The Metaphors In The Gospel Of John

The Gospel of John is filled with metaphors and analogies, which Jesus uses to communicate his message of salvation and repentance and explain his role as ‘the son’. One notable thing about these metaphors is the way that they compare salvation and faith to material needs and goods, and the way that the common people, who Jesus is preaching to, fail to understand them and instead take them literally. I believe that this demonstrates one of the main concerns of Jesus’ message: that most people only understood materialism and could not even begin to fathom faith and spirituality, and how detrimental this was to them.

Early on in the Gospel of John, Jesus meets Nicodemus, a religious authority from among the Pharisees. Jesus tells him that “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (3:3) This is an extremely spiritual message. But yet, Nicodemus replies by asking, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (3:4) He doesn’t understand what Jesus has said at all; he interprets it literally. This entire discussion is extremely revealing, and, I

When he meets a Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob, he tells her that “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him l will never be thirsty” (4:13-14) Upon hearing this, the lady is excited by the literal idea of this water. She asks for this water, “so that [she] will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water” (4:15). But of course, Jesus is actually talking about salvation. Later on, when his disciples bring him food, he tells them he has “food to eat that [they] do not know about” (4:32) Even they take this literally, being so consumed by the topic of food. They ask, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” (4:33) Jesus tells them that his food is “to do the will of him who sent me”