Jesus, Christ and Servant of God

In 2007–2008 David Johnson was led to read the Gospel of John, verse by verse. For eight months he read nothing else, and the Spirit took him through the gospel, opening its meaning for him. This experience convinced David that the gospel is not just a record of Jesus’ ministry; it is also a consummate guide to the spiritual life. The reader starts at the beginning and progressively enters more and more deeply into a relationship of holy faithfulness with Jesus.

John’s gospel on Jesus opens up a new spiritual world that concentrates on our being in the here and now. Jesus demolishes religious, cultural, and gender walls to reveal a way of being that transcends these regulations. The spirituality of Jesus is eternal and universal and is of the heart, not of buildings and doctrines. It is time to recover the wonderful impact of Jesus’ teachings anew.

The narrative of Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel According to John forms a very clear teaching about the spiritual life. For many, this sequence parallels the spiritual lessons and changes we each go through.

David Johnson is a member of Queensland Regional Meeting of the Australia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. He has a long commitment to nonviolence and opposing war and the arms trade and worked with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. David delivered the 2005 Backhouse Lecture, entitled “Peace Is a Struggle,” to Australia Yearly Meeting. He helped establish the Silver Wattle Quaker Centre in Australia in 2010 and was C0-Director of the Centre 2013–2014. David is also the author of A Quaker Prayer Life.