Devotional: Do You Believe?: John 20:30-31; 21:25

“And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25).

In today’s world of racial divide and other issues in which people groups differ from each other I am reading complaints from many that the history books fail to tell everything about their particular groups. Some complaints say that the history writers were trying to keep secret some of the things that were done to them. The complaints that we read about today are no different than the complaints that have been made in all generations. I disagree as an African American male that attended segregated schools that the writers of the history textbooks used in public education intentionally tried to hide anything from Black people. The Black students in my school used the exact same textbooks that the white students used. The history books were not written to hide anything. Rather, they were written with a particular audience in mind. The books were written to elevate the consciousness of the primary audience that they were written for; namely white Americans. Thus, people were not writing to hide anything from anybody. They wrote to an audience that could benefit from what was written.

The bible contains sixty-six books, including thirty-nine in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New Testament. Each writer told events that they believed were important for the community that they wrote to. The Gospel of John makes this claim plain to see. The Gospel of John has been called the “Gospel of Belief.” The fourth gospel was written not to affirm that Jesus was the Messiah of the Jews and the King of the Jews, the emphasis of the Gospel of Matthew. It was not written to convince people that the Messiah was given to all people by God for their salvation. This was an important feature of the gospels of Mark and Luke. John wrote to a different audience at a different time, and for a different purpose than the other three gospel writers.

The Gospel of John was written to an audience that was confronted by philosophers that believed that it was impossible for Jesus to be the Son of God and a literal human being at the same time. Thus, the emphasis in John gives the audience sufficient evidence that Jesus was indeed the Son of God who was made flesh. He lived among the people and demonstrated that He had power that could come from God alone. Jesus did things to show signs that He was who He claimed to be. The writer is not trying to hide anything. The writer is not trying to include everything that Jesus did. The world could not contain enough books to include everything that Jesus did.

The issue for the writer of the fourth gospel is whether or not people believe that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (Jn 20:31). The issue is not how much you know. Rather, it is this: Do you believe what you have been told? There is enough written in the history books so that we know that racial discrimination, white supremacy, slavery, and denial of full rights of citizens have been denied to the non white population in America. Do we believe what we know; what has been written and how will we respond to what we know. This is the challenge that the writer of the Gospel of John makes to all of humanity. One does not need to know everything that Jesus did. The reader must choose whether or not they will believe what was written about Jesus and His purpose.

Prayer: Father we believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died for our sins so that we could be reconciled to you. Amen.