John

The Word Became Flesh

The prologue. Then John the Baptist deflecting every title offered him, and the first disciples — including one who asks whether anything good can come out of Nazareth and is told to come and see.

Cana, and the Temple

Water into wine at a wedding, at his mother’s insistence and before he thinks it is time. Then the cords, the tables, and the animals driven out.

Nicodemus at Night

A member of the council who comes in the dark. Born again, or born from above — the Greek carries both. Then the verse most often quoted, and the line about people loving darkness.

The Woman at the Well

A Samaritan, a woman, and five husbands — three reasons the conversation should not have happened. The longest recorded conversation he has with anyone, and she brings the town back with her.

The Pool at Bethesda

A man there thirty-eight years, asked whether he wants to be well. Healed on a sabbath, which starts the conflict that runs the rest of the book.

The Bread of Life

Five thousand fed from a boy’s lunch. Then a discourse hard enough that most of the crowd leaves — and the question to the twelve, “do you also want to go away?”

Tabernacles

His brothers do not believe him. The crowd argues. The temple guards come back without him saying no one ever spoke like this — and Nicodemus asks whether the law judges a man before hearing him.

The Light of the World

A woman caught, a circle of accusers, and writing in the dust. Then the long exchange about freedom, truth, and descent from Abraham.

The Man Born Blind

Mud, a pool, and an interrogation that runs the length of the chapter — his parents afraid to answer, and the man himself getting sharper the longer it goes on: one thing I know, I was blind and now I see.

The Good Shepherd

The gate and the shepherd. The hired hand who runs when the wolf comes, because the sheep are not his. Laying down his life — stated four times — and no one taking it from him.

Lazarus

Four days in the tomb. The shortest verse in the Bible, and the deliberate delay before it. The raising is also what decides the authorities: from that day on they plan to kill him.

The Anointing, and the Entry

Mary pours out a year’s wages and Judas objects. The entry on a donkey, some Greeks asking to see him, and the grain of wheat that has to fall into the ground.

The Feet

He gets up from supper, ties a towel round his waist, and washes their feet — including the feet of the one leaving to betray him. Then the new commandment.

Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled

In my Father’s house are many rooms. The way, the truth, the life. The promise of another Helper, and a peace not given as the world gives.

The Vine

Abide. The branch that bears nothing and the branch pruned to bear more. Greater love has no one than this — and the warning that the world will hate them.

A Little While

Sorrow turning to joy like a woman in labour. The Spirit who will guide into all truth. “In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”

The Prayer

He prays for himself, then for the eleven, then for everyone who will believe through their word — that they may be one. The longest recorded prayer he prays.

The Arrest and the Trial

The garden, the ear, and Peter’s three denials by a charcoal fire. Then Pilate asking what truth is, and going back and forth between the hall and the crowd.

The Crucifixion

The purple robe and the crown. The sign in three languages that Pilate refuses to change. His mother given into the care of the disciple standing there. “It is finished.”

The Tomb, and Thomas

Mary Magdalene mistaking him for the gardener until he says her name. The locked room. Thomas, absent the first time, invited to put his hand in the wound.

Breakfast on the Shore

A night of catching nothing, and a fire already lit on the beach with fish on it. Three questions to Peter beside another charcoal fire — one for each denial.