The Word of God – John 1:1-14

A text – John 1:1-14

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴ in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸ He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹ The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹² But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

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:

On Christmas Day we get to hear the beautiful, the metaphor-filled description of our God, a God of movement and speaking, coming to earth as a human. We see him being testified about by a special witness: John the Witness, we might call him. He swore that Jesus was the Word of God, the Lamb of God, the Light of the world, who came to give us the Truth about God and God’s love for all people. And he came to give anyone at all who believed his words the title Child of God, just as Jesus became a human child, like us.

It is hard to imagine what these metaphors would look like in a movie, say – some kind of amazing transformation from the spoken word of God the Creator into light and life, and then crystalizing into the person Jesus, with a cousin, John, and with followers who heard him speak and believed he was God’s Son.

The Gospel writer says something especially beautiful in verse 5: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake (or overcome) it. That word overcome or overtake can also be translated seize or grasp, and at the time the Gospel was written, just as now, the writer might have meant the word grasp to mean comprehend or understand. No matter how you translate the last word of verse 5, the light will not be overcome, extinguished, controlled, or even understood. It is a miraculous light.

God’s actual speaking, God’s Word, is Jesus. This Word is spoken into a darkness as a beam of light, who takes our form so he can love us in person and teach us to love as God does. May this eternal light be with you this season and always. Peace.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for speaking into the darkness at Creation and at Jesus’s birth on earth. Thank you for giving us a living breathing person to show us what you are like and how much you love. Help us to remember that this light is always with us, no matter what. Amen.