William Loader’s 14 Motifs

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William Loader’s 14 Motifs

Books & Articles · The Structure: An Outline

A guided reading of the Gospel of John: the Son comes from the Father, makes the Father known, and returns to the Father; the disciples and the Spirit carry this revelation into understanding, mission and community.

Explore the central structure

Use the arrows or dots to move through the fourteen motifs in order. On a phone, swipe horizontally. Each slide gives a concise explanation and selected passages for reading.

01 / 14 — The Father
The Son’s story begins with the Father. Loader gathers John’s references to the Son’s presence with God before creation, his sharing in the Father’s glory and love, and his role in creation. This origin underlies the whole account of Jesus’ coming and being sent.

Read in John: John 1:1–3, 14, 18; 17:5, 24
02 / 14 — Sends and authorises the Son
Sending means a commission with authority. The Father gives the Son his words, command, name and work, together with authority to give life and judge. Jesus therefore acts as the Father’s authorised representative rather than on his own initiative.

Read in John: John 3:35; 5:22, 30; 8:28; 12:49–50; 17:2
03 / 14 — Who knows the Father
The Son makes known what he has seen and heard with the Father. Loader reads this through the pattern of an envoy who knows, speaks for and acts for the sender. Mutual knowledge and indwelling express the closeness of Father and Son; John 5 also pictures the Son following what the Father shows him.

Read in John: John 1:18; 5:19–20; 6:46; 10:15, 38; 14:7–11
04 / 14 — Comes from the Father
Jesus comes from God, from above and from heaven into the world. His origin establishes the authority of his revelation. John repeatedly uses irony: characters debate Jesus’ earthly origins while readers know where he truly comes from. His coming is paired with his eventual return.

Read in John: John 1:14; 3:13; 6:41–42; 8:14; 16:28
05 / 14 — Makes the Father known
This is the centre of Loader’s outline: Jesus reveals the Father. His words and deeds communicate what he has received from God, so encountering the Son is an encounter with the Father he makes known. A response to Jesus is consequently also a response to the Father.

Read in John: John 1:18; 8:26–28; 12:49–50; 14:7–11
06 / 14 — Brings light and life and truth
Light, life and truth express the saving significance of Jesus’ presence. Life is both his gift and something he embodies, received from the Father. To receive it is to know God and the Son he sent. Refusing this revelation brings judgment. Loader places the Gospel’s principal “I am” images within this mission of revelation.

Read in John: John 1:4–5, 14, 17; 5:26; 8:12; 14:6; 17:3
07 / 14 — Completes his Father’s work
Jesus carries the Father’s commission through to its completion. His deeds are signs that disclose who sent him; his death brings the task to its climax. Loader gives primary emphasis to making the Father known and bringing life, while also considering passages that may give Jesus’ death sacrificial significance.

Read in John: John 4:34; 5:36; 11:42; 17:4; 19:30
08 / 14 — Returns to the Father
The Son’s journey joins coming from the Father with going back to the Father. His departure completes the movement of his mission, but also opens the way for the Spirit and the disciples’ work. Jesus promises that his followers will ultimately be with him and share the glory of the Father’s presence.

Read in John: John 13:1, 3; 14:2–3, 28; 16:28; 17:24
09 / 14 — Exalted, glorified, ascended
Loader gathers the language of the hour, lifting up, glorification, ascent and the Son of Man around Jesus’ death and return. These motifs interpret the same decisive event from related perspectives. The cross discloses Jesus’ identity, brings judgment on the world and leads to the fruit of his completed mission.

Read in John: John 3:13–15; 6:62; 12:23–33; 13:31–32; 20:17
10 / 14 — Sends the disciples
The risen Jesus commissions the disciples in a pattern analogous to his own sending. They bear witness, receive authority and the Spirit, and continue his mission amid opposition. Their sending depends on the Son’s revelation: their unity and witness direct the world to the Father who sent him.

Read in John: John 15:26–27; 17:18, 20–23; 20:21–23
11 / 14 — And sends the Spirit
The Spirit, the other Paraclete, is sent by the Father and the Son. As Jesus makes the Father known, the Spirit makes Jesus known, teaching, recalling and interpreting his words and work. Loader stresses that this is no independent second revelation: the Spirit communicates what belongs to Jesus.

Read in John: John 7:39; 14:16–17, 26; 15:26; 16:7–15; 20:22
12 / 14 — To enable greater understanding
After Jesus’ death and return, the disciples come to understand more fully what was already present in his ministry. The Spirit enables remembrance and insight into Jesus’ identity and Scripture. The Gospel joins this Spirit-given understanding to the disciples’ witness, especially the tradition associated with the beloved disciple.

Read in John: John 2:22; 12:16; 14:20, 26; 16:13–15; 20:9
13 / 14 — To equip for mission
The sending of the disciples and the gift of the Spirit equip witness to the world. Loader connects the wider mission, fruit-bearing, answered prayer and the promise of greater works with Jesus’ death and return. Mission glorifies Father and Son and remains inseparable from the command to love.

Read in John: John 4:35–38; 10:16; 12:24, 32; 14:12–17; 15:7–16
14 / 14 — And to build up the community of faith
The community’s life flows from communion with the Father and Son through the Spirit. Love, service and unity make its witness visible; unity is both a means and a goal of mission. Loader also considers the mediation of life through Jesus’ word and the Eucharist. The story’s final horizon is the disciples sharing the Son’s glory with the Father.

Read in John: John 13:34–35; 14:16–23; 15:1–17; 17:21–24

One revelation, a continuing witness

For Loader, making the Father known is the central event. The Son’s origin and sending make that revelation possible. His return and the sending of the disciples and the Spirit enable it to be understood, proclaimed and lived. Their witness unfolds the revelation given in the Son.

The fourteen motifs at a glance

  1. The Father
  2. Sends and authorises the Son
  3. Who knows the Father
  4. Comes from the Father
  5. Makes the Father known
  6. Brings light and life and truth
  7. Completes his Father’s work
  8. Returns to the Father
  9. Exalted, glorified, ascended
  10. Sends the disciples
  11. And sends the Spirit
  12. To enable greater understanding
  13. To equip for mission
  14. And to build up the community of faith

Source and reading note

William Loader, Jesus in John’s Gospel: Structure and Issues in Johannine Christology, Part One, Chapter 3, “The Structure: An Outline.”