"There's an illustration of agency, and of the difference between the way John and his opponents view Jesus, that I sometimes use when teaching on this subject. Have most of you seen the film The Mask of Zorro? In one scene, the prison guard comes into the prison and asks whether any of the prisoners there is or has ever been the masked man, Zorro. One after another, prisoners start shouting "I'm Zorro", "I am Zorro". This is the sort of claim that John's Jewish opponents think Jesus is making. They accuse him of being mad, of having a demon. They are convinced that there is no way that he could really be the Messiah, God's chosen agent, and so they view him as being like one of these prisoners, who is making claims about himself that are untrue and unjustified, and perhaps even a bit crazy. On the other hand, later in the film Antonio Banderas' character is taught by Zorro, learns his techniques, and his aims become one with the original Zorro's aims. So when he appears on the scene, wearing the mask of Zorro, doing the work of Zorro, there is a real sense in which one can legitimately say that he now is Zorro. This is not completely unlike the way the author of the Fourth Gospel views Jesus. The point John makes again and again is that, as God's Word become flesh, as the Messiah, as one who stands in a Father-Son relationship with God and fully represents God's will as God's appointed agent, Jesus does not 'make himself' or 'make himself out to be' anything. Rather, he is the one whom God the Father has sent, and this is how Jesus is described throughout John's Gospel. As God's true, even supreme agent, he not only bears and expresses God's full authority, but he can even be called by the name of him who sent him, and thus Jesus in John is called 'Lord', 'God' and 'I am'. But he bears these names precisely as God's agent, and thus Jesus is presented in John 8:28-29 as saying "…then you will know that I am, and that I do nothing of my own accord. What I say is what the Father has taught me. He who sent me is with me, and has not left me by myself, for I always do what pleases him". Jesus in John is not a rival to God. He is God's obedient Son and agent. He is the Messiah, the Son of Man, the Word, presented in Jewish categories to answer Jewish objections raised to the beliefs that this Gospel's author and his community held dear. It was this context of conflict, it seems, that was a key, determining factor, which led the author of the Fourth Gospel to present Jesus in the manner that he did. John's development of themes that were present in earlier Christian literature, which viewed Jesus as embodying God's Wisdom and Spirit, and as God's obedient Son, led to this portrait of Jesus as God's unique agent, one who has unique authority precisely because he is uniquely obedient, and who conversely is uniquely obedient precisely
because he is the unique agent, the Word become flesh. None of these ideas is wholly absent from all earlier Christian literature, and they have their roots in Jewish thought. What is unique in John is
the way they are configured and developed. I am convinced that the Fourth Evangelist made these distinctive developments precisely in order to counter the sort of Jewish objections we have just looked at. Non-Christian Jews had objected that Jesus is making himself out to be the Son of God and even God. John answers these objections by emphasizing that Jesus does not do or say anything of himself. He thus does not fit their paradigm for understanding him: Jesus does not look like a glory seeker in the least, because he consistently turns the focus away from himself to the Father who sent him. Yet as God's unique agent, as the Word become flesh, he has an authority that is like that of no other, do speak and act on his Father's behalf."
Hugo also wrote:
"A Rebellious Son? Hugo Odeberg and the Interpretation of John 5.18",
NTS 44 (1998) 470-473.
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