Decades since he spent three years of his young life following Jesus on foot and witnessing with his own eyes the most extraordinary man who ever walked the face of the earth. Decades since he saw Jesus crucified and raised and ascended into heaven. Decades since the Spirit fell like fire in Jerusalem and eventually thrust the apostles out to the nations and to martyrdom. When he writes, Jerusalem had fallen, the temple had been destroyed by the Romans, and his former life had been erased from the promised land.

One of the great ironies of the Gospel of John:

The Greek version of this gospel is on the level of “See spot run.” It’s some of the easiest and most basic Greek that you will read anywhere.

And yet, John fills these simple expressions with the most profound statements of Jesus’ identity and divine nature. It’s no wonder that the Nicene Creed is so indebted to the words of John’s Gospel.

As I have been preaching through this book, I have told our congregation that the Gospel of John is like an ocean. There are parts of it that are shallow enough for a toddler to splash around in complete safety. There are other parts you can swim and realize that you are floating over fathomless depths.

That is the Gospel of John. Profundity in the form of a first-grade reader.

Why did John write his Gospel so differently from the other three? I do not mean to suggest that John’s Gospel is “different” as in “contradictory.” It’s not that at all. Nevertheless, it is different in terms of it’s language and narrative framework. Why did John do this?

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