this account, destined to die and remain below.
In a confrontation with “the Jews” during the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus says to them: “I go away, and you will seek me but die in your sin; where I am going you cannot come .… You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore, I told you that you would die in your sins” (8:21 – 24). To have been born below, to have been born of the flesh, is to have to die in one’s sins. The mission of the Son is to “become flesh” (not to “be born in the flesh”) ( 1:14) to release the constraints that separate the world below from the world above. The basic fact of life below has been altered. Eternal life, the norm of the world above, is now available in the world below since the one who ascended into heaven has opened the world above to those living in the world below.
Of course, in the opinion of “the Jews” Jesus’ origin is from below. They know perfectly well who his parents are. They ask themselves, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’” (6:42). Knowing that even his disciples are perturbed by his claim to have descended from heaven, Jesus asks them: “Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending where he was before?” (6:62). Apparently his ascent will be more extraordinary, more spectacular, more revealing than his descent. His ascent is the exception.
Every reader of this gospel must answer the question “the Jews,” almost pleading, ask him: “Who are you?” (8:25). Pilate asks the more specific question: “Where are you from?” (19:9). Frustrated by Jesus’ silence, Pilate threatens him: “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you, and authority to crucify you?” With this claim to authority the evangelist highlights the irony of the situation. Jesus now informs Pilate: “You would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above” (19:10 – 11). As a person in the world below Jesus may be subject to the power of Rome. His precarious standing before Pilate, however, is in reality authorized by the Power that comes from above. His death below is not the triumph of the power that has its sources below. He belongs to the world above, as he said, “I am from above” (8:23).
In spite of the persistent efforts of “the Jews” to kill him, they cannot achieve their purpose because Jesus cannot die stoned by “the Jews.” He must die the Roman way, by crucifixion. His exit from the world below must be an ascent, an elevation. The Son of man must be lifted up. “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am” (8:28). The question of “the Jews,” “Who are you?” here receives its answer, “I am.” If his incarnation was his descent, his death is to be his ascension. The post on which he will be “lifted up” is the road on which he will journey to heaven.
The turning point in Jesus’ ministry is precipitated by some Greeks who provide a contrast to the attitude of “the Jews” who neither see nor believe. When Jesus finds out that some Greeks have said: “We wish to see Jesus” (12:21), he reacts by announcing: “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified” (12:23). Then he explains: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (12:32). The narrator then explains: “He said this to show by what death he was to die.” As could be expected, those who heard Jesus’ explanation did not understand it. They asked: “How can you say that the Son of man must be lifted up?” (12:34). The lifting up of the Son of man is not an option; it is a necessity. He “must be lifted up,” or, as said by Pilate, “crucified” or, as Jesus said it, “glorified.” He is the exception who is glorified by his ascent to heaven.
In this gospel these words describe the completion of Jesus’ mission. He accomplishes it by returning to the Father “crucified,” “lifted up,” “glorified.” This is the way by which he returns to the world above from which he came. As Jesus says, “I came from the Father .… and [I am] going to the Father” (16:28). Those who know this know who he is and where he is from.
This is known by faith. Only faith makes it possible to recognize the Father as the origin and the destiny of the One who dies “lifted up” and in this way ascends to where he came from. Faith, however, must always rest on an object. Faith must be on something specific. Faith cannot be based on a mist without contours and attributes. It is not a feeling, or an intuition without specificity. The Son of Man must be crucified to provide the object faith requires. Therefore, when the Greeks express the wish to see Jesus, he knows that the hour for him to become the object on which faith is to be tested has arrived. Only when he is “lifted up” can he “draw all men” to himself. He is to be lifted up “so that whosoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
The central metaphor of According to John is offered by Jesus to Nicodemus: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (3:14). The image of Moses lifting up a post with a bronze serpent on it as a way of giving life to the Israelites who were dying in the desert bitten by serpents (Num. 21:9) is given as the best way to understand the crucifixion of Jesus. The bronze serpent in the wilderness was not itself the effective antidote against the venom of the desert reptiles, it was, rather, the vision of the lifted shining object that counteracted the poison.
The central theological text of this gospel is not 3:16. It is 3:14 – 15: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Human beings don’t need to ascend to heaven. They received life by seeing the one who ascended, who was lifted up. Thereby they receive eternal life. Those who according to Merkabah Judaism ascended to the realms above expected to see there things about which they could not speak after their return to earth. By their ascent they had gained esoteric information which they could not share. According to John makes the point that those who see the Son of man lifted up receive eternal life, rather than new knowledge. As a result they are to become witnesses of life. They must share their life with others and thus promote life. This gospel offers in this way an argument against those who claim to be in possession of visions or revelations that give them esoteric, secret knowledge.
This is the Gospel of the gospel According to John: to believe in the One who was lifted up to show the love of the Father, from whom he came and to whom he is going, is to be drawn to the one who ascended. To believe in the one who was “lifted up,” the only one who “ascended into heaven” is to “be born from above.” What Jesus provides believers is not knowledge, but life, even while living in the world below.
In the dialogue with Nicodemus, Jesus informs him that it is necessary for him to “be born anothen.” Once again we encounter here the irony of this evangelist. Anothen is a Greek word with double meanings. The context alone can tell us how to understand it.
As is to be expected in a dialogue in this gospel, what Jesus says is misunderstood by his interlocutor – it does not matter with whom he is speaking. Nicodemus imagines that he must be born again “from his mother’s womb,” what nonsense! Jesus is telling him that he must be born from above of “the Spirit” (3:5). This is necessary because those who are from below, those who are of the flesh, live in a world where death is the ultimate certainty. Birth from above is the birth of faith, and the Son of Man came to provide the definitive object on which faith must rest. What women and men must see is not what they are anxious to see in journeys to the higher spheres. Seeing the Son lifted up brings about a birth “from above.” The higher spheres are not opened to those who climb on Elijah’s chariot, as Merkabah mysticism promised. Eternal life, the life of the higher spheres is accessible now only because the ascent of the Son on the cross.
The Prologue has already said it in a nutshell: “To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (1:12–13). Here we are told different ways to be born below and one way to be born “from above” (anothen). Since we live twenty centuries later it is difficult to distinguish with any certainty the three ways one can be born from below. I can offer only tentative suggestions.
To be born of blood may refer to birth from a tribal marriage. To be born of the will of the flesh may refer to birth from a passionate sexual encounter. To be born of the will of a husband (andros) may