Close to the Heart of God

Once you have read the opening paragraph of the Gospel according to John, it is hard to forget the majestic way in which we are introduced to Jesus of Nazareth. Listen with me to what we are told:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (1:1-4, NRSV)

John then tells us a little about John the baptizer – who saw in the “Word that was in the beginning, and with God and was God” the “true light” that was coming into the world. Later, in this same first chapter, we would hear John the prophet proclaiming a message of repentance throughout Judea declare, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (1:29)

You see this “Word” would become flesh and live among us for a while – showing us what God is like, what God created humans to be, and offering himself in sacrifice for our sins.

Of this reality, the Gospel of John would remind us “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” (1:18)

I’m especially drawn to that phrase “who is close to the father’s heart.” A very literal translation would sound something like “who is in the bosom of the Father.” John’s word was used in his world “to denote the closet possible relationship” and was often used in the context of meals. It was also used by Luke to describe the eternal destiny of the poor man in the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, who upon death, went “to the bosom of Abraham.”

Fast forward about three years or so, and Jesus is with His disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem, just hours before His betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion. John begins to tell that story in John 13, but oddly enough doesn’t mention what all three of the Synoptic Gospels mention – the institution of the Lord’s Supper. But there is little doubt that somewhere in the narrative of John 13, the Lord’s Supper was celebrated with His disciples.

The word nerd in me noticed not long ago that in describing the events of that evening, we are told by the narrator that “One of his disciples – the one whom Jesus loved – was reclining next to him.” (13:23) You can’t see this at all in English translations like the NRSV, but the truth is that John uses the very same word to describe this relationship with Jesus, as he uses in chapter one to describe Jesus’ relationship to the Father. This disciple, likely John himself, is “reclining on the bosom of Jesus.”

As Ben Witherington suggests, “the suggestion is that the Beloved Disciple stands in an analogous relationship to Jesus as Jesus has with the Father. In other words, the gospel is the personal and eyewitness testimony of one who was close to the heart of Jesus.” (Making a Meal of It, 84)

What if – just thinking here – that in our moments of “reclining around the Lord’s Table,” we thought more about the idea that in ways not that dissimilar to the Son’s relationship to the Father, in our relationship to God through Jesus, we rest “on the bosom of Jesus.” Just wondering.