Pilate, the present representative of the ‘world’s ruler’, acts out his ‘authority’ by having Jesus killed. But the God who delegated that authority to Pilate reverses the verdict by raising Jesus from the dead and launching the world mission of his followers. John presents the whole sequence as the dramatic unveiling-in-action of love, which in Scripture was ascribed, not to the Messiah, but rather to Israel’s God. The Word made flesh, the true human being, has brought together the two vocations, of the human who will put God’s purposes into effect and of God himself, returning to dwell among
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