RBWords

     The long post-Easter reflection on the Gospel of John comes to an end today (probably to the relief of many preachers) with the words quoted above.  They comprise the "second ending" of the gospel!  We must remember that "chapters" and "verses" did not appear in the bible till the Middle Ages.  When they did, the Gospel of John acquired twenty-one chapters.  The twenty-first chapter of John does not appear in all the ancient manuscripts, but it was accepted by the church as part of the canon of scripture.  (There is a similar situation in the Gospel of Mark.).  I'm glad that happened because the three-fold question of Jesus, "Do you love me?" is a wonderful source of meditation and preaching!  The "first ending" comes at the end of chapter 20 and reads as follows: Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book.  But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.  

     The Gospel of John was the last to be put into writing.  It is possible that the authors of both "endings" were aware of the other three gospel traditions and simply wanted to use their own resources to supplement those traditions.  We don't know for certain.  Both "endings" call our attention to the fact that there was much more to say about the life of Jesus.  Indeed, other "non-canonical" accounts would circulate: e.g. the "Gospel of Thomas."  Eventually the church had to decide what would be accepted as "canonical scripture."  What is important for us is stated in the first of the two "endings."  What was written was written that we "may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God" and that "through this belief [we] may have life in his name."  AMEN