The Jesus whom we meet in John's Gospel often seems to be an intimidating sort. He strides through the pages saying things like, "I am the water of Life," "I am the Bread of the Life," "I am the light of the world," and, in today's Gospel, there occurs that climactic affirmation, "I am the Resurrection and the Life."

All of that may be true enough, but we have to admit that it is not your everyday mode of conversation, and people who go around saying things like that are not easy to get close to. In John's Gospel, Jesus goes around doing things in a big way and then saying lots of very big and very complicated things about them. He starts out in the Gospel turning water into wine and now, by the time we get to today's Gospel, he is turning death into life! Awesome, as they say in some cir…