John

   
Cotton Patch Version
    

Introduction

1.         When time began, the Idea already was. The Idea was at home with God, and the Idea and God were one. This same Idea was at home with God when time began. Through him the universe was made, and apart from him not one thing came to be. In him was life, and the life was humanity’s light. And the light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness never quenched it.

6.         A man arose—sent from God—whose name was John. This man came forward as a witness, to testify for the light, so that people might be convinced by him. He wasn’t the light himself, but a witness for the light The true light, which enlightens every man, was entering the world. In the world he was, and the world was made by him, and the world ignored him. He came into the things he had made, and the people whom he loved turned their backs on him. However, to those who did let him in—who lived up to his name—he gave the right to be God’s children. Such children were not fathered by bloody sacrifices, nor by a moment of lust, nor within wedlock, but by God himself.

14.       Well, the Idea became a man and moved in with us. We looked him in the face—the face of an only son whose father is full of kindness and integrity.

15.       As John preached, he had this to say about him: "This is who I meant when I said, ‘The one coming behind me has gotten ahead of me, because he was here before I was.’"

16.       All of us got one favor after another from his overflowing abundance. Moses gave us rules; Jesus the Leader gave us kindness and integrity.

18.       While no one has ever actually seen God, the only One—the Father’s dearest One—has revealed him.

19.       Here is John’s testimony when the good white folks of Atlanta sent a committee of preachers and deacons to ask him what he considered himself. He admitted right off the bat and stood his ground, publicly asserting, "I am not the Leader."
            So they asked him, "Well, what are you, then? Are you an Elijah?"
            "No, I’m not," he replied.
            "Are you ‘The Prophet’ ?"
            ‘Nope."
            "Look, we’ve got to make a report to those who appointed us," they said. "What are you? What claims are you making for yourself?"
            "I am what Isaiah the prophet said—a voice crying in the wild, ‘Straighten out the Lord’s road.’

24.       Since they had been appointed by the denomination, they inquired, "Well, if you aren’t the Leader, nor an Elijah, nor ‘The Prophet,’ then why are you initiating members?" John told them, "Indeed I am initiating—in water. But right in your midst is standing one who you fellows don’t recognize. He follows me, but I myself am not fit to shine his shoes." All this happened in Jonesboro, across the Chattaboochee, where John was immersing.

29.       Next day, John saw Jesus coming to him. "Y’all look! There’s God’s Lamb, the world’s sin-bearer! That’s the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming behind me who has gotten ahead of me, because he was there before I was.’ Even I was not sure of him, but that he might be introduced to the nation, I began a pre-enrollment in water."

32.       John testified further: "I saw the Spirit, descending like a dove from the sky, and lighting on him. And even I was not sure about him, but he who sent me to dip in water also told me, ‘The one upon whom you see the Spirit descending and lighting will be the one who immerses you in Holy Spirit.’ Well, I saw it, and I have emphatically stated that this is God’s Man."

35.       The following day John was standing with two of his converts, and when he saw Jesus walking around, he again cried out, "Y’all look! There’s God’s Lamb!" The two converts, upon hearing John say that, started following Jesus. Jesus noticed that they were following him, and he turned around and asked, "What’s on your mind?" They asked, "Reverend, where are you staying?" He told them, "Come and see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and they visited with him that whole day until about four o’clock.

40.       Andy, the brother of Simon (Rock), was one of the two who got the word from John and followed Jesus. The first thing he did was to find his own brother and tell him, "We have discovered the Christ-os" (or, to put it in English, "God’s Leader"). He took him to Jesus. Jesus sized him up and said, "You are Simon Johnson;¹   you’ll be nicknamed Petros" (or, in English, "Rock").

43.       A day later, Jesus wanted to leave for north Georgia. He ran across Phil, who was from Albany, the hometown of the Johnson brothers, and said to him, "Join me."
            Phil looked up Nat and told him, "We have discovered the One the Bible talks about! His name is Jesus (Joseph’s boy), and he’s from Valdosta!"
            Nat said, "From Valdosta! Could anybody worth his salt come from there?"
            Phil said, "Come and take a look."
            Jesus saw Nat approaching him and commented, "Look! There’s a real white man! There’s nothing phony about him."
            Nat asked, "Where did you hear about me?"
            "I saw you," Jesus replied, "before Phi] talked with you under the muscadine vine.
            "Reverend," answered Nat, "you are God’s Man; you are the nation’s Leader!"
            "Are you convinced merely because I told you that I saw you under the muscadine vine?" Jesus asked. "You’ll see a whole lot more than that. In fact, I want to tell y’all that you’ll see the sky busted open and God’s angels climbing up and climbing down on the son of man!"

1.         On Tuesday there was a wedding celebration at Canton in north Georgia, and Jesus’ mother went. He and his students were also invited to the celebration. Well, the wine started running low, and Jesus’ mother told him, "That’s all the wine they’ve got." Jesus said, "What are you and I to do about it, ma’am? .. . I’m not quite ready.. ." His mother turned to the servants, ‘Help him in any way he needs you.

6.         Now there were six stone water jars put there for carrying out the Old Testament rules for keeping things clean. Each held two or three buckets of water. He told the servants, "Fill the crocks with water," and they filled them up to the brim. Then Jesus said, "Now let your bucket²  down and draw up some for the emcee." They fetched it. When the emcee tasted the water-become-wine, he didn’t know where it came from, though the servants who had bucketed it up knew. The emcee called the groom and said, "People always put on the good wine first, and when everybody is pretty well tanked up, they bring out the cheap wine. But you have saved the best wine till last." Jesus did this first sign in Canton, Georgia, and showed his credentials. And his students put their faith in him.

12.       Later, he and his mother, his brothers and his students went down to Savannah and stayed there a short while. Well, it was about time for the annual convention, so Jesus went to Atlanta. At the convention headquarters at First Church he found preachers politicking, and businessmen wheeling and dealing, and exhibits all over the place. So he got a long-bandied fly swatter and a broom and began clearing out the crowd and wrecking the merchandise booths. "Get out of here with all this stuff!" he shouted. "Quit making a racket of my Father’s business!" His students recalled the verse of Scripture: "I am eaten up with concern for my Father’s fellowship."

18.       So the church people challenged him, "Can you prove that you have the right to act in this way?" Jesus replied, "Pull down this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it." The church members answered, "It took forty-six years to build this sanctuary, and you are going to raise it in three days?" The sanctuary he was talking about, however, was his body. And when be was raised from the dead, his students recalled that he had said this, and they put their faith in Jesus’ message, both written and spoken.

23.       While he was in Atlanta for the annual convention, many people, upon seeing the convincing things he did, surrendered themselves to him. On the other hand, Jesus never did surrender himself to them, simply because he knew everybody and because be didn’t need information from anyone about a person, since he already knew the inside of a man.

1.         Now there was a very prominent churchman by the name of Nicodemus. This man came to Jesus one night and said, "Professor, we are aware that you are an inspired teacher, because nobody could present the marvelous things you’re presenting without God’s help."
            "I want to make it clear," Jesus answered, "that no one can be a member of God’s family unless he is fathered from above."
            Nicodemus asked, "But how can a man be fathered once he is born? He can’t return to his mother’s womb and be re-fathered, can he?"
            Jesus replied, "Except a person be fathered by both semen and Spirit, he can’t be a member of God’s family. Flesh fathers flesh, and Spirit fathers spirit. Don’t be so surprised, then, that I told you that people have to be fathered from above. The wind blows as it will, and you listen to its sound, but you have no idea where it’s coming from or where it’s going. It’s like that when a person is fathered by the Spirit."³ 

9.         "How can this possibly be true?" Nicodemus asked.
            "Well, well," Jesus answered. "Here you are, ‘the nation’s foremost theologian,’ and yet you don’t grasp these things? I assure you that we speak and testify from firsthand knowledge and experience, but you folks won’t accept our evidence. If I have used simple illustrations and you’re not convinced, how would I ever persuade you with theological arguments?

13.       "No one has penetrated the spiritual realm except the son of man, who came out of it. And just as Moses put a brass snake on a pole in the wilderness,⁴  even so must the son of man be put on a pole, in order that all who trust him might have spiritual life. In the same way, God loved the world so much that be gave his only Son, that whoever trusts him might not die, but might have spiritual life. For God did not send his Son into the world to damn it, but that through him the world might be rescued. He who lives by him is not damned, but be who does not live by him is already damned, because he does not live up to the name of God’s only Son. This is the damnation: The Light came into the world, and the people preferred the darkness to the Light, because their ways were wicked. For the person whose life is false shuns the Light and won’t go near it, for fear that his ways will be rebuked. But the person whose life is true comes out into the Light, so that it might be clear that his ways are rooted in God."

22.       Following this, Jesus and his students went to south Georgia, and he spent a while there with them and was doing some baptizing. John was baptizing at Eufaula near Georgetown, because there was plenty of water there, and people were coming to him and getting immersed. (This was before John had been thrown in jail.) Well, John’s students and a Methodist got into a fuss over dipping and sprinkling. So they came to John and told him, "Reverend, you remember that fellow who was with you on the other side of the Chattahoochee, who you yourself praised? Guess what! Now he’s dipping and everybody is joining up with him!" John answered, "A man can’t take an office that hasn’t been given him from above. You yourselves can bear me out that I told you, ‘I am not the Leader, but I was sent ahead of him.’ The man with the bride is the bridegroom. The best man stands with the groom and shares his joy. That’s why I’m so happy. That man must grow, while I must fade out."

31.       The one who springs from above is over everything. The earthling, being from the earth, speaks in terms of the earth. The spiritual person, however, is above all this. While he does talk about what he has seen and heard, nobody takes him seriously. When one does take him seriously, one becomes evidence that God is true. The God-sent man bears God’s message, for God fully equips him with the Spirit. The Father loves the Son and has put him in charge of everything. When one lives by the Son, one has spiritual life. When one disobeys the Son, one won’t catch a glimpse of life; rather, God’s displeasure hangs over him.

4.

1.         The word spread among the church people that Jesus was making and baptizing more converts than John. (Jesus himself, however, wasn’t doing any baptizing, but his students were.) So when Jesus found out about this, he pulled out of south Georgia and headed again for north Georgia. On the way he had to go through a black ghetto. Well, he came to a black village named Sidecar, which is near the farm that Mr. Jake gave to his boy Joe. There’s a well there called "Jake’s well." So Jesus was pretty tired from traveling, and he sat like this on the curbing of the well. It was about noon. Now here comes a black woman to draw some water. Jesus says to her, "Please give me a drink." (His students had all gone to town to buy some food.)
            Then she says to him, "How come a white man like you is asking for a drink from a black woman like me?" (Blacks and whites, you know, don’t have much to do with one another.)
            Jesus answers, "If you just knew God’s goodness, and who it is asking you for a drink, you would ask him and he would give you running water."
            She says, "Mister, that well is deep, and you don’t even have a bucket. So where you gonna get running water? Do you have it over Grandpa Jake, who dug the well and used it for his family and livestock?"
            Jesus replies, "When somebody drinks this water he gets thirsty again. When he drinks the water I give him, he’ll never again get thirsty; in fact, the water I give someone becomes an inner-flowing spring, bubbling over with spiritual life."
            The lady says to him, "Mister, gimme that water, so I won’t get thirsty, and so I won’t have to come back here to draw water!"
            He says to her, "Okay, go call your husband, and come here."
            The lady answers, "I ain’t got a husband."
            Jesus says, "You’re telling the truth when you say, ‘I ain’t got a husband,’ because you’ve had five men, and the one you’re living with now isn’t your husband. You are absolutely correct."
            The lady says, "Mister, I can tell that you’re a preacher, right? Well, you know, my people have always said that the best time to worship God is Sunday afternoon, but you folks insist on Sunday morning at eleven."
            "Listen here, ma’am," Jesus interrupts, "the time is coming when you’ll worship the Father neither in the morning nor in the afternoon. You folks aren’t sure about your worship; we white folks are, because we invented worship! Just the same, the time is coming—it’s here already—when the sincere worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and with honesty. Indeed, the Father is looking for people like that to worship him. God is spirit, and when people worship him they must do it in spirit and with honesty."
            The lady answers, "I realize that Christ (the word for Leader) is coming. When he does, he’ll straighten us out on everything!"
            Jesus says to her, "I myself, the person talking with you, am he!"

27.       Along about this time, his students returned, and they were quite surprised that be was talking with a black woman, yet nobody asked, "What are you up to?" or "Why are you talking with her?" So the lady left her water bucket, checked out for town, and said to the men there, "Come and meet a fellow who told me everything I ever did. Do you suppose he might be the Leader?" They went tearing out of the city and came to him.

31.       In the meanwhile, the students said to him, "Come on, Professor, let’s eat."
            He replied, "I have some food to eat that you don’t know about."
            Then the students started asking one another, "You reckon somebody brought him something to eat?"
            Jesus told them, "My food is doing the Father’s will and getting on with his work. You all say that the harvest is four months away, don’t you? Well, listen to what I’m telling you:
            Open your eyes and look at those fields. Right now they are at the peak of harvesting. Already the Harvester is hired and he is gathering spiritual life fruit, so that the Planter and the Harvester may rejoice together. The statement about this is correct, because the Planter is one and the Harvester is another. And I sent you to harvest a crop that you haven’t sweated over. Others put in the sweat, and you’ve reaped the benefit of it."

39.       Many people of the black village trusted him simply on the grounds of the woman’s statement that "he told me everything I ever did." So when the blacks gathered about him, they started asking him to spend a while with them. He did so, staying there two days. An even larger group put their faith in him on the basis of his own words. They told the woman, "Our faith is no longer based on your story alone, for we ourselves have heard him and are convinced that he is truly the world’s deliverer."

43.       At the end of the two days, he left there for north Georgia. (Jesus himself fully agreed that a true man of God has little or no influence among the folks back home.) So when he arrived in north Georgia, the people welcomed him. They had been at the Convention in Atlanta and had seen for themselves all that he had done. Well, he returned to Canton, where he had made the water into wine. There was this government bigwig who had a sick son in Savannah. Having heard that Jesus had arrived in north Georgia, he went to him and urged him to come over and heal his boy, who was in mighty bad shape. Jesus said to him, "Unless you all see signs and miracles, you just won’t be trustful." The big man said, "Please, mister, come on before my boy dies!" Jesus told him, "Okay, you may go now; your boy is well." The fellow acted on Jesus’ instructions, and went. As he was returning, some friends met him and said, "Your boy is well!’ He then asked them what time his boy started to get better. "About one o’clock yesterday afternoon," they said, "the fever went away." The father recognized this as the exact time that Jesus had told him, "Your boy is well." So he surely put his faith in Jesus, and his whole family did, too. (This was the second sign that Jesus did after he moved from south Georgia to north Georgia.)

1.         After this, there was a church convention in Atlanta, and Jesus attended. Now, in Atlanta at Shepherd’s Park there is a pool called Bethesda, which is surrounded by five pavilions. In these pavilions were many afflicted people—blind, crippled, paralyzed. One of them was a man who had been afflicted for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knowing that he had been in this condition for a long time, he said to him, "Would you like to get well?" The afflicted man answered, "Mister, I don’t have a soul to help me get in the pool while the water is all stirred up. When I try to put myself in, somebody heats me there." Jesus said to him. "Get up, pick up your pallet, and start walking!" And right then the man was well, and he picked up his pallet and started walking!

10.       But, it so happened that it was Sunday. So some good church people told the healed man, "Today is Sunday, and it isn’t right for you to be moving furniture around." He replied, "Well, the same guy who made me well told me to pick up my pallet and start walking." They asked, "Who is the fellow who said for you to pick it up and start walking?" The healed guy really didn’t know who it was because there was a big crowd and Jesus had gotten lost in it. But later on, Jesus found him in the church and said to him, "Look, you’re well; don’t let your life get messed up or something worse might happen to you. The man left, and told the church people that it was Jesus who had healed him. So they gave Jesus a fit for doing such things on a Sunday. Jesus’ answer was, "My Father is working right on, so I’m working." For this they were trying all the more to kill him, not only because he broke the Sabbath, but because he called God his own father, thus making himself equal with God.

19.       So Jesus really explained it to them. "Let me set you straight: The Son can’t do anything on his own—only what he sees the Father doing. When he does something, the Son does the same thing. The Father likes the Son and shares with him his concerns, and, though it might surprise you, he will share his activity on an even larger scale. For example, even as the Father lifts up the dead and gives them newness of life, so will the Son, too, give newness of life to people of his choice. The Father isn’t deciding on people; rather, he has referred every decision to the Son, so that all will respect the Son in the same way they respect the Father. When one disrespects the Son, one disrespects the Father who appointed him. Let me make it clear to you that the person who listens to my message and puts his faith in him who appointed me has spiritual life; this person is not called up for examination, but has transferred from the death region to the life region. I’m telling you, the time is coming—it’s here already—when the lifeless ones will tune in to the voice of God’s Son and, having heard him, will come alive. For as the Father is a life-bearer, so he has made the Son a life-bearer. He has also given him, as the son of man, the right to set up a standard. Don’t let this surprise you, because the day is coming when the graveyard set will hear his voice and will move on out—those who have committed themselves to the right, into the celebration of life; those who have committed themselves to the wrong, into the celebration of damnation. I am unable to act on my own; I decide on the basis of what I hear, and my decisions are fair. I’m not out to have my own way, but to do what God wants.

31.       "If I am my own witness, my testimony won’t hold water. But someone else is my witness, and I’m convinced that his testimony about me will stand up. You all questioned John, and he gave you the honest truth. But even so, I’m not resting my case on human testimony; I’m just talking this way so that you might be straightened out. That guy, John, was turned on—a shining light—and you were willing to dance in his light for a little while. But I have even greater evidence than John’s: the course of action that my Father gave me to carry out. This program that I’m engaged in is evidence that the Father sent me. So the same Father who sent me has himself testified in my behalf. The reason you’ve never heard his voice, or seen his face, or had his word to take root in you is that you’re putting no trust in his appointed one. You do study the Bible, expecting to find spiritual life in it, and all the while it is loaded with evidence about me. Yet, you refuse to go my route to find life. I don’t go in for human prestige, but I know full well that you’ve got no love of God in you. Here I come flying my Father’s flag and you reject me. If somebody else came flying his own flag, you would accept him. How can you ever be people of faith when you accept credentials from one another, but don’t even look at the credentials from the One God. Don’t think that I’ll be your accuser before God. Your accuser is that on which you pin your hopes—the Bible itself. For if you had truly believed the Bible, you would have had faith in me too, because it is written about me. But if you aren’t living by what it tells you, how will you live by what I say?"

1.         Later on, Jesus crossed the big lake and was followed by a large crowd, because they saw the tremendous things he was doing for the sick. So Jesus climbed up the hill and sat down with his students around him. Now the annual Convention, the big meeting of the church people, was drawing near. Well, Jesus looked up and saw that a lot of people were coming to him, so he said to Phil, "How will we buy enough food to feed all these people?" (Since he already knew what he was about to do, he was sort of pulling Phil’s leg.) Phil answered, "Even if everybody got only a taste, it would take about two hundred dollars’ worth!" Then one of the students—Andy, Rock’s brother—piped up, "There’s a kid here who has five buns and two hot dogs, but that won’t go a long way toward feeding this crowd!"

10.       Jesus said, "Please tell the people to be seated." (There was a Jot of grass at this spot.) So the crowd, numbering about five thousand, sat down, and Jesus took the buns, said grace, and served the seated people. He did the same with the hot dogs, and everybody took as many as they wanted. When they finished eating, Jesus told the students, "Y’all gather up the leftovers so we don’t waste anything." They collected them, and even after the people had eaten all they could hold, there still were left twelve big basketsful of leftovers of the five buns.
            Seeing him do such a tremendous thing, the people said, "There’s no doubt about it, this is God’s Man for the world!" And when Jesus realized that they were planning to draft him for governor, he checked out of there and again went into the mountain alone.

16.       About sundown the students went down to the sea, got in a boat, and headed back toward Savannah. It had already gotten dark, and still Jesus hadn’t joined them. A strong wind was blowing, causing the sea to swell. When they were three or four miles out, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat, and it just about scared their pants off. "Hey, it’s me!" he shouted. "Y’all stop being so scared." Well, they did agree to take him on board, and that quick the boat was at the land they were heading toward.

22.       Next morning the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea noticed that only one little boat was left there. They knew that Jesus had not left in the boat with his students, but that they had gone away by themselves. However, some small boats from Tybee Island were near the spot where they had eaten the buns that Jesus had blessed. So when the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his students were there, they clambered aboard the boats and went to Savannah looking for Jesus. Upon finding him over there they said, "Reverend, how did you get here?"
            Jesus replied, "It’s as clear as day that you are looking me up not because you’re reading my signs hut because you got your bellies full of buns. Don’t busy yourselves with groceries but with the food that nourishes spiritual life, which the son of man will give you." (The Father-God authorized him to do this.)
            So they asked him, "What shall we do to busy ourselves with God’s business?"
            Jesus answered, "God’s business is this: that you live by him whom he sent."
            Then they said, "Well, what evidence are you presenting that we can examine and that will cause us to trust you? What are you offering? Our ancestors, you know, were supplied with free food while they were in the desert, just as the Scripture says, ‘He gave them bread from on high.’"
            Jesus told them, "No, I’m telling you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from on high: however, my Father does give you the real bread from on high; God’s ‘loaf’ is the one who comes down from on high and gives the world life."
            "Mister," they responded, "evermore load us up with this bread."
            And Jesus said, "I, I am the ‘loaf’ of life. The man who takes my route will never go hungry, and the one who bases his life on mine will never stay thirsty.

36.       "But as I told you, you have looked and still you aren’t leaping. I’ll take all that the Father gives me, and will by no means cast aside anyone who takes my route. I haven’t come down from on high just to carry out my own desire but that of him who sent me. And what is his desire? That I should not let a single one of those he gave me slip through my fingers, but that I should give them newness of life in the final hour. It is also my Father’s desire that everyone who really looks at the Son and takes the leap with him should have spiritual life, and I myself will make him new in the final hour."

41.       Then the church people raised a stink because he said, "I myself am the ‘loaf’ that came down from on high." They said, "Why, isn’t this old Joe’s boy? Don’t we ourselves know his mama and daddy? How come he now claims that ‘I have come down from on high’?"
            Jesus replied, "Y’all quit your bellyaching. Nobody can go with me unless the Father, who sent me, attracts him. And I’ll make him new in the final hour. The Bible says, ‘And all will be God-taught.’ Anyone who listens and learns from the Father comes my way. It’s not that a person has actually seen God. Only the One who is from the Father has done that. I truly tell you that he who lives his faith has spiritual life. I repeat, I myself am the ‘loaf of the life. Your ancestors did eat the free food in the desert—and they died! But this loaf has come down from on high so that a person might eat from it and not die. I am indeed the live loaf that came down from on high. If one eats from this loaf, he’ll be alive in the new age. Now the loaf that I’ll give for the life of the world is my own flesh."

52.       Then the church people got into a big hassle with one another over this. "How can this cat give us his flesh to eat?" they asked.
            So Jesus told them, "I want to make it clear to you that unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the son of man, you’ll have no inner life. He who feasts on my flesh and drinks my blood has spiritual life, and I’ll make him new in the final hour. My flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. He who feasts on my flesh and drinks my blood lives on in me and I in him. Even as the living Father sent me, so does he sustain me. And the one who feasts on me will also he sustained by me. This, I say, is the ‘loaf’ that descended from on high. It is not like that which your ancestors ate and then passed on. He who feasts on this loaf will be alive in the new age." These words were spoken while he was teaching in the church at Savannah.

60.       Well, upon hearing all this a good number of his students said, "This lesson is mighty hard to swallow. Who can take it?"
            When Jesus realized that his students were griping about this, he said to them, "Does this gag you? What if you should see the son of man ascending to his former position? Listen, it is the spirit that makes a man alive; the body does nothing for him. It is spirit and life that I’ve been talking to you about, but some of you still don’t go for it!" (Jesus knew all along who the ones were that would not go for it, and even who the person was that would turn him in.) He continued, "That’s why I told you that nobody could come my way unless he were motivated by the Father."

66.       At this point a lot of his students called it quits and dropped out. So Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you too want to leave ?" "Sir," said Rock, "to whom shall we turn? You have the words of spiritual life. Besides, we have confidence and knowledge that you are God’s special One." Jesus said to them, "Didn’t I pick you twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?" (He was referring to Simon Iscariot’s son, Judas, since he—one of the twelve—was on the verge of turning him in.)

1.         Following this, Jesus went on a tour of Alabama. He had no desire to tour Georgia, because the good white folks there were trying to kill him. There was a big revival going on in Atlanta, so Jesus’ brothers said to him, "Say, why don’t you pull out of here and go to Georgia so that all your cronies might keep up with your program. You know, nobody hides his light under a bushel if he wants to be well known. If you’re so great, the whole world ought to know about it." (Even his own brothers had no faith in him.) So Jesus said to them, "My day isn’t here yet, but your day is always handy. The world doesn’t have the heart to hate you, but it does hate me because I show it up for what it is—and it stinks. So y’all run along to the revival. I’m not going to that revival, because my day just hasn’t arrived." Having said this, he stayed on in Alabama.

10.       But when his brothers actually did go to the revival, then Jesus went too, but secretly and not openly. The good white folks were trying to find him at the revival and were asking, "Where is that guy?" Quite an argument broke out among the crowd. Some said, "He’s great." Others said, "Naw, he’s an outside agitator." But nobody would express himself freely about him, because they were afraid of one another.

14.       When the revival was about half over, Jesus went up to First Church and began teaching. The people were really amazed by him. "How can this guy be so educated without going to college?" they wondered.
            Jesus replied, "I am not a self-educated man; my instruction came from him who sent me. If anybody truly wants to do God’s will, he will be convinced as to whether this instruction is from God or whether I trumped it up myself. When a man spouts his own ideas, he is trying to get credit for himself. But when one seeks the credit of his sender, then he is honest and above board. Look, you’ve been given the Bible, haven’t you? But not a one of you lives by it! So why are you trying to kill me?"
            The crowd answered, "You’re crazy in the bead; who’s trying to kill you?"
            "Just because I did some work on a Sunday you’re all in a tizzy. All right, now listen. The Bible tells you to baptize—well, not exactly, but it is a Christian tradition—and you have no qualms about baptizing on a Sunday. If you break the Sabbath just to baptize a man, why are you bitching about my making a man well on the Sabbath? Don’t hold to opinions because they’re popular but because they’re right."

23.       Then some of the Atlantans said, "Isn’t this the fellow they’re trying to lynch? Well, what do you know, there he is preaching in public! Do you reckon the Establishment honestly believes that this cat is the Leader? Of course, where the Leader comes from nobody knows, but we do know where this man s from."

28.       So while Jesus was teaching in the church he lowered the boom on them: "Okay, you know me and where I’m from. Yet you don’t know the True One who sent me, or that I’m not on a mission of my own. I do know him, because I am from him and he sent me.

30.       They set in to trap him, but nobody laid a finger on him because it wasn’t yet his day. But on the other hand, a considerable number did come over to his side. "Suppose our great Leader should arise," they reasoned; "would he be able to do anything this man isn’t doing?"

32.       When the church people heard that his poll rating was rising, they got together with their officials and sent some hoods to rough him up. Then Jesus said, "I’ll be with you a little while longer, and then I’m going to him who sent me. You’ll look for me but won’t find me, because I’ll be where you can’t come. The good white folks said to one another, "Where do you reckon he’ll be going that we can’t find him? Does he plan to go to the black ghettos and teach the blacks? What did he mean when he said, ‘You’ll look for me and won’t find me, and I’ll be where you can’t come’?"

37.       On the big day at the close of the revival, Jesus got up and shouted, "If anyone is thirsting, let him come to me and drink. From the heart of the man who lives, my life will flow, as the Bible says, floods of life-giving water." (He was referring to the Spirit, which those who live his life were to receive. There was not yet a Spirit because Jesus still hadn’t brought things to a climax.)

40.       The crowd’s reaction to his message varied. Some said, "There’s no doubt about it; this is the Man of God." Others agreed, "He is the heaven-sent Leader." But some weren’t so sure, "The heaven-sent Leader isn’t a hillbilly, is he? Doesn’t the Bible predict that he’ll come from an old-line family in south Georgia?" So the crowd was split over him. Some of them even wanted to lynch him, but nobody put their cotton-pickin’ hands on him.

45.       Well, the hoods went back to the religious people who had sent them, and were asked, "Why didn’t you tend to him?" The hoods replied, "There ain’t never been a cat that talks like that cat." The church people answered, "Have you too been duped? Have any important people or church members come over to him? But this ragtag and bobtail, who don’t understand the Bible, are going to hell." Nicodemus, who was one of them and who had previously come to Jesus, asked them, "Does our Bible condemn a man without letting him state his case or inquiring into what he is doing?" They hushed him up, saying, "So you’re a hillbilly too, huh? Look it up for yourself and you’ll see that no hillbilly was ever a man of God." They stalked out and went home.

1.         Then Jesus went out to Peach Orchard Hill.⁵   Early next morning he returned to First Church, where a crowd gathered and he began teaching them. Then some preachers and members of the official board led in a lady caught having sex with someone she wasn’t married to. They stood her up front and said to Jesus, "Professor, this woman was caught in the act of extramarital sex. Now our Bible specifically condemns such an act. What do you say about it?" (They were trying to frame him so they would have something to charge him with.) Jesus looked down and wrote in the sand with his finger. And when they kept on pestering him, he glanced up and said, "Okay, let the man whose heart is pure lead off." He looked down again and kept writing in the sand. They got the point and, beginning with the elders, they sneaked out one by one, until only Jesus was left with the lady standing in front of him. He looked up and said to her, "Where did they all go, ma’am? Didn’t anybody condemn you?" She said, "Not a soul, sir." Jesus said, "Well, I surely don’t condemn you. Run along now, and don’t do it again."

12.       Once more Jesus was telling people, "I am the light of the world. He who lets me lead him will never stumble in the dark, but will have life’s light."
            The church people said to him, "Now you’re blowing your own horn. What you’re saying just isn’t so."
            "All right," Jesus answered, "even if I am blowing my own horn, I’m telling the truth, because I know where I came from and where I’m going. But you all know neither of these things about me. You measure by human standards; I don’t measure anybody. But even if I should measure a man, I would do so honestly, because I wouldn’t do it alone but with him who sent me. Even in your Bible it says that the evidence of two witnesses is reliable. Now, I’m testifying in my own behalf, and the Father who sent me is also testifying for me."
            "‘Where is your father?" they asked.
            "You don’t understand me," he answered, "and you don’t understand my Father. If you had understood me, you would have understood my Father." This discussion took place while Jesus was teaching in the church basement. And nobody arrested him because it just wasn’t his day yet.

21.       Again Jesus told them, "I’m leaving and you’ll look for me, and you’ll rot in your mess. You can’t come where I’m going."
            The good white folks said, "Do you reckon he’s considering suicide—talking about ‘you can’t come where I’m going’?"
            He replied, "Y’all take the human point of view; I, the divine. You belong to the old order; I don’t. That’s why I told you that you would rot in your mess. And rot in your mess you will unless you wake up to who I am."
            "Who are you?" they asked.
            "I am what I’ve been telling you all along. I have many things about you to tell and discuss, He who sent me is for real, and I am repeating in the world what I’ve heard from him." (They still didn’t understand that be was talking to them about the Father.) "When you respect the son of man, then you will know who I am and that I do nothing on my own. I speak only the things my Father taught me. And he who sent me backs me up and doesn’t leave me alone, because I am always engaged in the things he wants."

30.       These words convinced many to come over to him. So Jesus said to the good white folks who had come over to him, "If y’all stick by what I’ve said, you are honest followers of mine. You’ll understand the truth, and the truth will liberate you.
            They responded, "But we are blue-blooded white folks, and have never been anybody’s slave. Why, then, are you telling us, ‘You’ll be liberated’?"
            Jesus answered, "Everyone who is addicted to sin is sin’s slave. Now the slave never lives in ‘the big house’: the free-born son lives there. So then, if the Son liberates you, you are genuinely liberated. I know that you are blue-blooded white folks, but just the same you’re trying to do me in because my ideas don’t appeal to you. I’m preaching what I’ve actually seen from the Father; but you, you’re practicing what you’ve heard from your father."
            "Our father was the original white man," they retorted.
            "If indeed you are sons of the original white man, you would act like it. But here you are trying to lynch me. a man who has told you the truth that I got from the Father. A really good white man would never stoop to that. Yes, you’re behaving like your father’s children all right."
            "We aren’t bastards," they said. "The One God is our Father."
            "If God were truly your Father," Jesus said, "you would love me, for God sent me and that’s why I’m here. I haven’t come simply of my own accord; God sent me. What’s the matter? Aren’t you catching on to what I’m saying? Perhaps it’s because you can’t take my ideas. You fellows are the sons of your daddy, the Confuser, and you are determined to carry out your daddy's desires. Well, your daddy has always been a man-killer, and has never sided with the truth, because there’s no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he is simply repeating himself, because he’s a liar and the daddy of liars. But when I tell you the truth you don’t believe me. Can any of you prove me guilty of any wrongdoing? Okay, if I’m shooting straight, why don’t you believe me? When a man is rooted in God, he pays attention to what God says. Since you don’t pay attention, it is clear that you’re not rooted in God."

48.       The good white folks said, "We sure hit the nail on the head when we said that you are a nigger and are full of the Confuser." Jesus replied, "I am not full of the Confuser, but I do respect my Father, even though you all disrespect me. I’m not concerned about making a name for myself; however, there is One who is concerned about his name and has the final say-so. I tell you for a fact that if a person latches onto my idea, be will surely be immortal."

52.       The good white folks shouted at him, "Now we’re positively sure that you’re full of the Confuser, Look, both the founder of our church and the old-time men of God passed away, yet you are saying, ‘If a person latches onto my idea, he will surely be immortal.’ Do you think you’re greater than the noble founder of our church? Well, he died, as did the other church fathers. So what do you make of yourself?"

54.       Jesus answered, "If I okay myself, my okay is no good. The one who okays me is my Father, who you claim is your God. But you have no knowledge of him. I do, though, and even if I said I didn’t, I’d only be a liar like you. I truly do know him and I carry out his idea. Abraham, the founder of your church, was tickled pink that he should catch a glimpse of my rule—and he did see it and was delighted."
            The good white folks said to him, "So you’ve seen Abraham even though you’re not yet fifty?"
            To this Jesus replied, "I existed before Abraham was born."
            They picked up rocks to throw at Jesus, but he hid and then ducked out of the church.

footnotes

¹  ‘Or, son of John, or John’s son; hence, Johnson.

2  ‘The Greek word here means to draw water from a well with a bucket. The same word is used in John 4:7: "A woman from Samaria came to draw (or bucket up) water." Obviously, then, the servants got the water for the emcee from the same source as they got water to fill the jars—from the well. The well turned to wine, not the water in the stone jars. The same well which supplied the water to fill full, or fulfill, the jars (the Mosaic laws), now supplies the good wine which delights the emcee. This first "sign" perhaps points to the fact that the same God (the well) who gave the law on Sinai, now fulfills it by giving grace (the wine as a symbol of shed blood) on Calvary. Men taste of law and say. "It’s good," but they taste of grace and say, "You’ve saved the best till last."

³ There is a play on words here, since the same Greek word can mean either wind or spirit.

⁴  See Numbers 21:4—9.

⁵  Verses 1—11 of this chapter are not supported by the most reliable manuscripts as part of the original text. The story is so moving, however, that I am including it anyway.

©1970 by Florence Jordan. Used by permission of Koinonia Partners
This translation by Dr. Jordan is based on the Nestle-Aland Greek text, twenty third edition (1957).

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