GOSPEL OF JOHN CHAPTER 1 - 5

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN

They say this Gospel is a different kind,
Although its structure is also consigned
In the same mould as Mark’s: I am not blind.
Though logos and legions of speeches rank
Beyond the simple stories in the tank
Of the synoptics, still the message true
Appears in all four stations where they grew.
The son of God appears here as anew,
As the life-giver by walking the plank
And reaching where humankind sat in rank.
If that is heresy not found before,
At least it is a hopeful light in store.
Beloved, I pray You honour his request
That his life be conferred upon the rest.

JOHN 1

1 In the beginning was the word,
And the word was with the God heard,
The word was an exalted one.
2 It was in the beginning done
That it was with God, 3 and all things
Were made through it, no questionings
But without it, nothing was made
That was made, 4 and in it was life,
And life was men’s light without strife.

All things have come by Your word only, so
I find life and light in the words that go
From sacred text and prophecy to make
Human hearts ready for Your blessèd sake.
Beloved, Your word is still exalted on
My fervent lips in prayer before the dawn,
At noon and in the dusky evening peace.
Your words give life and light and never cease.
Though my soul seems to stray in time and place,
Your word takes me back to Your life and face,
Back to beginning where You are in truth,
With Your exalted word in joy and ruth.
Beloved, may that word so exalted give
On tongue and ear as long as I’m to live.

5 And the light on the darkness stayed,
And darkness did not comprehend.
6 There was a man that God did send,
Whose name was John. 7 And this man came
For a witness, to bear the same
Witness of the light, that all through
It might believe. 8 Though it was true
He was not that light, but to bear
Witness of that light he was there.
9 That was the true light which gives light
To every man coming in sight
In the world. 10 It was in the world,
And the world was made and unfurled
Through it, the world did not know him.
11 He came to his own, who were dim,
His own did not receive him, 12 but
Those who did receive him clear-cut,
To them he gave right to become
Children of God, to those in sum
Who believe in his name, 13 those born,
Not of blood, nor of the flesh will,
Nor of man’s will, but of God’s still.
14 The word became flesh without scorn
And lived among us, and we saw
His glory, the glory with awe
As of the only generated
Of the Father, (by whom created)
Full of grace and truth unabated.

A child of God is one who is born of
Your will, one who does everything for love
Of You, and desires only that Your will
Be done in all things here for good or ill.
They err who think God has a son or daughter
Born of the flesh: the word is chosen slaughter.
John clearly says it deals with will of God
And not the flesh and being born of sod.
Because of such error the Qur’an states
Not to make mention of such sons and mates.
But You, Beloved, sent to the world Your word
To live among us, with glory conferred.
I take him, son or servant called to do
Your will, and know Your word, Beloved, is true.

15 John bore witness of him and cried
Out, saying, “This was he of whom
I said, ‘He who comes to abide
After me will come in my room,
For he was before me and bloom.’”
16 And of his fullness we have all
Received, and grace for grace to call.
17 For the law was given through Moses,
Grace, truth through Jesus Christ, who chose us.
18 No one has seen God any time.
The only generated son,
Who’s in the Father’s bosom prime,
He has declared him, well and done.

No man can see You, my Beloved, who are
Too near to see, and yet behind the star.
Only Your sent one can reveal to me
The depth of Your being and wonderfully.
The divine guide, the divine proof allows
Your grace and truth to shine on human brows
And so appear beside the sheer and dear.
Who is the express image of You near
Out of Your very heart declares the room
And brings my poor reflected soul from doom.
The divine guide brings fullness to my soul
Until I see You only in his role.
Beloved, I come rejoicing in Your grace
And find Your image beyond rhyme and place.

19 Now this is the witness of John,
When the Jews sent their priests to faun
And Levites from Jerusalem
To ask him, “Who are you?” to them
20 He confessed, and did not deny,
But he confessed, “No Christ am I.”
21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you
Elijah?” he said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet, answer do?”
And he answered no on the spot.
22 Then they said to him, “Who are you,
That we may give an answer to
Those who sent us? What do you say
About yourself?” 23 He said, “Today
I am ‘the voice of one who cries
In the wilderness “make straight-wise
The way of YHWH,”’ as said prophet
Isaiah.” 24 Now those who were sent
Were from Pharisees not to scoff at.
25 And they asked him, saying, “Content
Why then do you baptise if you
Are not the Christ, Elijah true,
Nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them,
Saying, “I baptise with the hem
Of water, but there stands among
You one you know not nor have sung.
27 “It’s he who, coming after me,
Is preferred before me to be,
Whose sandal strap I’m not worthy
To loose.” 28 In Bethabara these
Things were done beyond Jordan’s lees,
Where John baptised his devotees.

The famous four questions the Jewish child
Must ask at the Passover tempt the wild
In me to say three questions long ago
Seem to have lurked behind the Jewish show.
Three figures were awaited for awhile:
The Christ, Elijah, Prophet without guile.
In all the seven questions make the sum
Of what the chosen wish to know to come
And what has happened in the past to meet
Your divine guidance, divine proof for treat.
If only men today of every creed
Would stop to ask who is the Christ indeed,
And who Elijah and at last who came
The final Prophet preaching in Your name.

29 The next day John saw Jesus come
Toward him, and said, “Behold! The chum,
The lamb of God who takes away
The sin of the world come today!

How does or did Your sent one take away
The sin of the world in his little sway
In Palestine? Perhaps the word means he
By sinlessness set men and women free
From the chains of those priests who say no man
Was ever sinless nor obeying can.
Perhaps the word means he opposed great Rome,
And in opposing had to leave his home
And hearth to meet the Roman execution,
And without faltering in retribution
Gained victory over the cross and over
The oppressor, oppressor’s sins and clover.
He took away the sin of fear and of
Collaboration with the Caesar’s love.

30 “This is the one of whom I said,
‘After me comes a man who’s led,
Preferred before me, for he was
Before me.’ 31 “I knew not from straws,
But that he should be manifest
To Israel, I came without rest
Baptising with water.” 32 And John
Bore witness, saying, “I saw on
Him sitting the spirit come down
From heaven like a dove for crown.
33 “I did not know him, but he who
Sent me to baptise with the dew
And water said to me, ‘Upon
Whom you see the spirit come on,
And staying on him, this is he
Who baptises with saint esprit.’
34 “And I have seen and testified
This is the Son of God and tried.”
35 Again, the next day, there John stood
With two of his disciples good.
36 And looking at Jesus as he
Was walking by, “Behold,” said he
“See God’s lamb in innocency!”

No grace comes through the water of ablution
As though to wring one’s hands is a solution.
The spirit of repentance must precede
The vision of the son of God indeed.
There is no fleshly son of God but just
The one baptising by the spirit must
Be promised Christ through whom eternal life
Comes to the world in peace and without strife.
The son of God in spirit is a word
To mean Messiah to the crowd and stirred.
Your sent one is as innocent as lamb,
Sent long ago and yet seen where I am
In visions still of dove and lamb and grace,
Illuminating every path and trace.

37 The two disciples heard him speak,
And they followed Jesus to seek.
38 Then Jesus turned, and seeing them
Following, said to them, “What gem
Do you seek?” They told him, “Rabbi”
(Which is translated, teacher), “why,
Where do you live?” 39 He said to them,
“Come and see.” They followed his hem
And saw where he was staying, and
Remained with him that day to stand
(For it was about the tenth hour).
40 One of the two who heard John’s flower,
And followed him, was Andrew, who
Was Simon Peter’s brother, too.
41 He first found his own brother Simon,
And said to him, “We’ve found, rely man,
Messiah” (Christ as said in Greek).
42 And he brought him to Jesus seek.
Now when Jesus looked at him, he
Said, “You are Simon son of Jonah.
You shall be called Cephas, no loner”
(Which is translated, stone to be).

From rolling stones to stone foundations where
The keys of hell may not in vain repair,
Stone is a name in many a tongue for fair
And foul. I should be more pleased with the Simon
As name to follow sema’ as a dry man.
The son of Jonah speaks a mythic tongue
With reference to doves already sung.
I meet the man to hear Your sweet names rung
Upon the Sabbath day to which I’ve clung.
The reappearance of the dove so soon
Makes scholars stop to think and eye the moon,
Though doves in any case no more than croon.
Beloved, I seek Your sent one as the day
Inclines toward the last prayer on the way.

43 The next day Jesus wished to go
To Galilee, and found no foe
In Philip, so he said to him,
“Come with me.” 44 Now Philip was trim
From Bethsaida, the city of
Andrew and Peter as above.
45 Philip found Nathanael and
Said to him, “We have found at hand
Him of whom Moses in the law,
Also the prophets, wrote in awe,
Jesus of Nazareth, the son
Of Joseph.” 46 And Nathanael said
To him, “Can anything or one
Good come out of Nazareth’s dun?”
Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
47 Jesus saw Nathanael ahead
Coming toward him, and he said
Of him, “Indeed, no deceit see
In this Israelite!” 48 Nathanael
Said to him, “How do you know well
What is in me?” Jesus answered
And said to him the following word,
“Before Philip called you, when you
Were under the fig tree, I saw.”
49 Nathanael answered him and said,
“Rabbi, You’re Son of God and led!
You are the King of Israel!”
50 Jesus answered him and said, “Well,
Because I said to you, ‘I saw
You under the fig tree,’ in awe
Do you believe? You will see greater
Things than these like a simple satyr.”
51 And he said to him, “Certainly
I say to you, later you’ll see
The heaven open, and from God
The angels ascending the sod
And descending as fast they can
And staying on the Son of Man.”

The common daily word for the Messiah
At that time was Son of God, a pariah.
But Your sent one did not deny the name
That called him the Messiah without shame,
Except he gently left the word aside
That he knew someday would be said in pride
And blasphemy to make of him true God.
He humbly stooped to take the name of sod,
And called himself the son of man, yet so
He claimed to be Messiah, Christ, not slow.
The witness of John gave clearly that he
Was no son of God in the flesh to be,
But in the flesh His son or servant of
The divine will alone and divine love.

When I was just a child behind the house,
The glory of the neighbourhood and mouse,
There stood in a row all descending there
From greatest to the least in dark leaf rare
The seven fig trees grandma used to care
And pick preserving for herself and those
Grandchildren who loved figs and came and chose
The sweet kisses of sugar, white milk and
The seedy lusciousness on every hand.
I seek in vision now what then I ate
With grimy hand and newly washed glass plate.
See me, Beloved, beneath the fig tree now
As I prepare to seek Your sent somehow,
And taste a heavenly repast without hate.

JOHN 2

1 On the third day there was a wedding
In Cana of Galilee spreading,
And Jesus’ mother was there too.
2 Both Jesus and disciples too
Were invited to the wedding.
3 And when they ran out of one thing,
Grape juice, the mother of Jesus
Said to him, “This will cause a fuss,
They have no grape juice.” 4 Jesus said
To her, “Ma’am, that is on your head,
My hour has not yet come instead.”
5 His mother told the servants, “Do
Whatever he may say to you.”
6 Now there were set six water-pots
Of stone, according to the plots
Whereby the Jews do their ablutions,
Containing twenty in solutions
Or thirty gallons every one.
7 Jesus said to them, “When you’ve done,
Fill up the waterpots with water.”
And they filled them up like a daughter
Up to the brim. 8 And he told them,
“Draw some out now, and take it to
The master of the feast to chew.”
And they took it. 9 When the feast master
Had tasted the water set laster
That was made grape juice, and did not
Know where it came from, never taught,
(But the servants who’d drawn the water
Knew), the master of the feast caught her,
Summoned the bridegroom. 10 And he said
To him, “Every man at the head
Sets out the good grape juice, and when
The guests have well drunk, only then
The worse grape juice. But you have kept
The good grape juice till now unswept!”
11 This first of signs that Jesus did
In Cana of Galilee, hid
Not but made glory manifest
In him and his disciples blessed
So that they believed in his rest.

Old drunks have so taken the world in store
That people think Your sent one gave them more
Old wine to pickle up their brains in stew.
They point to Cana to feast what they do.
Grape juice that is fermented has gone bad,
As any child can tell who has learned sad.
The master of the feast let it be known
That fresh grape juice was what people had shown
First at all weddings, and when all had drunk,
They set out what was spoiled if they had spunk.
The grape juice Jesus made was not an hour
In age, so fermentation had no power.
Beloved, I seek Your sherbet fresh and good,
Made momently anew as sherbet should.

12 After this he, Jesus, went down
To Capernaum, to the next town,
He, and his mother, brothers too,
And his disciples, not a few,
And they did not stay many days.
13 Now the Jews’ Passover for stays
Was near, and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem. 14 He found a crew
In the temple, and those who sold
Oxen and sheep and doves, and cold
Moneychangers doing business.
15 When he had made a whip no less
Of cords, he drove them all out of
The temple, with the sheep above
And oxen, and poured out the changers’
Money and overturned the strangers’
Tables. 16 And he said to those who
Sold doves, “Take these things away! Do
Not make my Father’s house a house
Of merchandise in stall and grouse!”
17 Then his disciples remembered
That it was written such a word,
“Zeal for Your house has consumed me.”
18 So the Jews answered and said free
“What sign do you show us, since you
Do these things?” 19 Jesus answered too
And said to them, “Destroy this place
Of worship, and in three days’ pace
I’ll raise it up.” 20 Then the Jews said,
“It took forty-six years to spread
This temple, and will You raise it
Up in three days and make it fit?”
21 But he spoke of his body’s house,
And not crannies of roach and mouse.
22 Therefore, when he had risen from
The dead, his disciples did come
To remember that he’d said this
To them, and they believed in bliss
The Scripture, the word Jesus said
About his body and the dead.

Beloved, it’s good You sent Your servant then
When money changers were still honest men,
Or almost so. If You had sent the guy
To churches now beneath a golden sky,
He would have found more reason for complaint.
Compared with bingo that racket was saint,
While bingo itself is passé and childish
Compared with machinations that are wildish
As preachers mix in politics and draw
Oil money for the pulpit and the raw.
He’d talk about his corpse now too as well
If he presumed to take on that cartel.
Beloved, I strike down all establishment
By taking only You for government.

23 When he was in Jerusalem
At the Passover requiem,
During the feast, many believed
In his name when they saw received
The signs which he did. 24 But Jesus
Did not trust himself to their fuss,
Because he knew all men, 25 and had
No need to be told they were bad,
For he knew what was in man’s fad.

How many times did Christ refuse the crown
And pass through all the crowds to leave the town?
Twice Hajji Bektash also set aside
The opportunities of kingly pride.
There is integrity in no great task
That rulership may ever come to ask.
Was Joseph uncorrupted in that hell
Of famine? What’s to say of Daniel?
Perhaps, but one exception makes the rule.
Who trusts ruler or commoner’s a fool.
The ice cream man comes ringing out his bell,
Not to please with his music, but in spell
That some will buy at higher price his wares,
Not altruistic sharing of his shares.

JOHN 3

1 There was a man of Pharisees
Named Nicodemus, if you please,
A ruler of the Jews. 2 This man
Came to Jesus by night to scan
And said to him, “Rabbi, we know
That You’re a teacher from God, so
No one can do these signs that You
Do unless God is with him true.”
3 Jesus answered and said to him,
“Most surely I say nothing dim
To you, unless one’s born again,
He cannot see God’s kingdom then.”
4 And Nicodemus said to him,
“How can a man be born when old?
Can he enter a second time
Into his mother’s womb so bold
And be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “I’m
Telling you truly, unless one
Is born of water and the spirit,
He can’t enter God’s kingdom near it.
6 “That which is born of the flesh is
Flesh, and that which is born of His
Spirit is spirit. 7 “Do not marvel
That I tell you ‘You must be larval.’
8 “The wind blows where it wishes, and
You hear the sound of it at hand,
But cannot tell where it comes from
And where it goes when it has come.
So is everyone who is born
Of the Spirit and not forlorn.”

As John notes Jesus is the Son of God
Because he is not every way a clod,
But sanctifies his spirit by the way
He turns himself to You and to obey,
And thus makes Your Spirit his own to sway
Instead of drinking at the pub each day.
Though Son of God is just a shoptalk term
To mean Messiah Christ, while they shall squirm
In judgement who would make it tell a tale
Of heathen trinities not to avail,
The road is open for the spirit free
To step into divine life and freely.
Beloved, I bend my spirit to Your own
And so become Your child, though flesh and bone.

9 And Nicodemus answering him,
“How can these things be true and trim?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him,
“Are you teacher of Israel,
And yet do not know these things well?
11 “Most certainly, I say to you,
We speak what we know and we do
Give witness of what we have seen,
And you do not receive our mesne.
12 “If I have told you earthly things
And you do not believe, when sings
The heavenly how will you believe?
13 “No one has ascended the sleeve
Of heaven but he who came down from
Heaven, that is, the Son of Man
Who is in heaven. 14 “And as the thumb
Of Moses lifted up as can
The serpent in the wilderness,
Even so must the Son of Man
Be lifted up and for redress,
15 “That whoever believes in him
Should not perish and become dim
But have eternal life. 16 “For God
So loved the world and the world’s sod,
He gave his only generated
Son, that whoever unbelated
Believes in him should not perish
But have eternal life’s fair wish.
17 “For God did not send his Son to
The world to condemn the world’s crew,
But that the world through him might be
Saved. 18 “He who believes in him, see,
Is not condemned, but he who does
Not believe is condemned as was,
Because he has not believed in
The name of the only God’s kin
The generated Son of God,
Which means Messiah, Christ slipshod.
19 “And this is the condemnation,
That the light’s come into the world,
And men loved darkness by the tonne
Rather than light, because unfurled
Their deeds were evil ones and done.
20 “For all who practice evil hate
The light and don’t come to the gate
Of light, lest their deeds should be known.
21 “But he who does the truth comes to
The light, that his deeds may accrue
Sight, that they’ve been done by God’s throne.”

Please note, Beloved, John does not talk
About a cross at all to all the flock.
As Moses held the brazen serpent high
For all to see and thus express their cry
To You alone for help in their distress,
So those who turned, instead of for redress
For what they suffered at the Romans’ hands,
To the one You sent to uphold commands
And be image express that You are king
Of every mite and each created thing,
Should also live. I too, Beloved, would live
Within the glory that Your sent ones give.
I turn away from means and powers to look
Upon the brazen and the slender hook.

22 After these things Jesus and his
Disciples came into, that is,
The land of Judaea, and there
He stayed with them and baptised there.
23 John also baptised in Aenon
Near Salim, because there forgone
Was much water there. And they came
And were baptised there in his name.
24 For John had not yet been thrown in
To prison. 25 Then there rose within
John’s disciples and the Jews there
A dispute on ablutions’ care.
26 And they came to John and told him,
“Rabbi, he who was at the rim
Of Jordan with you, to whom you
Have testified, giving his due,
Indeed, he is baptizing too,
And all are coming to his crew!”
27 John answered and said then, “A man
Can receive nothing, if he can,
Unless it has been given him
From heaven. 28 “You yourselves grow dim,
Bear me witness, that I said, ‘I
Am not the Christ,’ but rather, ‘I
Have been sent before him.’ 29 “And he
Who has the bride is the bridegroom,
The bridegroom’s friend’s content to be
Standing and hearing him in room,
Rejoices greatly because of
The bridegroom’s voice that’s raised in love.
Therefore this joy of mine’s fulfilled.
30 “He must increase, but I be stilled.
31 “He who comes from above’s above
All, and he who’s of the earth is
Earthly and speaks of what is his.
He who comes down from heaven above
Is above all in power and love.
32 “And what he has seen and has heard,
That he bears witness to in word,
And no one receives his witness.
33 “He who has received consciousness
Of his testimony has best
Assured that God is true and blessed.
34 “For he whom God has sent speaks words
Of God, for God gives not the birds
Of the Spirit by measure. 35 “But
The Father loves the Son, and cut
All things into his hand. 36 “He who
Believes in the Son has life too
Eternal, and he who does not
Believe the Son, though he’s been taught,
Shall not see life, but the wrath of
God stays on him instead of love.”

In every age there is appointed one
To be divine proof, if You like, God’s Son,
Recipient of divine grace and power
To reign over true hearts if for an hour.
In every age there are those who seek out
Gurus to their dissension and its doubt.
The Sufi turns to sheikh, the wife to pope,
And thus all humankind relinquish hope.
I turn to You, Beloved, through face of him
Whom You have sent, even when face is dim.
The Master of the Age is never spent,
But hovers in the visions of the rent
And torn veils that rise in the baking noon.
Beloved, I turn to You, and I turn soon.

JOHN 4

1 When the lord knew the Pharisees
Had heard that Jesus made with ease
And baptised more disciples than
John himself did and by his plan,
2 Though Jesus himself did not come
To baptise, but disciples drum,
3 He left Judaea then to come
To Galilee again to hum.

Baptising may go back to prophet's word
When Elisha spoke to Naaman who heard
And dipped himself in Jordan's anger stirred
The seven times with or without a bird.
The people do demand a sign today
As well as in that ancient time of play:
The entrance into the group's mystery
Was Gentile expectation and degree
Of Jewish hopes: all longed to be made free.
But Jesus baptised none. Only those he
Sent out to preach and teach and heal did that.
They baptised many more than John was at.
Beloved, I see baptisms every day
As I die beneath the breath of my way.

4 But he had to go through the land
Of the Samaritans in band.
5 Then he came to Samarian town
Called Sychar near to the renown
Piece of ground that Jacob once gave
To his son Joseph tall and brave.
6 Now Jacob's well was there to see,
And Jesus wearied from journey,
Sat on the well, and it was then
About the sixth hour, noon again.
7 There came a woman of the clan
Of Samaritans with the plan
Of drawing water. Jesus said
To her, “Give me a drink instead.”
8 For his disciples had gone in
The town to buy food in the tin.
9 Then the Samarian wench said
To him, “How can a Jew be led,
One like yourself, to ask a drink
Of me who am a wench to link
Samaria? For the Jews lack
Dealings with Samaritan track.”
10 Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God's stir,
And who it is that asks of you,
'Give me a drink,' you'd ask him too
And he'd give you the living brew.”
11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you
Have nothing to draw with in view,
And the well's deep, from where can you
Provide that living water too?
12 “Are you greater than our ancestor
Jacob, who gave us the well bester,
And drank of it himself and all
His children too, cattle in stall?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her,
Whoever drinks this water sure
Will thirst again. 14 “But the one who
Drinks of the water I shall give
Shall never thirst though long to live,
But water that I give shall be
In him a well of water free
Springing life to eternity.”

Jesus forgot his thirst when he had chance
To preach the living water of his grants.
The woman too in her surprise was stung,
And wondered that a Jew to her had sung.
So both in their encounter meet surprise.
Beloved, each human meeting in its guise
Is a potential wonder in its way,
Despite the every-day actions we play.
I see the passers-by and hear the talk,
They do not see me standing by the lock,
Nor do they give a glance to me, yet I
Still recognize the divine going by,
The message in its echoes now again
Of divine faces shining among men.

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give
Me this water, so I shall live
Without thirst and not come back here
To fetch water with all my gear.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go and call
Your husband and come on the ball.”
17 The woman answered saying “I
Have no husband.” Jesus' reply
To her was “You've said well indeed,
I have no husband. 18 “In your greed
You've had five husbands, and he whom
You now have is not yours in room.
In that you've told the truth for doom.”
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I
See that you are a prophet nigh.
20 “Our ancestors worshipped here on
This mountain, and you say it's drawn
To worship in Jerusalem.”

The brazen hussy does not bat an eye,
But meets the accusation with a why.
That is the typical way everyone,
Both saint and sinner finds the way is done.
We meet our differences with questioning,
With arguments for who is right and king
And who is wrong in his belief and ring.
The outer court, the temple mount, the spring
Of tasks and functions in distraction sing.
Beloved, I ask no explanations due
Now that I meet You face to face and true.
I ask not which or what in exercise
Will lead the faster to pie in the skies.
I turn from Gerizim and Zion's tries.

21 Jesus said to her, “Woman gem,
Believe me, the time comes when you
Shall neither in this mountain due
Nor yet at Jerusalem fall
To worship the Father at call.
22 “You worship what you do not know,
We know what we worship in stow,
For salvation is of the Jews.
23 “But the time comes and is to choose
When true worshippers shall worship
The Father in spirit and sip
The truth, for the Father seeks such
To worship Him and pray as much.
24 “God is spirit and those who stay
To worship Him must come to pray
In spirit and in truth each day.”

Some worship still in old Jerusalem,
And some bow toward the heights of Gerizim,
While those who hold themselves to be the best
Bow to the god within the human breast.
The one You sent, Beloved, has prophesied
That on a day when these are set aside,
True worshippers will worship You in truth
Toward the first house now a desert booth.
While humankind cannot agree on where
The right direction is for human prayer,
You silently regard without a word
The conflicts by which human hearts are stirred.
Shekinah does not bloom in any place
Now known to all the hurried populace.

Those blinded by the Grecian words that tell
All how reality is just the spell
Of matter and of spirit out to quell
The questionings of minds who must think well,
Assume that You are Spirit in the way,
Un-matter and un-making of the ray.
If You’re a being immaterial
(Contradiction of terms writ on the wall),
Then I ask for the evidence that there
Exists any being out of thin air
That is unmattered in the cosmic dust,
Displayed against the stars and without rust.
Until proof that such can exist and be,
I reject atheistic Trinity.

Challenged to prove that Spirit is a thing
Material beneath the dovely wing,
I do not rise up to the bait and fling.
If Spirit is a word that still refers
To anything with meaning among curs,
Then Spirit is material. If not,
Spirit is nothing at all in the plot.
The abstract itself is attached to matter
As character describing thin and fatter.
Beloved, though You’re a Spirit on the mend,
A fatter sort of being where You wend,
I love You still despite glory You send.
The Spirit’s real only beneath the kiss
Of breath of life, it’s something not to miss.
Beloved, You’re no imaginary hiss.

25 The woman said to him, “I know
That the Messiah's on the go,
Who is called Christ. When he has come,
He'll tell us all there is in sum.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak
To you am the one that you seek.”
27 At this his disciples came back
And were surprised to see the slack,
Him talking with the woman there,
But no one had to say or dare,
“What are you looking for or why
Do you talk with her on the sly?”
28 The woman left her waterpot,
Went back into the city lot,
And said to the men, 29 “Come and see
A man who told me faithfully
All things I ever did. Is not
This the very Christ we have sought?”

The preachers and the teachers often come
And interrupt the truth right when the sum
Is in its glory and requires the test
Of choice and taking a stand with the best.
So with the coming of disciples bound
In finding bread, the woman without sound
Slips off forgetting her pot on the round.
That might have been the end of all, but she
Kept burning in her heart the word's decree.
Beloved, as I'm distracted by the way,
And leave the well and enter in the sway
Of town and street, let there be burning still
The words I hear from Christ upon the hill,
In silent springs beneath the trees the fill.

30 So they went out of the town and
Came where he was and in a band.
31 The meanwhile his disciples prayed
Him saying “Sir, eat the spread laid.”
32 But he said to them, “I've had food
To eat that you do not know stewed.”
33 “Therefore the disciples said to
Each other, “Did someone or crew
Bring him something to eat a few?”
34 Jesus told them, “My food's to do
The will of Him who sent me, and
To finish the work I've at hand.”

The food appears upon my plate and table
However many times each day I'm able
Out of sheer hunger find my eager way,
Making a meal of everything I slay.
As soon as hunger's suaged, I turn to see
Sweets to finish the repast faithfully.
My stomach is full fledged, and so still I
Come searching food before the hopeful spy.
Enough of doing Your will, I shall not
Leave before Your heavenly kingdom is taught.
When I have done the chart You give to me,
And find the rest of Your salvation's fee,
I'll rejoice in the supper of the Lamb,
Never to hunger more, and so I am.

35 Do you not say that four months still
Remain before the harvest hill?
See, I tell you to lift your eyes
And look at the fields in their guise,
For they are white to harvest prize.
36 The one who reaps gets wages and
Gathers fruit to life endless and
Both the one who sows and the one
Who reaps rejoice together done.
37 And so that saying has come true,
One sows, another reaps the due.
38 I sent you out to reap what you
Had spent no labour on in crew,
For other men worked and you came
Into their labours and their claim.

I've stayed a child who once was told that You
Desire me to enter Your harvest crew.
And yet I never found the way to go,
No task in service to Your own sweet show.
I thought that life was short and all things past.
And yet I know that as long as life lasts,
There may be something You have for my hand,
Though I still wait like blind Milton and stand.
Beloved, the harvest may be white indeed,
For centuries have past since that small seed
Was planted in Sychar for Jesus' greed.
It may be white while generations pass,
And shall be white until the sea of glass
Appear before my feet, sickle in need.

39 Many of the Samaritans
Of that town believed on his scans
For the word of the woman who
Testified, “He told me all true.”
40 So when the Samaritans came
To him, they begged him to lay claim
And stay with them, and he stayed there
For two days teaching them their share.
41 And many more believed who heard
His own word when their hearts were stirred.
42 And he said to the woman, “Now
We do believe, not anyhow
For what you said, but we have heard
Ourselves and know this is the word
Of the Christ, Saviour of the world.”

Samaritans discovered in the man,
The browned feet and the face marked by the tan,
The Saviour of the world, though few before
Could see such hope upon the Jordan's shore.
I'm not sure yet from what he saved the world
Where Roman oppression is still unfurled,
And lust and greed and cruelty run riot.
But any salvation's great and I'll buy it.
Beloved, believing is a thing I see
Around me everywhere the symmetry
Of church and synagogue set people free.
I only wait for more obedience
To Your commandments. That would make some sense
While whirling in these strangers' hopeless tents.

43 Now after two days were uncurled,
He left that place and went into
The land of Galilee in view.
44 For Jesus himself testified,
That a prophet is aye denied
Honour in his own land to bide.
45 Then when he came to Galilee,
The Galilaeans faithfully
Received him, having seen all things
That he did in celebratings
Back at Jerusalem, for they
Also went to the feast to pray.

This is one time that Jesus got it wrong,
When he said that the nature of the song
Is to deny the good who would arise
Upon the native soil in righteous guise.
It seems despite his expectations he
Was at once accepted by neighbourly.
My own experience is rather that
I am rejected on the home plate's mat
As well as by the strangers where I stay
In weary decades where I came to stray.
Beloved, I find in Your great heart the room
That others would deny me to my doom,
And there rest as the days and nights go round
Upon the sweet and warm or barren ground.

46 So Jesus came again to Cana
Of Galilee, where he was gainer
To make the water wine. And there
Was a certain nobleman there
With son ill in Capernaum.
47 When he heard that Jesus had come
From Judaea to Galilee,
He went to him and begged freely
That he would come and heal his son,
For he was at death's door and gun.
48 Then Jesus told him, “Unless you
See signs and wonders in your view,
You will not believe what is true.
49 The nobleman said to him, “Sir,
Come before the child's death occur.”
50 Jesus said to him, “Go your way,
Your son will live now from today.”
And the man had faith in the word
That Jesus had spoken he heard,
And so he went off on his way.
51 And as he was now going down,
His servants met him near the town,
And said “Your son's well” without frown.
52 Then he asked them what time it came
The crisis past, the boy was game.
And they said to him, “Yesterday
At seventh hour the fever's sway
Left him and so until today.
53 So the dad knew it was the same
Time when Jesus told him in claim,
“Your son will live.” And he believed
And his whole family received.
54 This was again the second sign
Jesus did coming out in line
From Judaea to Galilee
For all the people there to see.

Your sent one was not living with the Jews
As one apart, one that they failed to choose.
That animosity is left to come
In days of future conflict for a sum.
The leaders are always a thing apart.
And yet here is a nobleman to start
In love and hope to him. He's not alone.
It is a pity that some gave him throne
Of Your divinity and so made those
Who came after pariah in his throws.
Beloved, I turn for healing to Your own,
And find him safe and sacred to the bone,
Without a claim blasphemous or a stay
In heresy, though truth and life and way.

JOHN 5

1 After this then a Jewish feast
Came, and Jesus went up released
To where Jerusalem increased.

The second Passover of Christ it seems
Is mentioned here before the land of dreams.
I wait with sated breath in my delight,
Filled with the joys of beauty in my sight,
That many all around fail to see there,
The beauties masked and veiled by human care.
I wait beside the pool, not for the share
Of miracles by angels I can bear,
But in the vigorous ecstasy where
The ordinary water looks as bright
With hope and beauty as the crystal light
Of heavenly seas. Beloved, pass over me,
Your beauties are too grand for me to see.
I wait with covered head without a right.

2 Now there is at Jerusalem
By the sheep market a pool's gem,
Which is called in the Hebrew tongue
Bethesda, with five porches rung.
3 In these lay a great multitude
Of invalids: of blind and lame,
Of withered waiting for the game
Of the water to move in claim.
4 For an angel went and came down
At a certain time to the town,
To the pool and stirred up the water,
And whoever was first alotter
To step in after that, was made
Well of whatever illness stayed.

I do not know if men in ancient days
Were right or wrong in waiting for the ways
Of angel steps to move the waters' maze.
The superstitions of the weak retain
A hope on every mind and every stain.
And yet the faith of the small and the weak
Sometimes is honoured by the mountain peek.
I do not know, and further do not care.
I rather set my eyes upon the share
Of the one who alone has right to rule
Within the jurisdiction of the pool.
Beloved, fetch me or not to the pool's edge
To grasp Your healing or to feel the ledge
Filled with the fertile muck and flowering sedge.

5 A certain man was there, which had
An illness for thirty-eight bad
Years. 6 When Jesus saw him lie, and
Knew that he had been now in band
Such a long time, he said to him,
“Will you be made both well and trim?”
7 The ill man answered him, “Sir, I
Have no one when the waters try
To put me in the pool, but when
I'm coming another again
Steps down before me on the fly.
8 Jesus said to him, “Get up then,
Take your bed and walk, at least try.”

In human time the years number to thirty
And eight are beyond comprehension's flirty.
And yet I trow I know as many here,
As many as forty and fifty's gear.
So pity me too on the pretty brink
Of lake where I stay living and not shrink
Back from obedience to word and voice
From You or Your sent one to make rejoice.
Beloved, I try the sky on for a fit,
And earth turns into the form where I sit,
And yet my task of waiting for the day,
Whether a Sabbath or in working's way
Must pivot at the base and in surprise
Sharpen my hopes against the fatal skies.

9 And straight away the man was well,
And picked up his bed walking swell,
And that same day was Sabbath day.
10 The Jews therefore said to the man
Who was cured, “It's the Sabbath day,
And it's unlawful in that way
To carry a bed as in plan.”
11 He answered them, “The one who cured
Me, the same man told me assured,
'Pick up your bed and walk away.'”
12 Then they asked him, “What man was that
Who told you to pick up your mat
And walk away?” 13 And the one healed
Did not know who it was appealed,
For Jesus had just disappeared
Among the crowds that milled and steered.
14 Afterward Jesus came to find
Him in the temple, and combined
To say to him, “See you are well,
But sin no more, lest it compel
A worse thing on you and confined.”

Each Sabbath day where I wait with the two
Or three in the name of Your sent one's view,
I find he comes again with word and touch,
Commanding me to rise, take bed and crutch
And leap forth in the judgement day and thrall
Of glory that awakens at Your call.
The priests do not surround me with the bill
For desecrating Sabbath on the hill.
They've left both burden of the law and that
Rejoicing that the Sabbath day on mat
Must bring to all who hear the Saviour's word.
The two or three remaining with hearts stirred
Bear off their bedding in glory and shroud
To praise Your name silently or aloud.

15 The man left and told the Jews that
It was Jesus who'd cured him flat.
16 That's why the Jews troubled Jesus
And sought to kill him, for the fuss
Since he did these things in the way
Of the sacred and Sabbath day.
17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father
Works until now, I too, no bother.”
18 That's why the Jews tried more to kill him,
Because he not only to fill him
Had broken the Sabbath, but said
God was his father and so led
Him to make himself equal to
God Himself and not faithful crew.

I beg to question where the son of man
Made himself equal to his God in span,
And in his word of grace where did he fail
To honour Sabbath day for whole and hale.
The judgements that the priests of every ilk
Make are plagued by the greed for gold and silk.
Those who make Jesus God today and yet
Pretend him to be God Almighty set
No precedent, but follow in the train
And word of those false men upon the plain
Street of Jerusalem, who would not find
The life eternal in commandments lined,
But only savour of death to each one
Who sits hopelessly by the troubled dun.

19 Then Jesus answered and told them,
“Truly indeed I say a gem
To you, the son can do nothing
Of himself, but what he sees that
The Father does, for where he's at,
What He does the son does out flat.
20 “For the Father loves the son and
Shows him all things He does to stand,
And He will show him greater works
Than these, so that all of you jerks
Can marvel for your hopes and quirks.

Beloved, I see You only in the words
That You spoke before Sinai to the herds,
And in the flesh and blood of the one sent
Embodying the message that You meant.
And so I too, like Jesus did of old,
Do only what I see and what I'm told
To find that life indeed is in the tale,
And in the word and flesh and to prevail.
Beloved, I grasp the love that You sent down
In Jesus for a witness and a crown,
And make that love my own and of renown.
If greater works than these I see in play
Beneath the sun upon the hill in ray
Exist, I submit to their gloried day.

21 “As the Father raises the dead,
And quickens them, so the son led
Will quicken whom he will and sped.

For the most part I do not ask of You,
Beloved, to let me raise the dead in view.
And yet when I think of the matter more,
It is truly something I might implore.
Raise up the dead, Beloved, and if not here
And now, at least upon the day appear
Before the resurrection with the gear
Of every life to show one last great fear.
And yet, Beloved, besides the last day's right,
Is there no possibility in sight
To raise the child that's lost upon the plain
Of Africa for lack of dust and rain?
The crib filled here nearby with new despair
To find the emptiness of earthen air?

22 “For the Father judges no man,
But gives judgement in the son's plan.

When I was a young man in clutch and stay
Of theological course and the sway
Of my professors on that far off day,
I was once blighted that I said Your son
Came to the earth a ready man and one
To judge both man and womankind to see
What they could do or not in some degree.
You judge no man, I see, but You have sent
One to live through the things that we have bent,
One capable of judgement and in sight
Beneath Your law of hope and fervent right.
Beloved, judge me not for the things I've done,
Nor for the thoughts and motives that have won
My heart and hand, but by my faith, by gun.

23 “So all should honour the son just
As they honour the Father's crust.
The one who does the son no honour
Does not honour the Father goner.
24 “Truly indeed, I say to you,
The one to hear my word is true,
And has faith in the One who sent
Me has eternal life and will
Not be condemned upon the hill,
But has passed from death into life.

To honour the son just like honouring God
Does not mean to treat like two peas in pod.
It is no honour to the son to make
Him out to be Almighty God in wake.
Just as a man should honour God above,
So should he honour one sent in His love.
I honour God as God, and son as son,
And having done so, all the battle's won.
Beloved, if I do wrong to honour both
You and the man you sent in words that quoth
In flesh and blood commandments not in vain,
I take the consequences of wrong train.
But if not, cast a loving curse on those
Who deny the truth of the thing I chose.

Again I say to honour the son as
God when he is not God is simple jazz.
He must be honoured just as You, Beloved,
Must be honoured, but each one as he's gloved.
To honour You as the son and a man
Would be blasphemous as anyone can.
In the same way to join the son to You
As God the Son is blasphemous in view.
Beloved, may I honour You and Jesus
Each in the way I should and without fuss.
I pray that my worship of You might be
Acceptable without a Trinity,
And that my honour of Jesus might show
Obedience to You as I should go.

25 “Truly indeed, I say to you,
The time is coming and is due,
When the dead shall hear the loud voice
Of God's son and live to rejoice.
26 “For as the Father has life in
Himself, so He gave from that bin
To the son to have life within.

John brings the welcome message that the life
You give is not merely for this world's strife,
But is one taught in resurrection's beam,
A brighter one than any that now seem.
Whether I am among the dead in dust,
Or among those alive, Beloved, I trust
In Your sent one, that what he promised then
Will come to me among the choicest men.
He said that the last shall be first that day,
And surely none are more last in their pay
Than I, except the crowds caught in death's sway
By poverty and hunger on the way.
Among the privileged I am the last,
Let resurrection then not be outcast.

Beloved, You only have life of Your own,
Within Yourself, not caught on flesh and bone,
But life original, unborrowed and
Eternal on the universal sand.
That life unborrowed You granted in love
To the one that You sent down from above
As gauge and promise that the human sound
Might one day also be caught up and bound
In Your immortal being to sing loud
The praises of Your glory in a crowd.
Beloved, I praise You that eternal life,
Which is Your right alone, is split by knife
Of grace to one who represented You,
And through him to all beggars come in view.

27 “And He gave him power to instate
Judgement also, because his rate
Is to be son of man as well.
28 “Do not be amazed at this, for
The hour is coming, in which score
All that are in the graves shall hear
His voice, 29 “and shall come forth, appear
Those who've done good into the spell
Of resurrection of life, and
Those who've done evil in the land
To resurrection into hell.

Alright, not hell exactly in the view
Of Dante, but to their destruction due,
Let evil-doers rise up from the grave.
It is a logical way to behave.
I see that justice is not meted out
To anyone, despite the way they shout
That forests echo one's own words and neighbour
Answers in like to every kind of labour.
Still wickedness succeeds on earth today
In getting every kind of wealth and pay.
If justice is a divine thing and way,
Then resurrection's the response to set
On death that interrupts what people get.
Beloved, it's just something I've never met.

30 “Of myself I can do no thing:
As I hear, I judge, and it's just
As I judge, because I don't sing
My own will, but the will that must
Come from the Father who sent me.

If the one You sent can do no thing then
He cannot be the God Almighty's sting.
The Trinity is proven false and vain
By this one verse of John taken in train,
Though John's the Gospel that is best to serve
Those who would take the pagan way and swerve
From Your word and Your being One alone.
Beloved, I see that John can here atone.
The things that Jesus hears from You make him
A just judge on the earth and never dim.
That trait imamic that the Shi'ite crowd
Attributes to the holy twelve aloud
Has precedents in multitude in store
In Bible times, upon the golden shore.

31 “If I bear the testimony
Of myself, my witness is not
True. 32 “There's another that is taught
To bear witness of me: I know
That witness which he comes to show
Of me is true. 33 “You sent to John,
And he bore witness in true brawn.
34 “But I got no witness from man:
But these things I say in the plan
Of your salvation and not ban.
35 “He was a burning, shining light:
And you were willing for a sight
Of time to rejoice in his light.
36 “But I have greater witness than
That of John: for the works in span
Which the Father gave me to do,
The same works that I do, show true
That the Father has sent me too.

The three great witnesses that Jesus is
Your sent one still remain to do their biz:
The first is that witness that John bore straight
As soon as he saw Jesus coming late.
The second is the word that fell like dove
Upon his head to sing a song of love.
The third is the mass of healing and sign
Of miracle that he did in a line.
Beloved, I take the works of Christ indeed
As evidence of love on earth in seed,
But ask that they not limit to that one,
But might be found today under the sun.
Wherever two or three come in his name,
Let resurrections burst forth from the flame.

37 “And the Father Himself who sent
Me, has of me His witness lent.
You've never heard His voice in time
Nor seen his shape of form or rhyme.
38 “And you do not have His word staying
In you, for whom he has sent swaying,
Him you do not believe at all.
39 “Search the Scriptures, for in their stall
You think you have eternal life;
And they are what above all strife
Give witness of me, song and fife.

The people heard just thunder on the shore
Of Jordan, not the voice of God once more.
And so the divine witness comes to lack
Upon the craven heart, unshriven back.
And yet Jesus claims that Your word stands true
In evidence that he has come from You.
It's not the detail here or there that rises
In some interpretation that comprises
A serpent or a virgin of the best.
It's rather the fact that Your word gives rest,
A law of ten commandments that implies
A ruler set by You under the skies.
There's no alternative but David's son,
And by that reasoned faith my soul is won.

40 “And you refuse to come to me,
That you might have life faithfully.
41 “I do not get honour from men.
42 “But I know you, that you again
Do not have love of God in you.
43 “I've come in my Father's name due,
And you did not receive my view,
If someone comes in his own name,
You will receive him like a flame.

The dear lord Jesus certainly knows well
Anatomy of human magic's spell.
Whatever a man says of truth and grace,
He gets in reply just a slap in face.
But if he brings a false invention out,
His followers will multiply in clout.
That is the kingdom of the demon grown,
The one who makes a pretence to the throne.
Beloved, I take no one come in the name
Of human hopes and harbours for the fame,
But only You alone, ever the same,
The One divine above creation's game.
I take none but You, my Beloved, and find
In You all that I lost in hopes entwined.

44 “How can you believe, who receive
Honour from each other on sleeve,
And do not seek honour alone
From God who sits upon His throne?

The only honour in this world of strife
That's true is that of witness in the life
Of honour from Your name, Beloved, alone.
The credit that the human takes in stone
Is empty and is cold cut to the bone.
The churches and the state honour indeed
Their sons of lust and cruelty and greed.
But You honour alone obedience,
Adherence to commandments present tense.
Beloved, let me seek honour when I do
The thing that I know from Your word is true,
While many come to cut the Sabbath day
From worship and when they come late to pray
Lift up an idol on the throne to sway.

45 “Do not imagine I'll accuse
You to the Father: he'll abuse
You, even Moses, whom you trust.
46 “For if you had believed the dust
Of Moses, you'd have believed me,
Because he wrote of me freely.
47 “But if you do not believe his
Writings, how shall you take the biz
To believe my words of degree?”

I do find in the writings of that man
Moses the name of Joshua by plan.
No doubt that's what he’s talking about here,
This Joshua’s a prophecy at ear
Of coming of Your sent one down in fear
And in the love of all creation's gear.
The logic is not easy to receive,
That Joshua who came to the reprieve
Of Moses is a sign of one to come
After years more than a millennium.
I take the ten commandments written down
By Your hand and by Moses with a frown,
And find that word incarnate in the man,
And that is greater proof than any can.


AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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