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Courting Betrayal: Jesus As Victim in the Gospel of John
Orchard, Helen C.
293 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1998
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June 2, 2016
This book stresses the victimization of Jesus in the Gospel of John. Moreover, Orchard argues that Jesus provokes his opponents (who are many) into making a victim of him. In the fury of the persecutors, Jesus does not appear to be very “nice” himself.
Orchard’s argument that the whole Gospel is closely structured around the tightening noose of persecution around Jesus is very strong. It seems that there are hardly any other themes in the Gospel. Although Orchard is right about the synoptic Gospels not being so tightly structured on victimization, the passion predictions of Jesus do form the backbone of the middle sections of those Gospels, especially in Mark.
Orchard argues that the “eucharistic” discourse in John 6 is primarily about the Passion because of the strong language Jesus uses for eating the body of Jesus. I agree about the violent language here, but I still think the discourse is about the eucharist. It’s just that it shows us how close the eucharist is to Jesus’ violent death. Orchard likewise points out the strong language in the “Good Shepherd” speeches in John 10. Jesus’ laying down his life is not so gentle a pastoral image when we realize it is about Jesus being torn apart by wolves.
The confrontations in John 7 & 8 really are quite ferocious and Orchard underscores this. Here we see Jesus being very provocative, so that it borders on Jesus causing his enemies to persecute him on the cross. Orchard could have brought in René Girard at this point, something he does towards the end of the book to discuss John’s use of the Paschal Lamb imagery. Girard argues that there is a human tendency to solve social problems through gaining up on a scapegoat. In the two chapters of John, Jesus is revealing this anthropological truth to his hearers, culminating in John 8: 44 where he says that their father is the devil who was liar and a murderer from the beginning. Jesus does the same, though less violently, in the Synoptic Gospels with his Parable of the Evil Workers in the Vineyard. In both instances, Jesus’ listeners react with fury and violence, to prove his point.
The Last Supper in John is far from serene with its stress on Judas’s betrayal. Orchard argues that in the foot washing, Jesus was acting the part of the lowest of the lowest slaves. Not even men who were slaves normally washed the feet of another. That was for slave women and children. Orchard demonstrates Jesus complicity or near-complicity in Judas’s betrayal to the point of giving Jesus’ actions here some causative elements. It’s troubling if Jesus caused Judas to commit such a heinous deed. We are left with a dark mystery of Jesus’ knowledge of others and their actions.
Mostly missing from this book is the theme of divine indwelling through Jesus being the bread of life and the living water and the indwelling of Jesus with the Father and the Holy Spirit and their indwelling within us. I think we get a richer understanding of John if we bring these closer to the surface, but Orchard has shown us more forcefully than any other writer on John that I know how close this mystical element is to the suffering of Jesus on the cross. That is, the indwelling is not about serenity; it is about suffering with Jesus and the persecuted followers of Jesus. Moreover, the union of Jesus with the Father is a union with the Father’s will that Jesus suffer. Given some extrapolations some theologians have made over the years, it is important to stress that nowhere in Orchard’s analysis, or in John’s text for that matter, is their any notion that the Father willed that Jesus suffer the punishment due to sinful humans to allay the alleged wrath of the Father. Everything in John and in Orchard’s exploration of the Gospel points to the intensity of human violence which, as in Girard’s arguments, has gone beyond to possibility of stopping itself until Jesus embraces all of it in his death
Most importantly, Orchard refutes the notion that the crucifixion is really glory and Jesus was pretty serene about so dying. John tells us many times how profoundly troubled Jesus was with betrayal, incomprehension, violence directed against him. Not until the Resurrection does Jesus and the Gospel start to cheer up. Here we get the serene love of Jesus now that his “hour” has passed. Here we see Jesus living the “eternal life” he preached during his life. Here we envision that eternal life as a beacon of hope as we, like the man born blind, suffer the fate of Jesus in our earthly life.
Orchard’s argument that the whole Gospel is closely structured around the tightening noose of persecution around Jesus is very strong. It seems that there are hardly any other themes in the Gospel. Although Orchard is right about the synoptic Gospels not being so tightly structured on victimization, the passion predictions of Jesus do form the backbone of the middle sections of those Gospels, especially in Mark.
Orchard argues that the “eucharistic” discourse in John 6 is primarily about the Passion because of the strong language Jesus uses for eating the body of Jesus. I agree about the violent language here, but I still think the discourse is about the eucharist. It’s just that it shows us how close the eucharist is to Jesus’ violent death. Orchard likewise points out the strong language in the “Good Shepherd” speeches in John 10. Jesus’ laying down his life is not so gentle a pastoral image when we realize it is about Jesus being torn apart by wolves.
The confrontations in John 7 & 8 really are quite ferocious and Orchard underscores this. Here we see Jesus being very provocative, so that it borders on Jesus causing his enemies to persecute him on the cross. Orchard could have brought in René Girard at this point, something he does towards the end of the book to discuss John’s use of the Paschal Lamb imagery. Girard argues that there is a human tendency to solve social problems through gaining up on a scapegoat. In the two chapters of John, Jesus is revealing this anthropological truth to his hearers, culminating in John 8: 44 where he says that their father is the devil who was liar and a murderer from the beginning. Jesus does the same, though less violently, in the Synoptic Gospels with his Parable of the Evil Workers in the Vineyard. In both instances, Jesus’ listeners react with fury and violence, to prove his point.
The Last Supper in John is far from serene with its stress on Judas’s betrayal. Orchard argues that in the foot washing, Jesus was acting the part of the lowest of the lowest slaves. Not even men who were slaves normally washed the feet of another. That was for slave women and children. Orchard demonstrates Jesus complicity or near-complicity in Judas’s betrayal to the point of giving Jesus’ actions here some causative elements. It’s troubling if Jesus caused Judas to commit such a heinous deed. We are left with a dark mystery of Jesus’ knowledge of others and their actions.
Mostly missing from this book is the theme of divine indwelling through Jesus being the bread of life and the living water and the indwelling of Jesus with the Father and the Holy Spirit and their indwelling within us. I think we get a richer understanding of John if we bring these closer to the surface, but Orchard has shown us more forcefully than any other writer on John that I know how close this mystical element is to the suffering of Jesus on the cross. That is, the indwelling is not about serenity; it is about suffering with Jesus and the persecuted followers of Jesus. Moreover, the union of Jesus with the Father is a union with the Father’s will that Jesus suffer. Given some extrapolations some theologians have made over the years, it is important to stress that nowhere in Orchard’s analysis, or in John’s text for that matter, is their any notion that the Father willed that Jesus suffer the punishment due to sinful humans to allay the alleged wrath of the Father. Everything in John and in Orchard’s exploration of the Gospel points to the intensity of human violence which, as in Girard’s arguments, has gone beyond to possibility of stopping itself until Jesus embraces all of it in his death
Most importantly, Orchard refutes the notion that the crucifixion is really glory and Jesus was pretty serene about so dying. John tells us many times how profoundly troubled Jesus was with betrayal, incomprehension, violence directed against him. Not until the Resurrection does Jesus and the Gospel start to cheer up. Here we get the serene love of Jesus now that his “hour” has passed. Here we see Jesus living the “eternal life” he preached during his life. Here we envision that eternal life as a beacon of hope as we, like the man born blind, suffer the fate of Jesus in our earthly life.
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