Out of the four Gospels, the Gospel of John is the most theological.  Instead of providing us with the narrative of the life and ministry of Jesus, it gives us the theological implications of the words and the actions of Jesus.  Instead of tracing the life of Jesus chronologically, it zeroes in on the life Jesus topically and the topic that becomes the focus of John is the death and the resurrection of Jesus.  Ten out of twenty-one chapters of his Gospel are wholly devoted for this topic.

The Gospel, which literally means Good News, is none other than the death and the resurrection of Jesus.  It is good news for one reason only: The death of Jesus has reconciled us with God, and the resurrection of Jesus has given us not only hope but also assurance that death will not be the final phase of our life on earth.  Death will only serve as a bridge to a new life with God in His Eternal Home.

We all crave good news.  Once upon a time when we were young, we heard a lot of good news such as vacation time, trips to theme parks, visiting grandparents, etc.  Now as we grow older, we still hear good news but not as many as before.  Years ago, I remember talking to a much older man at the YMCA and asking him what he’d do that weekend. I just assumed that he’d do something exciting or at least different from his daily routine.  His answer caught me by surprise; he said at his age every day was the same as yesterday; in other words, weekends or weekdays are just another day.  There is nothing extraordinarily good about weekend.  Such is life, isn’t it? 

Once I talked to someone who was so depressed that she thought about dying.  She told me that it was her faith in Jesus that stopped her from ending her life. Once upon a time we had a lot of reasons for living, things that we wanted to do in life.  But there will come a time when we only have one reason: for Jesus. No other reasons!

Pastor Paul