Seite - 36 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Band 02/01

36 | Claudia Setzer www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/1, 35–47 More than any other gospel author, John engages the problem of being human – sub- ject to physical limitations and a short lifespan and marked by separateness. A sense of human longing haunts John’s gospel, longing for loved ones, for community, for knowledge of God. We hear a longing for those who leave us that echoes the feeling of a child left by its parent. Jesus predicting his death says, “Little children … where I am going, you cannot come” (13:33; see also 7:33–34, NRSV used throughout). At the Last Supper Peter protests, “Lord, why can I not follow you now?” (13:37). Similarly, Thomas says, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (14:5). Jesus recognises their feeling of abandonment, as he promises, “I will not leave you orphaned” (14:18). Jesus himself weeps at the grave of Lazarus and looks for his friend, saying, “where have you laid him?” (11:34–35). In the same way, Mary Magdalene runs frantically and then cries alone near Jesus’ empty tomb, “they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him” (20:13). I recall the anguish of people searching for their missing relatives after 9/11, echoing the same painful question, “Where is my loved one now?” John articulates the longing to feel at home in one’s world and at ease in communi- ty. Despite Jesus’ coming into the world, the world does not know him (1:10), nor will it welcome his disciples, as he warns them, “If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you” (15:18). John’s gospel exhibits a sense of alienation that pits heaven against the world, a place of darkness, sin, and ignorance that is ruled by Sa- tan. Jesus fears his followers will be adrift and vulnerable after his death, in the world but not of it, so prays to the Father to keep them from the evil one (17:11–15). Rela- tions with the local Jewish community are at an impasse such that John sees himself and fellow believers as no longer welcome there.1 Notably, the individuals with whom Jesus successfully interacts and who understand his identity are models of difference, people marginalised by their ethnicity, gender, and disability—the Samaritan woman, Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalene, and the man blind from birth. Finally, the gospel bespeaks the longing to know and understand God, but no one has ever seen God (1:18), no one comes to the Father except by the Son (14:6). No one has seen the Father or heard his voice (6:46), except the one from God. Not everyone can hear God’s voice (5:37; 8:47; 12:29) or see him (5:37) or his works (10:25). God does not listen to sinners (9:31). Some cannot know God (7:28; 8:19). The overall effect of these statements is that, minus intervention by the Son, a veil exists between the ordinary human and God. Yet the gospel raises the hope “that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (10:10). Craig Koester shows that John addresses the fundamental problems of sepa- ration that flow from being human, experiencing the limits of our finite bodies. He 1 The debate over birkat ha minim continues. Three references to being put out of the synagogue (9:22; 12:42; 16:2) suggest some kind of alienation. See the classic article by Reuven Kimelman, Kimelman 1981, and a more recent revival of the idea by Joel Marcus, Marcus 2009.