Have you every experienced it when you are talking about something and a person in the group, maybe yourself has no clue what they are on about. This is especially common among computer people, they tend to talk a different type of language, know only to them selves. Even within that community there are subsets that talk their own language.

Working through the gospel of John I tend to get that impression. Jesus trying to explain the disciples heavenly things and the disciples and the people around having no clue what is going on! Even as I read the gospel, I am trying to figure out what is Jesus on about.To the point that in John 16:29 'His disciples said to Him, 'See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech!'

Why this miscommunication, you can feel the frustration of Jesus as He says the same things over and over, and the frustration of the people, as they get confused over and over. It seems an odd dialog to record.

Things get really confusing for in Mat 9:18-25 we have the story of the rulers daughter who died, yet Jesus says 'Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping.', but with Lazarus Jesus says 'Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.', so now the disciples think ok he is only sleeping, things are not that bad, then Jesus says 'Lazarus is dead.' So dead is sleeping, but sleeping is not dead huh!

So what is going on here? It is also interesting to note that the other gospels or the synoptic gospels are not like this. Is there another purpose on the go here.

I believe that there is. The synoptic gospels just tell His story, yet with John, John is trying to explain something of the Spiritual dimension to life. John is trying to convey another reality here.

Let have a look at one of these confusing conversations. John 4 – the woman at the well.

Jesus starts the conversation, by asking for water. No sooner than He has her attention then off He goes talking about living water that will become a fountain welling up to eternal life. She still not on his wavelength cannot figure out where He is going to get this water.

Then we have the long conversation about worship and husbands so off she runs, forgetting about Jesus drink and he own water. So his disciples arrive and offer Him food. But no go He replies I have food you do not know about. Hence the reaction 'Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?' Can you see that Jesus is on one frequency and the rest of the people on another?

John 6: 27-60 :: Here we go again all about food again, this time about bread. How do we eat Jesus flesh? I knew of someone who refused to become a Christian because of this. Do you want to eat Jesus flesh and drink His blood? (now that would make an interesting mime) And at the end they say
'This is a hard saying; who can understand it?'

So where does all this leave us, here we are 2000 years later, in a different culture trying to understand something about what Jesus is saying. But the real question to all of this is do we need to understand to believe?

Lets look at a couple of people as they struggled to come to faith.

In John 6 we have the feeding of the 5000, from there he went and prayed. Then joining His disciples by walking on the water. Having reached the other side the crowd catch up with Him again. In vs 30 Therefore they said to Him, 'What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do?' What where they asking, remember they had just been fed on five loaves and two fish, they where part of a sign and wonder the day before, they partook of the bread them selves. Yet they chase Jesus for material things vs 26 'Jesus answered them and said, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.''

Yet they want a sign so that they might believe. What if that sign does not convince you? Are you expecting God to perform for you?

In John 2:23 – 25

23Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. 24But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, 25and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

Jesus knew that if men came to faith by seeing sign that the faith could be sort lived. Is your faith relying on signs and wonders to keep going?

There is a difference between coming to faith through the intervention of God in a situation and relying of God to perform sign for you to maintain your faith.

John 9 – the man born blind.

If you know the story, you will know that Jesus sees this man born blind. Makes clay out of the sand and his spit then sends him of to wash in the pool of Siloam. He then returns seeing and the result is he is brought before the council and they give him a grilling. At the end of all this we read.

John 9:35 – 38

Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, 'Do you believe in the Son of God?' He answered and said, 'Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?' And Jesus said to him, 'You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.' Then he said, 'Lord, I believe!' And he worshiped Him.

Through the experience of being healed he came to faith, but his faith was not reliant on the miracle.

Back to John 4, after the meeting with the woman at the well a noble man came to Him to ask Him to heal his son and

John 4:48 – 50

Then Jesus said to him, 'Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.' The nobleman said to Him, 'Sir, come down before my child dies!' Jesus said to him, 'Go your way; your son lives.' So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.

And further up in John we also read

John 4:42

Then they said to the woman, 'Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.'

Here lies the key not that we see signs and wonder, but that we believe the word, that we hear Him for ourselves. Once you have heard Him your faith is not reliant on what you see and what others say, because you have believe the Word made flesh.

Then from that point, you are ready to go back to the book of John and accept what Jesus is saying without trying to understand it with the natural mind. Let it seep into your spirit and abide their taking root and grow and produce. For our natural mind was not made to understand spiritual matter. We need only to believe in the Word. For as the writer of Hebrews says, 'by faith we believe'