What Jesus Is – John 1

A text – John 1:1-14

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
1:3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being
1:4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
1:6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
1:7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
1:8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
1:9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
1:10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.
1:11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.
1:12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,
1:13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
1:14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

A reflection:

Much has been written about the first lines of the Gospel of John. It sounds a little like a song. It is repetitive and circular and involves abstractions and metaphors. It is all about coming into being, about light and who gets to see the light, and about all that abstraction suddenly becoming incredibly and dangerously concrete.

In these first lines of John, Jesus is not called Jesus but instead called the Word.  John says that this Word was present in the beginning with God, before creation, and that the words God spoke to create the world, those creating words were “the Word,” Jesus, going forth from the mouth of God and creating everything that is: life.

Then John switches metaphors and says that the thing that came into being in the Word was “light,” an all powerful sort of light that darkness cannot overcome and that was for all people in the world, no matter who they might be. John, this writer, the evangelist, says that John the Baptist testified to the light so that everyone would see it and know it and believe in it. The evangelist further says some people did not accept him or even know him, but those who did accept him, through God’s will, have the power to become children of God.

Finally John says the Word, this creative force of God, this force of life and light that aims to adopt every human into God’s family, God’s life, this Word became flesh, a human being, and lived among us, full of grace and truth.

If you know me, you know that when I am given an abstraction, I try to figure out how someone could make a visual of it in a movie. In this passage of John, I picture the Word as a wave of sound or light, passing from God toward Earth, creating on its way. And then the wave becomes light, glowing soft or bright, both in and out of reach of people. Then the moving light shimmers into the shape of a human being of about 20 years of age, Jesus, working at a carpenter’s bench. But the abstractions are too vague to work as a movie.

So goes the Gospel of John for me. A beautiful and poetic attempt to put God in a poem or on a page. The imagery reminds us, though, that Jesus was no ordinary human. Somehow he was Word, and he was light, God’s light to a dark world.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for John’s attempt to explain where Jesus came from, what he had done since the beginning of time, and how extraordinary he is. Help us to be lifted and amazed, lest we take Jesus for granted. Help us to use the joy and wonder of this season to lighten the world of others.   Amen.