Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-december-19-2022
John 1:1-18
The Word Became Flesh
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”) 16Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
This famous passage from the beginning of the Gospel of John is one of the readings included in the Service of Lessons and Carols, which was the basis of our worship service last Sunday, as it usually is on the Sunday before Christmas. And the fact that it showed up in this traditional Advent service got me thinking that maybe we should stop and reflect on it here in the days before Christmas.
The reason this passage is so important, I think, is that in its eighteen verses, it points out some important truths about who Jesus is, about his role in history, and about his coming into the world in human form. Lots of us, if we’re asked about who Jesus is, would say, “Well, he’s the Son of God.” If we were pressed to go any deeper than that, we might run out of words in a hurry. But if we sort of keep this introduction to the Gospel of John in the back of our minds, it will help clarify what we believe about Jesus. Because, of course, “Son of God” is a metaphor – one that’s helpful up to a point, but one that doesn’t explain all of what we understand about this human Jesus whose birth we’re about to celebrate.
John starts out by presenting Jesus as “the Word.” And the Greek term translated “word” is logos, which had a specific meaning in Greek Stoic philosophy. (Remember that by the time the Gospel of John was published, most of the church’s evangelistic work was going on among people from the Greek world.) To the Greeks, logos meant the central principle around which the universe was created. So John wanted his readers – including, presumably, us – to understand that there really was a central principle to all creation, and that principle was Jesus.
That’s important to keep in mind because some Christians make the mistake of thinking that God originally wanted things to work out with Israel, but only came into the world as Jesus as a kind of ‘Plan B’ when the Israel thing didn’t work out. But John wants us to understand that Jesus was the plan all along.
Then John makes it clear that Jesus – as a member of the Trinity long before he was given the name ‘Jesus’ – was a participant in the creation of the universe. That keeps us from thinking Jesus came along at some point when God the Father decided he’d like to have a Son. (That’s one of the ways the ‘Son of God’ metaphor breaks down.)
Then John tells us that Jesus represents the light of life in a world that can seem very dark. That’s the same idea we hear in one of our favorite prophesies about Jesus – the one from Isaiah that says, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” John also says that the light of Christ shines in the darkness and that “the darkness has not overcome it.”
The Greek word translated ‘overcome’ can also mean ‘understood.’ Something like the English word ‘master,’ which can mean either to exert control over something or to learn it really well. But in that case of Jesus, both meanings would hold true. The darkness has not been able to overcome Jesus – even by nailing him to a cross. But it’s not really able to understand him, either. Things like strength through weakness, sacrificial love, blessing those who curse you, and servant leadership – things like that seem like nonsense to those caught up in the world’s darkness.
Then, after touching on the role of John the Baptist in preparing the way for Jesus, John tells us that in coming into the world, God came first to his own people, the covenant people of Israel, but they failed to recognize him. But for all those who do recognize him for who he is, God has an astounding offer: the privilege of being adopted as members of his own family.
John also stresses that only in Jesus has humankind been allowed to see the true nature of its God and creator. And it’s a little startling for us to read that it was in Jesus that the glory of God is made visible to us. We’re used to thinking of God’s glory in terms of golden thrones and billowing clouds and multitudes of angels. So the idea that the glory of God was made visible only in a baby born to a refugee couple who grew up to be a carpenter and itinerant rabbi who taught that we should love our enemies – that requires a kind of switch in our thinking. ‘A new mind,’ you might say – which is the actual meaning of the Greek word translated ‘repent.’
This passage also makes the point that the birth of Jesus initiated the age of grace – the age in which God’s relationship with his people is governed primarily by grace, rather than by obeying the laws of Moses. Those laws are valuable as a guide to living a holy life, but none of us is able to keep them fully. So to the followers of his Son, God extends grace – his un-earned favor.
This is one of the most important principles for followers of Jesus to take to heart, it seems to me. Most of us struggle with this – we have a hard time laying down the idea that we have to be ‘good enough’ to earn God’s love. So we either try real hard and become self-righteous, or we fall into guilt and despair about our own sins. But the fact that we get new life in Jesus as a gift of God’s grace means we can’t claim to be more righteous than others, and that we don’t have to wallow in guilt and self-loathing. We can just say ‘Thank you’ to God and try every day to live in a way that pleases him.
One other little note on this passage. John says that “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” The word translated “made his dwelling” comes from the word for tent. So that sentence really tells us that in Jesus, God was really just sort of ‘camping’ here while he completed his mission to this world.
So maybe you can see why I say this introduction to the Gospel of John is such an important passage – these eighteen verses cover most of the most important truths about the one whose human birth in Bethlehem we’ll celebrate once again in three days.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for your faithful servant John and his disciples, and we thank you for giving us through him this powerful summary of the meaning of your coming into this world in the form of Jesus. Help us to ‘treasure up all these things and ponder them in our hearts.’ Amen.
The joy of the season to you,
Henry
(The listed readings for today are Psalms 85 and 146, Isaiah 31:1-9, Revelation 21:11 -2:5; and Luke 1:39-56.)
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