Week 40 John
I’m impressed by how much travelling the Lord did.
I notice it here because I was tracking his movements in Luke. Up until chapter nine Luke concentrated exclusively on what the Lord was doing up-country in Galilee. Finally the Lord left for Jerusalem – and Luke spent the next ten chapters talking about that one trip. You’d get the impression from Luke that the Lord spent all of his public ministry years in Galilee and then in the end travelled to Jerusalem. But John clarifies that impression…
Right after the very first miracle it was Passover time and: Jesus went to Jerusalem.
Then a bit later: Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days.
He was back in Galilee in chapter six but then John said: it was nearly time for the annual Passover celebration.
Sometime later the Lord was on the road again: it was time for the Feast of Shelters in Jerusalem.
A couple of chapter later: it was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah.
From the sound of it the Lord was very familiar with The City.
Luke was a pretty scrupulous investigator so I figure he was well aware of the Lord’s frequent road trips and he had reasons for composing his gospel the way he did. But John helps by spelling out a more detailed itinerary.
Note: quotes from John 2:13, 5:1, 6:4, 7:2, 10:22 (NLT)