As the four Gospels testify, Jesus contends against hostile theological armies—against a multitude of enemies. They are often referred to as “scribes and Pharisees“. David, too—the witness to the Messiah a thousand years earlier in history—says: “LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me” – Psalm 3:1
When John, Jesus’ disciple, describes how the Lord Jesus applies a collective term to His adversaries, he writes “the world“. Nowhere else does the concept “world” appear in a negative sense as frequently as it does in the Gospel of John, compared to the other Gospels.
Can one imagine Christ as a digital “cross spider”?
Jesus and the world. The world and Jesus Christ.
In conflict.
In a state of dependence.
In battle, again and again.
Indeed, why should the sword—the sword of the Spirit—ever rest? – Isa. 34:5
The tragedy of the world’s relationship with Christ finds dramatic expression in the first chapter of the Gospel of John, in the tenth verse: “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not“
First: He co-exists with the world.
Second: the world is so deeply dependent on Him that it is said to have come into being through Him.
Third: the world does not want Him, through whom it came into being.
God loves the world. Yet the world hates the One whom God has sent: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” – John 3:16
How earnestly God, in His love, seeks to find something other than rejection from the world! “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” – John 3:17
The thought may have been there: “They will reverence my son” – Matt. 21:37
Here, there are evidently nuances in God’s relationship to the world—nuances that perhaps cannot be discerned except by a mind tested through experience – Hebr. 5:14. It was such experience that the prophet Ezekiel had to endure: “But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them” – Ezek. 3:25
Them… the world?
As John writes in his Gospel, the world came to be represented by specific categories among the Jews of that time. Nowhere else does the word “the Jews” appear in a negative sense as frequently as it does in the Gospel of John, compared to the other Gospels. Jewish festivals follow one another in the narrative of John’s Gospel, and Jesus and His disciples travel to Jerusalem several times as a result.
Jerusalem… the world?
“Then answered the Jews and said unto him…” – John 2:18
“Then said the Jews…” – John 2:20, etc.
It was certain groups among the Jews of that time who presented the most rejecting and ominous face of the “world” in the eyes of Jesus, and in the eyes of the apostles who followed Him-
“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” – John 3:19
Yet Christ, too, belongs to the world for a brief time. Christ Jesus, however, does not give the world a face; instead, He gives the world light.
At times, this undeniably makes a deep impression on … men:
“Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world‘” – John 6:14. Here, people appear who acknowledge Him—Jesus Christ. More or less fleetingly. More or less thoughtfully. Yet this acknowledgment of theirs does not seem to pave the way for any broader conclusions. For the Evangelist does not alter his tone toward the world; rather, it grows sterner as the narrative progresses.
Jesus speaks to His brothers, who were Jews like Himself and His followers, in the Gospel of John… 7:7 “The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil“
Even though it may occasionally appear as if the world and Christ could coexist peacefully, and even though some individuals seem to give the world a different appearance, in reality, nothing changes.
An ever-deeper and more intense conflict is arising between the world that hates Jesus Christ – and His followers.
And those who wish to follow Him are faced with a choice:
“Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my tiäme is not yet full come” – John 7:8
The world is preparing a feast in these latter days. A feast that will be interrupted: “Behold, I come as a thief…” Rev. 16:15
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