Whenever Jesus prefaced a statement by saying, “Truly, truly (Amen, amen),” or in the KJV, “Verily, verily,” it was His way of being passionately emphatic about something. I don’t mean emphatic in the “preachy” kind of way, but I mean emphatic in the “deeply loving us” kind of way. It was His way of expressing, out of His heart of love, the extreme importance of the truth He was about to communicate. Jesus is the truth, and knowing the truth sets us free, and Jesus gave His life to set us free from the reign of sin and the self-destruction of our fallenness. Therefore speaking the truth to us has great significance to Him, and there are certain foundational truths that are massive in their significance.
It is fascinating to me that only in the Gospel of John is it recorded that Jesus prefaced some statements with the words “Truly, truly.” Twenty-five times in the Gospel of John, we are told Jesus spoke those words. In light of the fact that the three synoptic Gospels don’t mention the “ double amens” of Jesus, does that mean that John added something that Jesus did not actually say? That can’t be! So why did only John remember or choose to tell us about Jesus’s “double amens?” I believe it’s possible that John, who identified himself as “the disciple who Jesus is always loving,” uniquely comprehended the love of God in the voice of Christ. It’s not that the others didn’t encounter the love of God in the voice of Christ, but I believe John was different This one who laid his head on the breast of Christ knew the heartbeat of Jesus. It was John who, more clearly than any other biblical writer, reveals God’s true nature when he wrote in 1 John 4:8, “God is love.” Only John wrote about the “I thirst” and “It is finished” statements of Jesus from the cross. Jesus wasn’t voicing His physical thirst. He was voicing the “thirsting” heart of God for fallen and broken humanity to experience His transformative love. Ninety-five percent of the gospel of John is totally unique to the other Gospels. It doesn’t make the gospel of John better, but John’s record is different, not in a contradictory way, but in an insightful way into the heart of God. John wrote his gospel when he was about 95 years old, and I believe that the Holy Spirit allowed only him to reference the “double amens” of Jesus because John – the one Jesus entrusted His mother to – had deep insight, personally, and therefore experientially into the true nature of the love and grace of God revealed in Christ. By the way, and sounds like being 95 is pretty rocking.
Do you hear the passionate love of God for you spoken into your heart, or do you hear disapproval, disappointment, and condemnation? John the Disciple wants to disciple us through his example by inviting us to lay our head on the breast of Jesus until we can hear the heartbeat of God drowning out all the voices of rejection. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ, and therefore, the voice of God, even in correction, will always sound like the “double amens” of the passionate love of God for you.
