Consider How You Hear

That's kind of the way that John writes. He makes mention of a concept and then he comes back to it, but he uses a different situation to draw on that, to draw on that concept, on that truth. But nonetheless, before us is another section, another portion of the gospel of John that is put here specifically, as John 20: 31 says, these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. So as I've mentioned in much of these early chapters, John is saying the same thing. He's just getting there by a different route, if you will. Different situation, different conversation, different confrontation. And Ritterboss gives us a good summary of this passage. He says, again and repeatedly, the main focus is the conflict over Jesus' true identity. That's why we read the entirety of the passage. True identity, an identity confirmed by Jesus himself in ever new pronouncements and misunderstood, doubted, and opposed by his hearers. And we'll also see in this text, which has come up before, something of a reversal that's been a pattern that we've observed in John. Reversals. A reversal here, really, in the courtroom. The other Gospels show forth the reality of Jesus on trial, which in one sense, He is, certainly. And He does go to trial. But in John's gospel accounts, in addition to Jesus on trial, we oftentimes see him flip the script. We see Jesus on trial, and then it's flipped to see the world on trial before God. Oftentimes it seems that John, the evangelist, turns our attention. it's almost like he steps out onto the play set and looks directly at you.