Near the end of his Gospel, St. John writes, "Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may come to have life in his name" (20.30-31).

Jesus told the Pharisees that he is the good shepherd who looks after his sheep. "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10.10). This promise of abundant life is one of Jesus' mission statements in the Gospels; it expresses the core of why God became human and what he intended to do about the human condition. Turn to Luke's Gospel to see another of these expressions: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.