How God Expresses His Love for UsSýnishorn

Jesus, the Stairway to Heaven

God’s Story

God gives John masterful language to share about Jesus.

Jesus, the Word, has always been with God and is God. Now the Word has put on skin and come to live among us, shining light in the world’s darkness. Most of the world won’t recognize him, but anyone who believes in him will become a child of God.

John the Baptist precedes Jesus and clearly explains to the alarmed religious leaders that he is not the Messiah. God tells John the Baptist that the man on whom the Spirit descends when he is being baptized is the Messiah. Jesus comes, the Spirit descends on him as a dove, and John testifies that Jesus is the Messiah. John’s disciple Andrew begins to follow Jesus and recruits his brother Peter too. Philip and Nathanael soon follow.

Jesus compassionately saves the host of a wedding from social embarrassment by turning water into high-quality wine. Later, he goes to the temple, overturning the tables of the merchants there. It is a corrupt place, a mockery of his Father’s name. When challenged about his authority to clear out the temple, Jesus cryptically refers to his death and his resurrection. The people don’t understand that he is the true temple, the real mediation place between God and people.

The King’s Heart

When Jesus called Nathanael to be his disciple, Nathanael was impressed because Jesus knew that earlier Nathanael had been sitting under a fig tree. But Jesus told him, “You will see ‘heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man” (John 1:51). Jesus was referencing the stairway connecting heaven and earth that Jacob saw in his dream — at a place he named Bethel, which means “house of God” (see Genesis 28:11 – 19). Jesus was implying that he is the place where heaven and earth link.

“Keep walking with me, Nathanael,” Jesus was saying, “and you’ll see what it’s like for heaven to be opened on earth.” And Jesus is true to his word. As he walks through the world, he ushers in the wonderful things of God’s kingdom — wholeness, healing, justice, truth. The good King is bringing his goodness to earth.

Insight

John begins his gospel with the words “In the beginning” — the same words used in Genesis when God created the world. He wants his readers to know this story is about the Creator working in a new way in the creation he loves so much. Through Jesus, he is once more saying, “Let there be light!”