Empowering the Reconstructors
Reconstructing from Weakness, Part 2
This is my second letter to in our series exploring faith reconstruction. In case you missed it, see his first letter, my first letter, and his second letter.
Dear Daniel,
My first letter demonstrated how deconstruction unto reconstruction is a central motif in John’s Gospel. In shorthand, razing the household of God. My purpose in showing John’s vision was to give a framework for how I have come to see my own story incorporated into the temple destruction and construction of Jesus. Just as Jesus is the consecrated Son of the Father sent for Temple re-dedication and cleansing (10:36), so too I have been sent and consecrated to be a part of his new Temple (17:17, 19). While we typically understand Jesus’ words in John 17 as a generic reference to Christian mission1, the language of consecration in 17:19 echoes 10:362, which is itself an allusion to the Maccabean temple rededication in 164/163 BC. This pulls forward the deconstruction/reconstruction imagery in 1 Maccabees 4:41-58 to continue the programatic paradigm of “destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). Here are just a few verses:
Judas Maccabeus “chose blameless priests” who “cleansed the sanctuary and removed the defiled stones” (1 Macc 4:42). They “tore down the altar”3 (1 Macc 4:45; cf 1:54). “Then they took unhewn stones, as the law directs, and built a new altar like the former one. They also rebuilt the sanctuary and the interior of the temple, and consecrated the courts” (1 Macc 4:47-48).
Consecrated is hagiazō, the same word Jesus used three times in John 17:17 and 19. The figural allusion allows us to see Jesus sending his disciples into the world to do the same temple cleansing, rebuilding, and re-dedicating work that Jesus did, of which the Maccabees is an imperfect shadow.4 And this brings out a crucial component of John’s vision for reconstruction: agency. Jesus-authorized and Spirit-enabled agency is the “how” of razing the household of God. It’s important to explore this in detail to complete the foundation for exploring the concrete “what” in my personal reconstruction story.
The Agent Christ and His Agent Disciples
Agency is a crucial foundational element in any reconstruction project.
If only project managers, site supervisors, and architects have the right and power to construct a building, how does the job get done? The work requires construction workers, and by definition managers, supervisors and architects don’t do the actual construction.
One recurring theme in deconstruction stories is the dissatisfaction with, and often wounds from, a clear boundary between construction supervisors (i.e. pastors and elders) and laborers (i.e. lay Christians who do the grunt labor of laying stones). In many cases that clergy/laity boundary is, consciously or not, an image of the Creator/creature distinction, with clergy on the side of the Creator, and laity (women especially) on the side of the creature.5
But that is not the Scriptural model. Ephesians—which has many affinities with John—makes this clear:
“And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, [12] to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12).
However, John develops a noticeably different vision from how we are used to reading Paul in Ephesians. The Johannine Jesus didn’t give “some” to be apostles. Instead, any disciple who does the will of Jesus is an apostle:
“Truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger [apostolos] is not greater than the one who sent him. [17] If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them” (John 13:16-17).
This is the only instance of “apostle” in John, and it refers to all disciples, in contrast to the Synoptic gospels where it refers to the original twelve apostles.6 When Jesus commissioned the disciples after his resurrection, John explicitly notes that Thomas, one of “the twelve,” was not present (20:24). Given the prominence of women throughout all of John—and especially Mary Magdalene in John 20—we are meant to see Jesus’ commission being given to all disciples rather than a hierarchical male group of foundational leaders. So, Jesus’ words, “As the Father has sent [apastelken] me, I also send [pempō] you” (20:21) connect the apostleship of Jesus to the apostleship of all the brothers and sisters of Jesus (20:17).7
We see this egalitarian apostleship in the empowerment for acquiring wisdom.
Harry Potter, Dumbledore, and Jesus Sophia
I just finished re-reading Harry Potter for the third time.8 A recurring theme throughout the series that gets intensified in the last book, The Deathly Hallows, is the epistemological empowerment of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They want sure knowledge, clear answers, and specific instructions, but they are repeatedly thrown back on Dumbledore’s vague symbolic wisdom. In his last will and testament, Dumbledore bequeaths three items: to Hermione, a book of wizarding fairy tales; for Ron, Dumbledore’s custom-made Deluminator; and for Harry, the first golden snitch he caught.
What was Dumbledore thinking? Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgour was convinced that these were coded messages from Dumbledore, and he pressured the three friends to decode them. But they were clueless. Jesus’ farewell words to his clueless disciples would have rung true for Harry: “I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech” (John 16:25). Eventually Harry learns that Dumbledore wanted them to figure out for themselves the way and means of defeating Voldemort. At one point, when Ron rescues Harry from a frozen lake and secures the sword of Gryffindor, Harry insists that Ron be the one to use the sword to destroy the Salazar Slytherin locket-horcrux. Harry couldn’t explain how he knew this; he just knew. Dumbledore’s symbols and figures and unclear clues trained Harry in wisdom, that is, being a “wise one,” a wizard. This intersects with John through the central image of sophia, the Greek word for wisdom in the Septuagint and Second Temple wisdom literature. Just as Jesus is Logos (1:14), he is also Sophia through and with whom God created all things (John 1:3; Proverbs 8:22-31). Like Lady Wisdom, Jesus speaks in figures (10:6; 16:29), and he empowers disciples with the Spirit of Truth (16:13) so that they can meditatively remember his words and figure out their meaning.
Put in philosophical terms, there is an epistemological strategy here. This is one of the more direct connections between John and deconstruction, in the Gospel’s interest in what and how we know. In John, knowledge is always a verb, something one does (or does not), rather than something one possesses. So we might be better to speak of knowing instead of knowledge.9 In John, knowing is not abstract, secret, or reserved for a privileged few. Knowing is relational and comes by way of relational revelation: “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent—Jesus Christ” (17:3). But that doesn’t mean knowing is always straightforward.
John’s epistemology connects with other narrative strategies to facilitate wrestling for deeper understanding. We see this most clearly in the many episodes of characters who misunderstand Jesus. Nicodemus is the classic example: he starts with a claim of knowledge, saying “we know that you [Jesus] are a teacher who has come from God” (3:2). But then he misunderstands Jesus and asks if a man must re-enter his mother’s womb (3:4). Though he himself is a teacher, Jesus marvels that Nicodemus doesn’t know these things (3:10).
This pattern of misunderstanding pervades John.10 But unlike Nicodemus, who starts with what he knows, wise disciples start with what they don’t know, which prepares them for seeing the truth of Jesus.11 Discipleship is marked by moving from admitted not-knowing into true knowing, whereas those in and of the world (especially the world of ideological religion like Nicodemus) cling onto what they think they know, which just exposes how much they really don’t know.
Collective Remembering
Time to try and bring these observations together. As I have suggested, the temple scene of John 2:13-25 is hypodigmatic, providing a substructure pattern for the missions of Son and Spirit to both raze and raise the temple-household of God. To understand how this hypodigm (ie paradigm) continues in the disciple community after Jesus’ resurrection, it is crucial to see the role that remembering played for the temple cleansing. Twice John the narrator intrudes into the story to explain that Jesus’ disciples remembered the event in light of remembered Scripture (2:17) and the remembered logos of Jesus (2:22; cf 12:16; 15:20; 16:4). While it is certainly true, historically speaking, that the twelve apostles were foundational for this re-interpretive remembering (eg Eph 2:20), John goes to great lengths to show how that remembering is the work of all followers of Jesus. All disciples are equally empowered by the illuminating Spirit who “will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (14:26).12
Harry didn’t figure out the meaning of Dumbledore’s gifts on his own. He needed the collective wisdom of his trusted friends Ron and Hermione, who approached wisdom in rather different ways. Ron’s choice to follow the Deluminator’s light back to his two friends was intuitive, whereas Hermione consistently uses her more scientific knowing method by tracking down the various references to the deathly hallows symbol. Ron’s story is worth repeating, as it’s a perfect echo of what I’m talking about. He explains how he managed to find Harry and Hermione after leaving them in a moment of exasperation.
“[The Deluminator] doesn’t just turn the lights on and off,” said Ron. “I don’t know how it works. . . . But I was listening to the radio really early on Christmas morning and. . . . I heard you coming out of my pocket. Your [Hermione’s] voice,” he held up the Deluminator again, “came out of this. . . . So I took it out,” Ron went on, looking at the Deluminator, “and it didn’t seem different or anything, but I was sure I’d heard you. So I clicked it. And the light went out in my room [symbolic not-knowing], but another light appeared [symbolic re-knowing] right outside the window. . . . It was a ball of light, kind of pulsing, and bluish, like that light you get around a Portkey, you know? . . . . I knew this was it. . . . The little ball of light was hovering there, waiting for me, and when I came out it bobbed along a bit and I followed it behind the shed and then it…well, it went inside me. . . . It sort of floated toward me. . . . Right to my chest, and then — it just went straight through. It was here,” he touched a point close to his heart, “I could feel it, it was hot. And once it was inside me I knew what I was supposed to do, I knew it would take me where I needed to go.”13
This has been my de/reconstruction journey. Like those three friends, my growth in wisdom and knowing didn’t happen in the classroom. It happened in the crisis, on the run.14 I have been surrounding by a handful of friends who have shared in my crisis, or a similar crisis of their own. But like Harry, the sense of isolation (not to mention persecution) has always been near the surface. The crisis and isolation have driven me to continual re-reading and re-membering of Jesus’ words and John’s symbolic testimony to the life of Jesus. And I have found and can testify that the words of Jesus are Spirit and life (John 6:63); that by believing I have life in his name (John 20:31); and that that name speaks sure hope of an ever-new razed/raised temple-household of God (John 2:19).
Thank you for your patience in following along with this lengthy two-part explanation of John’s scaffolding structure and rebuilding strategy. Next time I’ll move on to more concrete de/reconstruction examples from my own journey.
Until then, I remain your friend,
Aaron
Quote from Adrienne von Speyr
After the Resurrection, the Disciples remember these words and believe [John 2:22]. Did they not believe before this? Yes, but men do not believe once for all. We need remembrance, encouragement, stimulation from outside. Remembrance is recollection and enablement of constant construction. The Disciples are actively occupied in being disciples, but they need to understand this discipleship in an ever-new way through contemplation…[R]emembrance not as nostalgic reminiscence but as a living stone fitted into the building and originating new life.15
Missio being the Latin word for “sending.”
10:36 “do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’”? (RSV)
17:17 “And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they may also be consecrated in truth” (RSV).
That is, the profane altar which Antiochus Epiphanes IV had placed on top of the Jerusalem temple altar.
See Following Jesus while Walking away from Oppressive Holy Days for this Maccabees allusion in greater detail and in the context of reforming church liturgy.
Though we can see similar apostolic inclusivity elsewhere in the NT, eg Luke 10:1-23; Rom 16:7.
“The Apostle of the Father now appoints his own apostles: They are now the ones to carry on the mission” (McIlhone, “Jesus as God’s Agent in the Fourth Gospel,” 311, quoted in Dustin Smith, “The Jewish Principle of Agency in the Gospel According to John,” 13.
Side note: learning how to re-read John with the tools of narrative criticism has deepened my reading of fiction. There are a surprising number of similar tropes and plot devices between John’s Gospel and Harry Potter. Eg, I believe the original audience of John would find in Severus Snape a resemblance to John’s characterization of Simon Peter who is repeatedly juxtaposed alongside Judas and Jesus, just as Snape is repeatedly juxtaposed alongside Voldemort and Dumbledore. Readers of John must ask “Who really has Peter’s allegiance?” just like readers of Harry Potter ask “Who has Snape’s allegiance?”
Taking John and 1 John together, and the two common words for knowing, ginōskō and eidō, John references knowledge 181 times (33.6% of all NT uses). The significance of knowing in John also includes the metaphorical use of senses as a means of knowing God, eg seeing Jesus’ glory (1:14), hearing the sound of the Spirit (3:8), etc.
D.A. Carson lists 64 instances of misunderstanding (“Understanding Misunderstandings in the Fourth Gospel,” Tyndale Bulletin 93 [1982]). As Francis Moloney puts it, “When characters in the story say ‘we know’ there is almost always a shock in store for them. Their ‘knowledge’ must be transformed if they hope to understand the God revealed by the Jesus of the Gospel of John (see, for example, 3:2; 4:25; 6:42; 7:27; 9:20, 24, 29, 31; 11:49; 16:30) (The Living Voice of the Gospels, 238).
For just two examples, see John the Baptist, 1:31, 33; and Mary Magdalene, 20:2, 13.
I love
’s translation here: “The Illuminator, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, that one will teach you all things and will remember all things for you that I said to you.”Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, 383-385.
Much like the spiritual eyes of the man born blind were opened through his crisis encounter with the oppressive religious authorities. Cf 9:34, Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment [crisis], in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind."
Adrienne von Speyr, The Word Becomes Flesh: Meditations on John 1-5, 180-181, emphasis added.
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