I AM THE WAY
John’s
Gospel is famous for its ‘I am’ sayings. ‘ I am the way, the truth and the
life,’ is a typical example but there are normally considered to be six others:
‘I am the light of the world,’ ‘I am the bread of life,’ ‘I am the door,’ ‘I am
the good shepherd,’ ‘I am the true vine, and ‘I am the resurrection and the
life.’ These are characteristic of John’s gospel and do not occur in the other
three. Are they genuine? Did Jesus actually utter these words? The use of the
‘I am’ expression also suggests echoes of the way God refers to himself. It
seems that in these statements Jesus is asserting something about his nature
and significance which does not fit with the way Jesus speaks in the other
Gospels.
In comparison to the way we hear Jesus speak in the Synoptic Gospels these
statements seem to have Jesus putting himself in a position supreme importance
and putting himself on a level with God himself. Jesus in the Synoptics is far
more modest and reverential to God. This big difference is one of the reasons
that many theologians have doubted the authenticity and position of John’s
Gospel.
How accurate are these reported sayings of Jesus? Did he really talk of himself
in this way or is this the interpretation that the author of John’s Gospel
wishes to give us?
Firstly, we need to recognise that these sayings are also really far more
different from each other than people often seem to appreciate. Likening
himself to a door, or a shepherd is a simple analogy which we can understand.
Light or bread are very familiar parts of our life although likening himself to
them requires more interpretation, but to say that he is the resurrection or
the way, truth and life require a much more complex understanding.
John’s gospel does not contain parables as we know them from the Synoptics and
one can imagine that the parts of John’s gospel which speak about keeping the
wolf out of the sheepfold, or the way a hired shepherd behaves might come from
parables that Jesus told. The Gospel writer then, instead of giving the parable
as such, gives the interpretation with the representation of Jesus as a door or
a shepherd.
We cannot possibly know in what context or in what precise words Jesus might
have expressed the ideas that form the more abstract of the ‘I am’ sayings. It
is interesting that in the conversation with the woman by the well in Samaria,
Jesus talks about himself in terms of living water but the words, ‘I am the
living water,’ are not there.
If John’s gospel has as its source a disciple very close to Jesus, who spent a
lot of time with him both listening to his teaching and in private conversation
then it may be that the author himself is not sure as to just what he heard
Jesus say, what is a paraphrase of what Jesus said or what he has come to understand.
I have explored these ideas further in my book, “Written for Faith”
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