. in this verse John tends to mean the ‘evil one’. This evil being is the personal adversary of God and of Jesus and is called the ‘ruler of this world (12:31; 14:30; 16:11). The believers are ruled by the evil one and his power. But Jesus’ intercession is that they would be kept from this.⁹

4.5 Unity (17:21-23)

John 17 is usually understood as his priestly prayer. In this prayer, Jesus intercedes for the unity within the community. This unity is introduced as oneness. His concern is not only for his immediate disciples put also for all those who will come to believe in Him by hearing the world proclaimed by the disciples. Jesus prays that when his community there will be no divisions or in-fighting among its members. The word ‘all’ in the statement, ‘that they may all be one’ implies all the present and future followers of Jesus. Their unity will be the outward expression of the ‘indwelling’ of all believers in God and Jesus, just as god indwell one another.¹⁰
Unity does not mean unanimity, nor does it mean that the members of the church lose their own identity. The church is the body of Christ. Members are from different social and cultural backgrounds and have different gifts, skills, functions and views. They have varied experiences with God and are called by God in multiple ways. All members are equally to be accommodated as long as the church exists in the world. In this new community each member has something to contribute to other members and equally has something to learn from others. Members need to love one another, forgive one another, and care for one another. Unity expressed in this way will challenge the world by exposing its wickedness and calling it to believe in India. The oneness that Jesus prays for the community is active and not passive. The Father has been active by doing His works and proclaiming his words in and through the Son. The result of the oneness demonstrated in words and deeds is that the world will believe that Jesus came down from heaven to save human beings.¹¹

4.6 Worship

The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24). The true worshippers are all those who have entered into a Father-child relationship with God by receiving the salvation revealed in Christ (Jn. 4:21, 22). In the community of ‘true worshippers’ Jews, Samaritans and all people lose their regional identities, and hence the dividing line of hostility between human beings is annulled. By offering true worshipping to the Father through Jesus, the worshippers constitute one family of God, There is no division within the community. By saying that one must worship in spirit and truth, Jesus means that worship happens when the worshipper participates in the life of the spirit and accepts the truth revealed in Jesus. This means that the one in whom the truth of God was revealed becomes the new sanctuary of worship.

4.7 Prayer

John portrayed Jesus taking the loaves, and then gave thanks to God, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted (Jn. 6:11). It is a Jewish tradition that they always gave thanks before eating and that the host always distributed the bread. The believer community is a thanks-giving community. Believers are not meant to just pronounce their will or ideal but thanks-giving is one of the most important characteristics of the new community. It is also a prayerly community as the founder, Jesus, prays always.¹²

4.8 Sacrament

Unlike the Synoptic Gospels, the Fourth Gospel contains no specific command of Jesus to baptize, and no account of the institution of the Eucharist. This rite is also not mentioned explicitly. Barrett proposed the reason why John did not clearly mention sacrament that John thought these things unimportant that there was no need to mention them; or he thought them so sacred that they would be profaned by mention in a book that might fall into the hand of the addressee/uninitiated.¹³

5. Imagieries of eating the flesh and drinking the blood

Kimmel argued that in the Book of John baptism is clearly mentioned only in 3:5, and the command to eat Jesus’ flesh and to drink his blood, which appears in 6:51b-58 can only be understood as a reference to the words of institution of the account of Jesus’ last supper. In the view of Kommel, baptism and the Lord’s Supper are for the community just as much a testimony to Jesus’ coming and dying as God’s saving act, as is the preaching. Kimmel assumed that John attributes to the two sacraments no significance for the gaining of salvation that goes beyond the significance of believing.¹⁴
Although John did not write about sacrament explicitly, he did not blindly reject sacramentalism. He presented it unlike the Synoptic Gospels. He did not deny the importance and works of the sacrament, but it is efficacious only through Jesus Christ. John was not bound by the rites of sacrament, rather he spiritualized it and presented Jesus as the real sacrament, especially his lowly sacrifice for the human beings. So, John’s sacrament is down to earth and praxis, rather than mystical.¹⁵

6. Reflection and Conclusion

The explanation of imagery of grain of wheat, Shepherd and the sheepfold vine and the branches, the way of worshipping in new community in Johannine gospel is done in a positive way that the new community will have a better living.

Bibliography

• Brown Raymond E., An Introduction to the New Testament, Bangalore: Theological
• Barclay, William, The Daily Study Bible, “The Gospel of John,” Vol. 1 Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 1955.
• Bruce, F. F., The Gospel of John. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1983.
• Lalfakmawia, H. Joseph. Re-Reading the Gospel of John, Kolkata: SCEPTRE, 2013.
• NRSV Bible.

Footnotes

1. Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament (Bangalore: Theological Publication in India, 2000), 374.
2. H. Joseph Lalfakmawia, Re-Reading the Gospel of John, (Kolkata: SCEPTRE, 2013)95.
3. Barclay, William, The Daily Study Bible, “The Gospel of John,” Vol. 1 Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 1955.
4. H. Joseph Lalfakmawia, Re-Reading the Gospel of John, (Kolkata: SCEPTRE, 2013), 95.
5. Bruce, F. F., The Gospel of John. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1983.
6. H. Joseph Lalfakmawia, Re-Reading the Gospel of John, (Kolkata: SCEPTRE, 2013), 95.
7. Ibid
8. Ibid
9. Ibid
10. Ibid
11. Ibid
12. Ibid
13. Ibid
14. Ibid
15. Ibid

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