John and the decision of the reader

Despite their contrasting approaches, Barth and Bultmann each find much support for their view of theology within John‟s Gospel. Their different assumptions lead to them interpreting verses in very different ways, or focusing on different parts of the text. A close examination of their use (or avoidance) of various texts from John will now show that there is an existentialist theme within John‟s Gospel and will criticise Barth‟s avoidance of it. As Bultmann finds, John‟s story does show the consequences of individual responses to Jesus Christ and does identify the possibilities open to the individual reader based on those decisions.

634 Bultmann, 1971, p. 107

635 CD IV.3.ii, p. 638

Chapter 8 - The response of the readers - page 171

John 3.16

The differences between Barth and Bultmann are shown clearly in their approach to John 3.16, where their contrasting assumptions lead to them emphasise different parts of the same sentence. When Barth discusses this verse in Volume IV.1, he presents it as a text about God‟s action towards the world („For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,‟); whereas for Bultmann this is a divine challenge to the individual. Both note the love of God, the humility of God and the darkness of the world, but Bultmann shows much more interest in the second half of John 3.16 („so that that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life,‟) than Barth does.

Bultmann is much more comfortable than Barth with the implication that salvation depends on a human response which is made by some people („everyone who believes in him‟), so that its scope is limited by the decisions of individual human beings. For Bultmann, John 3:16-21 shows „a radical understanding of Jesus‟

appearance as the eschatological event,‟⁶³⁶ an event which clearly divides the human race into two groups, as people decide between faith and unbelief. In this decision, „it becomes apparent what man really is and what he always was.‟ Therefore God

„makes the encounter with the Revealer the moment of true decision for men.‟⁶³⁷ Bultmann stresses the mention of judgement in John 3:19, so that „from now on there are only believers and unbelievers… those who have life and those who are in

death.‟⁶³⁸

Barth, making a rare reference to his rival, resists this focus on division between people, emphasising instead the love of God towards the whole world. He writes:

„The object of God‟s love was the κοζμορ, which means (compare the following with R Bultmann, The Gospel of John, 1971) the human world as a unified subject which confronts God in a hostile manner.‟⁶³⁹

636 Bultmann, 1971, p. 155

637 Bultmann, 1971, p. 159

638 Bultmann, 1971, p. 155

639 KD IV.1, p. 75, my translation (CD IV.1, p. 70)

The only distinction which Barth makes here between believers and unbelievers is that of portraying the Christians as witnesses to an event which affects the whole world,⁶⁴⁰ rather than as a group whose decisions have opened to them a different destiny from the rest of humanity. He insists that the first part of John 3.16 („For God so loved the world‟) is the „controlling part of the sentence‟. He also endorses

Hoskyn‟s view that God‟s purpose here is „redemption and not judgement.^‟641 His selective reading continues through the following verses. After focusing on the first part of John 3.16, he quotes verse 17 („God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him‟), which fits with his emphasis on God‟s action towards the whole world.

However, he does not continue to verse 18 („those who do not believe are condemned already‟), which points again towards a distinction between different kinds of people based on their chosen responses to Jesus.

John 9

Barth looks closely at the healing of the man born blind in John 9, as part of a discussion of the „connection which emerges in the New Testament passages between the actions of Jesus and the faith of the men to whom and among whom they occur.‟⁶⁴² Barth refers to a number of passages from the Synoptic Gospels, including Matthew 9.27-31, in which Jesus‟ miraculous healings seem to depend on and follow from the faith of the sick person. Barth‟s theology avoids giving such a decisive place to an individual person, so he emphasises that only a tiny amount of faith is involved, and that this faith is in Jesus Christ. But his main strategy is to give priority to John 9, in which the miraculous healing occurs first, while the question of faith („Do you believe in the Son of Man?‟) occurs at the end. Barth draws particular attention to this structure, commenting: „We are given an active demonstration of the free grace of God in the specific form of the removal of the blindness of this man….

He is simply given his sight, almost, as it were, over his head, and quite irrespective

640 CD IV.1, p. 73; Barth also interprets the second half of John 3.16 in this way in CD II.2, p. 422-423

641 CD IV.1, p. 72

642 CD IV.2, p. 233-242

Chapter 8 - The response of the readers - page 173

of what he was or was not in relation to Jesus.‟⁶⁴³ The emphasis is therefore entirely on divine action, prior to and independent of human response. Subsequently, as Barth comments: „With irresistible power, it took place that he was awakened and called to faith.‟⁶⁴⁴

Barth uses John 9 to assert that the relationship between faith and miracles is the opposite of the one which might appear to be the case in many examples from the Synoptic Gospels. He concludes by defining faith as „man‟s turning to Jesus and his power upon the basis of the fact that Jesus has turned to man in his power.‟⁶⁴⁵

Bultmann‟s interpretation of this passage is, once again, very different. Like Barth, he compares it with miracle stories in the Synoptic Gospels, and notes the lack of mention of the man‟s faith and the initiative seized by Jesus. However, his conclusion is that this is „a sign of the advanced stage of the development of the story.‟⁶⁴⁶ Where Barth finds divine action and objective revelation, Bultmann sees the human history of the text.

Bultmann notes that Jesus calls himself „the light of the world‟ in verse 5, and declares that „the following story must be seen in the light of this symbolism.‟⁶⁴⁷ The true purpose of the text is therefore our own encounter with the light which it

symbolises, rather than the content of its account of Jesus‟ actions. Bultmann pays much more attention than Barth to the response of the Pharisees and the man himself to the healing, which forms the greater part of John 9. Commenting on Jesus asking the man whether he believes in him, Bultmann writes: „The decisive step only comes when the question is put explicitly, when a man is confronted by the self-revelation in the word…. the word itself is only intelligible because it reveals to man the meaning of his own experience.‟⁶⁴⁸

He also highlights the significance of Jesus‟ words at the end of the chapter: „I came into this world for judgement so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.‟ He writes:

643 CD IV.2, p. 236

644 CD IV.2, p. 237

645 CD IV.2, p. 238

646 Bultmann, 1971, p. 330

647 Bultmann, 1971, p. 331

648 Bultmann, 1971, p. 338-339

Everyone must face the question to which of the two groups he wants to belong… This is what the judgement means; the „blind‟ receive „sight‟. These are the men who „believe‟ in the „light‟, and whose seeing is no longer an attempt to find their way in the world, in the delusion that they are able to see, but the condition of illumination through the

revelation.⁶⁴⁹

The passage, for Bultmann, leaves us with a sense that our own decision of whether or not to respond to the light of Christ in faith is of central importance. That is precisely the point which Barth uses the passage to oppose.

John 11.1-44

Barth looks in detail at the raising of Lazarus in John 11.1-44. He highlights Jesus‟

description of himself as the „resurrection and the life‟, and his command to Lazarus to „come forth‟. He comments

It is his Word as his act… This is the battle of Jesus for the cause of man as God‟s creature ordained by God for life and not for death. And when Lazarus hears it, and does as he is commanded, it is the victory of Jesus in this battle. And we have to remember, of course, that what is unfolded in this dramatic and almost breathtaking way in John 11 is the secret which the New Testament tradition thought it saw in all his acts and primarily in the Word which found concrete form in his acts.⁶⁵⁰

For Barth, this is one of a number of events which show Jesus‟ identity and message through his actions. The emphasis is on Jesus‟ initiative and authority in revealing himself and in conquering death. Bultmann, however, observes a different significance in the words which follow Jesus‟ description of himself as the

„resurrection and the life‟. In the second half of John 11.25, Jesus declares: „Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.‟

Bultmann, as with John 3.16, highlights in these words a division between two kind of people. Jesus‟ words cause a „sunderance between faith and unfaith‟.⁶⁵¹ Barth, of course, ignores this implication of the passage. However Bultmann, unlike Barth,

649 Bultmann, 1971, p. 341

650 CD IV.2, p. 228

651 Bultmann, 1955a, p. 38

Chapter 8 - The response of the readers - page 175

is not comfortable with a literal understanding of the physical resurrection of Lazarus. He approves of the way that this present encounter with Jesus takes our attention from any thought of a future resurrection, but he does not regard the bodily resurrection itself as the real matter of significance. He writes: „The idea of the

eschatological ἀναζηαζιρ is so transformed that the future resurrection of Martha‟s belief becomes irrelevant in face of the present resurrection that faith grasps. The raising of Lazarus is only a symbol of this.‟⁶⁵²

For Bultmann, resurrection concerns the transformation of the life and experience of the individual through faith in Christ, rather than the objective action of God in causing the resurrection of the body. He writes: „What then is the meaning of the death and life which are spoken of here…? It is that authenticity of existence, granted in the illumination which proceeds from man‟s ultimate understanding of himself.‟⁶⁵³ Therefore the „I am‟ saying itself also needs to be reinterpreted: „“I am the life” is not a description of the metaphysical nature of Jesus; it speaks of his gift for the man who comes to faith and thereby “rises.”‟⁶⁵⁴

The two different strategies of retreat employed by Barth and Bultmann cause them to interpret this passage in ways which barely overlap. They each highlight some themes in the text, while taking care to avoid or dismiss the aspects noted by the other.