Last Sunday, Easter 4, with Christians all over the world, I listened to readings in church connected with the theme of God and Jesus as the shepherd.  At least one of the many paraphrases of Psalm 23 will have been sung, as we all focused our minds on this well-known and well-loved symbol of our relationship with the Divine.  Thinking about the powerful image of the shepherd, I was reminded of the influence of one book about John’s gospel that I read and studied as a student many years ago.  It was titled The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel by C H Dodd.   One part of the book explained the structure of St John’s gospel and showed how the archetypal ‘I am’ sayings of Jesus gave the book its distinctive shape.  This structure might easily be missed if one was concerned only to find, in the gospel, historical facts about the life of Jesus.   The symbols in the gospel associated with Jesus, the vine, light of the world, the bread of life etc, create a kind of skeleton which holds the bulk of John’s gospel together.  Each one of the ‘I am’ Jesus symbols is a prelude to a number of linked teachings or miracles connected with the theme.  For example, Jesus’ miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is told in the context of declaring himself to be the ‘bread of life’.  In the same way, the announcement that Jesus is the light of the world takes place in the same section as one where he heals a blind man.  Thus we arrive at the idea that the author of the gospel was deliberately organising his material to fit into a literary and theological structure of his own devising.  This is a notion that might upset a conservative reader.  Many Christian readers cannot accept that truth can ever be expressed in anything other than one involving tight historical accuracy.  This is, for them, the most important manifestation of truth.  Clearly John himself had a different understanding of truth, one that was not the same as knowing or recording the exact chronology of Jesus’ life.   It is worth noting in passing that the story of the casting out of the moneychangers from the Temple in the fourth gospel takes place at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, while in the other gospels it takes place very close to the time of his Passion.  Are we to conclude that Jesus performed this act twice or should we stick to the common sense answer that John changed the chronology for reasons of his own?

Most scholars work with the assumption that John’s gospel is, apart from the Passion narrative, far more a theological reflection than an attempt to write detailed history.  The book, is, in summary, about the truth and meaning of Jesus, together with an invitation to respond to him.  When we encounter the word ‘believe’, as we do in the archetypal passage of John 3.16, we note that it carries with it a strong sense of trust and relationship rather merely accepting a factual reality.  Jesus is throughout the gospel inviting the reader to embark on a relationship with him.  The main point that I take away from Dodd’s great work is the idea that each of the ‘I am’ statements in the gospel was a kind of portal into the meaning of Jesus for a follower.  Focusing with the imagination on the idea of Jesus as, variously, shepherd, bread or light of the world is a way of internalising an image of him and allowing us to penetrate into the deepest reality of who he is.  There is, importantly, no single correct way to understand Jesus as the Shepherd or any of the other Johannine symbols.  Each image or symbol evoked in our imaginations by the ‘I am’ symbols functions like an object of beauty.  There is never a single correct way to approach beauty.  Nor is there a right way to appreciate the signs or symbols in John’s gospel.  Somehow, in spite of this constantly evolving, even shifting meaning, we  find that with Christians through the ages, these symbols help us to come closer to God revealing himself in Jesus.  The preacher is also never in the situation of having to preach the same sermon about any of these Johannine images or symbols.  By their nature they keep giving us new insights and new levels of meaning.  A painting will also often reveal new facets of beauty every time we see it, as long we look at it with focused attention.

Many Christians live in a world where they believe it essential to have correct theological definitions.   Words like unsound or heretic are banded around for those who do not adopt the dominant discourse in certain religious settings.  I am one those Christians who fights shy of this world of correct belief with ‘orthodoxy’ being defined in a narrow way.  I find the Gospel of John a place of refuge because it allows me to see how to practise a faith in an environment of symbols and mystery.  Truth in John’s gospel is not defined, but it is evoked in the mind and the imagination of the believer.  Two readers of St John’s gospel may think quite different thoughts, but they are united in the fact that they are drawn towards Jesus as the Word of God who speaks to them across culture and definition.  I sometimes fantasise that Christianity might become more inclusive if we asked people who come to church, not whether they can recite the Apostles’ Creed, but whether they can relate to the symbols of encounter with Jesus that we find in the fourth gospel.  In other words, do you meet Jesus as one who comes to you as shepherd, light, sustaining food, vine, giver of resurrection etc.?  It is hard to imagine any encounter with Christ that does not draw on at least one of these symbols.  Being a Christian is, in some way, accepting the invitation to be part of a great movement towards God as he reaches out to us in Christ.  Somewhere in responding to that invitation we find ourselves wanting to use the language of one or more of the ‘I am’ symbols of the fourth gospel.

To repeat a point that stuck me strongly while listening to last Sunday’s readings.  There is no limit to the words that can be said about the idea of Jesus as our shepherd.  There is also no correct way to interpret any of the other Johannine images or symbols.  Each Christian will relate to the words in his/her own way.  One million Christians will also have processed these ‘I am’ symbols in the fourth gospel in a million ways.  It is the task of the Christian leader/teacher to encourage this task of imaginative exploration of the reality of God reaching out to us in Christ. I can think of no better way of starting this process than through the in-depth exploration of these symbols.  However tidy it might be to have everyone having identical experiences of the encounter with Christ, let us rejoice that we have a book in the Bible that offers us words which act as powerful revealing symbols, opening up our access to spiritual reality.  Each symbol seems to give us permission to explore and experience an encounter with Christ, but each in our own way.  Such a freedom to think, experience and explore truth is not always on offer in our churches.    Far too many complain that they are only allowed to experience the mystery of a divine encounter in a manner controlled and approved of by a Christian leader.  Perhaps St John’s gospel is a permanent reminder that there are dynamic flexible ways of being a Christian so that each relates to these symbols in their own time and in their own way.  St John’s gospel appears to be permitting us to know and rejoice in the freedom that God wants us all to have.