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The Third Sunday Of Easter
O God, whose blessed Son did manifest himself to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open, we pray thee, the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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The Third Sunday Of Easter
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Scripture citation(s): John 21:15-25
A Sermon by
Fr. Austin
on
John 21:15-25
✛
The World Could Not Hold All the Books of Jesus
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Alleluia. Christ is risen.
The final words of Saint John’s Gospel: There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written [Jn 21:25].
These words have troubled some commentators (so Raymond Brown, the great Johannine scholar, tells us), for they seem hyperbolic, perhaps even fantastically hyperbolic, and hyperbole is not truth. How can the Gospel end with a statement that isn’t true?
Other commentators, in response, have uncovered that the employment of “flamboyant hyperbole” (not a technical term, but it begins to feel like one) “was a well-accepted literary convention of the times, both in Gentile and Jewish literature” [Brown, John, 1130]. Brown gives examples. A particularly nice one is ascribed to Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai (from around A.D. 80, thus more or less contemporaneous with the New Testament). The rabbi is said to have said: “If all the heavens were sheets of paper, and all the trees were pens for writing, and all the seas were ink, that would not suffice to write down the wisdom I have received from my teachers; and yet I have taken no more from the wisdom of the sages than a fly does when it dips into the sea and bears away a tiny drop” [Brown, ibid.]. That does sound like “flamboyant hyperbole,” like saying if all the deeds of Jesus were written down the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.
So we might concede, Brown says, that the words of the final verse of John’s Gospel are “technically inexact” while having, in their historical context, good literary company. The hyperbole would point to the impossibility of fully “explain[ing] the significance of Jesus.”
+ + +
But I want to come at this another way. It seems to me that when John’s Gospel concludes as it does it sets before us a question. There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Do we agree? Do we indeed think that we could never finish writing (or for that matter, reading or hearing) the many things that Jesus did?
It is a question of faith. Do I think it is possible to be finished with Jesus? “I’ve heard it all. There’s nothing more to learn.” Is that it? I think not, and here’s why.
First: for any human being, all the books in the world could not completely account for that human being’s life. If you have ever kept a diary or journal, you know first hand the impossibility of writing down everything that happens in a given day. Diaries must be selective. Only a few events can be recorded; only a few thoughts and feelings about those events can be put to words. But suppose you were, for whatever reason, a person about whom there was a lot of interest. Then lots of people would be writing about you. Yet even if a hundred books were written, a thousand books, all of them together could not capture every deed of your life. It’s not only that they would have to omit mundane actions, for example, what you had for breakfast yesterday. There are also your emotions, your thoughts, all those depths of your soul which accompany every action you do: these things can never be fully put into words.
Which is to say: a person, a human being, is in a sense infinite. We are finite in terms of time and space. We come to be, we are conceived, there is a moment before which we did not exist. And we die, which is prima facie a terminus to our life, a moment after which we do not continue to exist (save by a special grace of God). Yet we are not finite within ourselves. This is the awesomeness of every human being, and it is, in my view, one key to understanding why every human being has dignity. There is something infinite about you, something inexhaustible within you.
And that means, your life cannot be put within the bounds, the binding, of any number of books. This is true for you, and for me, for every person; it is true for Jesus. All the books of the world could not contain any one of us.
Nevertheless, there is something further to be said about Jesus, something that is true of Jesus alone. Jesus is infinite also because he is God. And while some of the actions of God can be told, we cannot know all the actions of God. Creation, for instance, being the cause of being, is beyond reason’s grasp; it can only be pointed to, it cannot be understood. Salvation, being the cause of the reconciliation of human beings to God and to each other, to themselves, to the whole creation, salvation is beyond words, it can only be pointed to, it cannot be understood.
+ + +
And there’s more. If all the things which Jesus did were written . . . even the world itself could not contain the books. If Jesus is infinite with the infinity of God, then the ongoing actions of God may be thought of as the actions of Jesus. And that means that, not withstanding his resurrection and ascension to God’s right hand, the works of Jesus are still happening. Here are two quick, everyday examples.
When you pray, it is the Holy Spirit within you who is praying, and the Holy Spirit is the spirit of Jesus. So your every prayer is a work of Jesus. This is archetypally true when we pray “Our Father.” When we do that, it is an act of Jesus.
And here’s an example from ethics: When you offer forgiveness to someone who has hurt you, that proffered reconciliation is a work of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit within you who moves you to desire reconciliation with others, so that you might live in something more like friendship with them. And the Holy Spirit is the spirit of Jesus. So when you forgive someone—or indeed do any other Christian act—that is an act of Jesus.
And even if we could stuff every skyscraper in New York City full of the books of the acts of Jesus, they still could not contain everything that should be written!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
