Today’s Bible verses conclude the first half of John’s Gospel, known as the Book of Signs. The verses mark the end of Christ’s public ministry. He will go on, through the Last Supper, to teach his disciples, and then to endure his Passion and crucifixion. The verses bring together Christ’s teaching to now. Key, fundamental themes are restated. Christ and the Father are one. To believe in Jesus is to believe in God. To see Jesus is to see God [ … ]

The Feast of the Dedication commemorates the episode in Jewish history, as recorded in Maccabees, when, in the year 165 BC, after he had liberated Jerusalem from the control of the Seleucid kings of Syria, Judas Maccabeus cleansed the Temple of the profanations of Antiochus Epiphanes. Falling toward the end of the year, it is also known as the Festival of Lights, because it was the custom to place lamps, signifying the Law, in the windows of houses [ … ]

The Jewish authorities have begun to take note of Jesus. While Jesus has attracted the people, now ‘the Jews’, a term which in John’s Gospel is often used to refer to the Jewish authorities, are beginning to murmur against him. Jesus’ relationship with the Jews is to become increasingly tense [ … ]

Jesus now gives to us a clear and ready way to salvation. We are to behold the Son of God, to believe in him, and then we shall be saved. These Bible verses for Easter continue to draw on the great miracle of the loaves and the fishes, when Jesus took a poor boy’s daily ration and fed the five thousand who had gathered to hear his word [ … ]

The people who have looked for and found Jesus now ask for a sign. Notwithstanding the miracle of the loaves and fishes, which they have witnessed, they now say they require a sign in order to believe in Jesus. It is in some ways akin to Christ’s temptation in the desert, when Satan tempted him to prove his divinity [ … ]

The people who have been fed through the miracle of the loaves and the fishes now seek Jesus and are mystified that he should not be near. They have seen that there was only one boat and that the disciples of Jesus have gone alone into the boat to pass across the Sea of Galilee. The events that have taken place overnight, as Jesus walked across the water, would have been completely beyond their comprehension [ … ]

John’s account of the miracle of Jesus walking on the water differs in some significant ways from the accounts given in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. The context is the same, the miracle of the loaves and fishes has taken place, and the disciples are crossing the Sea of Galilee, while Jesus has remained on shore, going into the hills to pray alone. We understand, as well, in each of the Gospel accounts, the symbolic meaning of the disciples being alone and troubled on the waters, to which situation the Lord comes to help them [ … ]

Today’s Bible verses flow from John the Baptist’s beautiful words, as he explains, speaking of Jesus, that ‘he must increase, but I must decrease’. John the Baptist reminds his disciples that he has told them he is not the Christ, but rather the one who was sent before to prepare the way of Christ. John the Baptist now rejoices that Christ’s time is come, that his own purpose is complete and it is time to relinquish to Christ the ministry that brings salvation. There is no competition between John the Baptist and Jesus. Rather, through faith and love, he is overjoyed that people are flocking to Jesus to be baptized by him [ … ]

Our relationship with God is a call to love. Our Father loves us unsparingly. He gave to us and for us His only begotten Son. Christ gave himself to free us from sin and death, to reconcile us with God. All we are asked to do is to believe in Jesus and to respond to God’s immeasurable love with a reciprocal love, through faith in Christ. It is through love and faith that we discover our dignity [ … ]

Jesus declares his divinity. No one, he tells Nicodemus, has yet ascended into heaven. Only Jesus knows heaven. Even while he is on earth as man, he is in heaven as God. Once Jesus has died and has risen from the dead, and then through the Ascension, then Jesus will be in heaven as man also. This is to be our gateway to heaven. Moses set the bronze serpent on the pole to cure those people who had been bitten by poisonous snakes in the wilderness (Numbers 21: 8-9). Jesus compares this to the crucifixion he must undergo [ … ]

It is a striking moment. Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem, has come to visit Jesus. He does so secretly, by night, his whole reputation at risk. He must not be seen to be associating with Jesus, and yet he is compelled to seek Jesus and to ask him the questions he has. Nicodemus acknowledges Jesus as a teacher and master: Rabbi. He knows that Jesus’ teaching is truth and needs to speak with him more. Nicodemus would know every word of the teachings of Moses and the Old Testament [ … ]

Jesus visits the disciples, where they meet in a locked house, to bring them faith and reassurance, and to entrust them with their evangelical mission to spread the good news about Christ throughout the world. Christ’s is now a glorified body. A locked door is no obstacle to him. He is no longer bound by the limitations of space and time. In Luke’s Gospel, we are told how the disciples are, understandably, frightened by the appearance of Jesus. They think he must be a spirit. Now, to reassure the disciples and help them to know the truth of his resurrection, Jesus offers his body to them. This, he lets them see, is Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified and, as he promised, has risen from the dead [ … ]

This is an amazing encounter! The disciples have returned to Galilee, where their story with Jesus began. It was natural for them to return home, while awaiting further instruction from Jesus. It is natural also for the disciples to wish to engage in their old and familiar work. It seems a typically spontaneous gesture of Simon Peter when he declares: ‘I am going fishing!’ Things have changed, though. Through their time with Jesus, the lives of the disciples have changed [ … ]

Mary Magdalene, out of whom seven demons were cast, has remained faithful to Jesus, providing for him through his ministry and staying with him through his death on the cross. Now, while the disciples go back to their homes, Mary remains by the tomb, weeping for Jesus. Her love and sensitivity have led her to be greatly concerned about Jesus. She longs to take care of his body [ … ]