Session 8 - “It Is Finished” A Dying and Rising Love (John 18–21)

Below is some commentary on last week's readings.

Trial before Pilate (18:28-19:16)

• 19:8 he became even more afraid: Pilate has not considered Jesus to be a serious threat thus far. But when he hears talk about Jesus being “Son of God” (19:7), he became even more afraid. A Roman pagan like Pilate could hear this and think that Jesus might be a demigod like Hercules or Perseus. A similar situation appears in Acts 14, when the people of Lystra, after seeing Paul heal a paralyzed man, hail him as “Hermes” and Barnabas as “Zeus” and declare, “The gods have come down to us in human form” (Acts 14:11–12). 

[The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)] 

Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and burial (see 19:17-42)

• Jesus as Passover lamb

Some of the parallels between Jesus and the Passover lamb include: 

• Jesus is sent to be crucified at the sixth hour, which is when the Passover lambs were sacrificed (John 19:14). 
• To bring the sponge of vinegar to Jesus’ lips when he is thirsty, the Roman soldiers use a hyssop branch—the same kind of branch used by the Israelites in Egypt to wipe their doorposts with the blood of the Passover lamb (see John 19:29 and Exodus 12:22). 
• John notes that the soldiers do not break Jesus’ legs, just as the Passover lamb had to be an unblemished lamb whose legs were not broken (see John 19:33 and Exodus 12:46). Jesus gives up his life in sacrifice like a lamb offered for Passover.

[Follow Me workbook] 

• Jesus entrusts his mother and the Beloved Disciple to each other (19:25-27)
• In John’s Gospel, the Beloved Disciple is the ideal disciple:
• Close to Jesus at the Last Supper (see 13:25)
• The only apostle to remain with Jesus at the Cross (see 19:26)
• The first to believe in the risen Christ (see 20:8)
• One who bears witness to the risen Christ (see 21:7 and 21:24).

• The Beloved Disciple is the individual apostle, St. John. But as we have seen before, the fourth Gospel often uses individual characters to represent larger groups:
• The Samaritan woman embodies the history of the Samaritan people; 
• Nicodemus represents all Pharisees who oppose and misunderstand Christ). 

In this case, the Beloved Disciple can be seen as representing a wider group of people: all faithful disciples. So when Jesus says to the Beloved Disciple, “Behold, your mother,” he is putting Mary and the Beloved Disciple in a special mother-son relationship. Mary becomes a mother-like figure for the individual Beloved Disciple (St. John) and for all whom the Beloved Disciple represents—that is, all faithful Christians. Thus, by becoming the mother of the Beloved Disciple, Mary becomes the spiritual mother of all Christians. 

 [Follow Me workbook]  

• We have seen that John often uses family language to articulate the communion with the Father that Jesus makes possible. 
• As the “only Son” (1:18), Jesus brings his disciples to share in his own eternal relationship with the Father, to share in his Sonship, making them God’s children (1:12; see Rom 8:14–15; 1 John 3:1). 
• In these words from the cross, Jesus reveals the spiritual relationship among himself, his mother, and the Beloved Disciple in the Church as the family of God. If the Beloved Disciple shares spiritually in Jesus’ own life as the Son, then, by implication, he also has Mary for his spiritual mother. 
• The mother of Jesus becomes a new Eve, the spiritual mother of Jesus’ disciples, those who share in his life. The first Eve became “the mother of all the living” (Gen 3:20), and the second Eve becomes the mother of all believers, those being re-created by the Holy Spirit of the new creation (see 7:37–39).12 Similarly, Rev 12:17 refers to Christians as the “offspring” of the woman clothed with the sun, the mother of the †Messiah.

[The Gospel of John (CCSS)] 

• 19:34 blood and water: Stresses the reality and finality of Jesus' death. 
• The episode is reminiscent of Num 20:10-13 as read in Jewish tradition. In the original story only water issued from the rock struck by Moses, but in the Aramaic rendition both blood and water gushed forth (Palestinian Targum on Num 20:11 DC). Paul similarly interprets this rock as a symbol of Christ, from which flows the spiritual drink of the Eucharist (1 Cor 10:4) and the Spirit (1 Cor 12:13). 
• Allegorically (St. John Chrysostom, Baptismal Instructions 3, 1619): the water and blood streaming from the side of Christ are symbolic of the new life we receive in Baptism (3:5) and the nourishment we receive in the Eucharist (6:53) (CCC 1225). It indicates, moreover, that the Church constituted by these sacraments is the bride of Christ that issues from his side, just as Eve came forth from the side of Adam (Gen 2:21-23). In another sense (Tertullian, On Baptism 16,2), the blood and water signify the two baptisms of martyrdom and Christian initiation. 

[Ignatius Catholic Study Bible] 

• 19:36 Not a bone: A reference to Ex 12:46. ° This restriction was part of Israel's Passover legislation that disqualified lambs with blemishes and broken bones from being slaughtered and eaten for the liturgical celebration (Ex 12:5; Num 9:11-12). Jesus, whose bones are left intact, is the unblemished Lamb (Jn 1:29) fit to be consumed in the eucharistic liturgy (6:53-58; CCC 608).

[Ignatius Catholic Study Bible] 

• 19:37 They shall look: A reference to Zech 12:10. * Zechariah describes a day of mourning for Jerusalem, which will weep with remorse that its sins have pierced the Messiah. It is also a day of compassion, when Yahweh opens a fountain to cleanse the city of its iniquities (Zech 13:1). John may be suggesting, in light of the full context of this prophecy, that there is a close connection between the piercing of the Messiah and the opening of the fountain of divine mercy.

[Ignatius Catholic Study Bible] 

Resurrection Accounts

• Mary Magdalene (see 20:1-18)

20:4 reached the tomb first: John defers to Peter by letting him enter the tomb first (20:6). This is more than a polite gesture, as it reflects his deference to the preeminent honor and authority that Jesus has bestowed on Simon (Mt 16:16-19). 

• Allegorically (John Scotus Erigena, Hom. in Prol. Jn.): the tomb is the Sacred Scriptures. Peter is faith, which is the first thing we bring to its pages, and John is understanding, which afterward enters and penetrates their meaning more deeply. 
• Morally, Peter and John represent the active and contemplative missions of the Church, so that even when contemplatives are the first to arrive at a deeper understanding of the faith, deference is given to the hierarchical leadership, who later defines and promulgates their authentic insights.

[Ignatius Catholic Study Bible] 

• Apostles (20:19-25)
• On this same Easter evening, Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit on the apostles and gives them the authority to forgive sins. Consider Jesus’ words: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (John 20:21). [Jesus had a mission to forgive sins and then passed it on to his apostles]

[Follow Me workbook] 

• 20:22 he breathed on them: Anticipates the coming of the Spirit on Pentecost, which will take place 50 days later (Acts 2:1-4). Here we see that the risen humanity of Jesus has become a sacrament of the divine Spirit (6:53-58; CCC 1116). * John uses an expression that recurs in significant contexts in the Greek OT. It appears in Gen 2:7, where the Lord breathes life into Adam; in 1 Kings 17:21, where the Greek version specifies that Elijah resuscitated a boy with his breath; and in Ezek 37:9, where God raises an army of corpses to new life by the breath of the Spirit.

[Ignatius Catholic Study Bible] 

• Appearance at the Sea of Tiberias (21.1-14)
• Allegorically (St. Gregory the Great, Hom. in Evan. 24): the presence of Christ on land signifies the stability and peace of his Resurrection life, as distinct from the instability and commotion of mortal life still experienced by the disciples as they labor upon the waves of the sea. 
• 21:7 It is the Lord!: John is the first to recognize Jesus on the shore. It is unclear whether his identity was veiled because of the distance, the lingering darkness, or a dullness of spiritual insight (20:14, Lk 24:16; CCC 645). 
• 21:11 a hundred and fifty-three: The number of fish hauled ashore is symbolic. St. Jerome claims that Greek zoologists had identified 153 different kinds of fish (Comm. in Ez. 14, 47). If this is the background, the episode anticipates how the apostles, made fishers of men by Christ (Mt 4:19), will gather believers from every nation into the Church (Mt 28:18-20). Back to text.
• 21:13 took ... gave: The breakfast recalls the feeding of the 5,000 in 6:1-14, since these are the only two meals in John eaten beside the Sea of Galilee and the only two where bread and fish are served.

[Ignatius Catholic Study Bible] 

• Dialogue between Jesus and Peter (see 21:15-22)
• 21:15 more than these?: Peter is challenged to live up to his own words, since earlier he declared that even if the other disciples should fall away from Christ, his commitment would never falter (Mt 26:33). 
• 21.15 Feed my lambs: Jesus entrusts to Peter the task of shepherding his entire flock. This supreme leadership position over the Church gives him a unique share in the authority of Christ, who is still acknowledged by Peter as the "chief Shepherd" (1 Pet 5:4). It is important to recognize that no tension exists in the mind of Jesus between his own role as the "good shepherd" and the delegation of pastoral authority to Peter (Jn 10:11; CCC 553, 881). 

[Ignatius Catholic Study Bible]