John 1. 1-18
The Word: Worship, Wonder and Witness
It’s quite possible that John knew what Mark, and probably Matthew and Luke, had written about Jesus; and that he knew that his readers knew. His concern is not to “set the record straight” as if he thought that the stories in the other Gospels were false. His concern is to make sure that we get the point in the stories. He knows about John the Baptist, who was born only months before Jesus and prepared the way for him. (verses 6-8; 15). He knows about the virgin birth. But he wants us to understand Jesus in the context of eternity. “In the beginning...” The salvation that John will talk about, is meant to affect the whole of the universe. What is beyond the world and beyond time, in the beginning, is revealed in Jesus. He wants us to know who this Jesus is. So he says Jesus is “The Word, (the Logos)”.
The Greeks used this word, “Logos” to mean an inward thought, coming out in speech. But in the Old Testament, the "Word" is more than abstract: it is spoken and active. It does things. Then there was group called Gnostics, who believed you needed a secret knowledge to get to God, They may have called that knowledge a “Word”. In the Church, the Word is the message of salvation. So John says Jesus is God’s thought, God’s speech, living and active, sharper than a two edged sword… All we need to know, is found in Jesus. He speaks of Jesus as the Word, to reach out to Jews, and Greeks… not that he is suggesting Jesus is whatever you want to make of him… but simply that the Good News is for everyone. So let’s look at “the Word”.
The Word is divine
“The word was with God”. The Greek word (“pros”)translated as “with” has about 4000 words of definition and illustration in Liddle & Scott’s Greek Lexicon. Basically it means towards, facing. It suggests direction and it suggests distinctiveness: the Word has his own distinctive identity: he is with the Father; he is constantly moving towards the Father. John repeats himself in verses 1-2 for a reason… he is trying to help us understand that Jesus has always, always, always been with the Father, from before the beginning of everything. We don’t just understand Jesus in the context of eternity, we understand Jesus in the glory of his eternity.
Without that distinctness from the father, Jesus could be less than God. He could be just some vague thought from the mind of God. And yet he is God. "The word was God." In other words, the Word – Jesus – shares fully the nature of God, that the Father has. What is true of God is true of Jesus. Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit are not “bits of God”. Jesus says, “I and the Father are one” (John 10. 30) and “anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14. 9) When you look at Jesus, you see all of God. When you pray to the Father, you pray to all of God. When you receive the Holy Spirit, you receive all of God.
What are we meant to do with that? With this amazing idea that God is fully revealed in Jesus? That Jesus is fully God? Understand? No: although it’s right that we think about this as hard as we can, we don’t have to understand and we are better not pretending that we do. But we should:
Worship, with awe and wonder.
Worship with passionate love.
Worship with absolute obedience.
The Word is creator sustainer and life giver.
Verses 3 & 4 look at how the Eternal Word relates to the creation. He is the Maker of the created universe: by him all things were made. Nothing was made without him. No gnostic-style intermediaries were needed. Whatever scientific laws or natural forces began to exert themselves in the created universe, still without the Word, nothing was made that exists or ever existed.
Jesus is the Life & Light of the created universe. Life & Light are essential elements in the Genesis 1 creation story. They are also essential elements in the scientific account of the universe. (Genesis and science are not so far apart as we are sometimes led to believe!) But it is the God-life of the Word that creates light, before light could help enable biooogical life. Jesus the Word is the Sustainer of life.
And because the Word is the Word, his life is the Light that enables people to see the truth about who God is. Jesus gives his Light to every man (verse 9). Greek has two absolutely different words for “Man” and Mankind. Here John uses the word that means “Humankind.” Jesus is the Light of women and men, girls and boys. This Jesus shines over the world. He is the Word that created it. He is the Word that gives it life. He is the word that speaks to it, reveals the truth, to every human being who will stop and listen.
He is cosmic, vast, powerful, mysterious, not only in his relationship with his Father but also in his relationship to his world. He is the Cosmic Christ. But not so cosmic as to be remote. He gives his light to everyone. He gives new life to anyone who puts their trust in him. He takes away the sin of the World. To believe this is Christ's, the Word's, relation to the World, means:
We don't worship the “universe” or angels or any earth god or spirit or anything like that. The only Being who has any right to our worship is the God who has revealed himself through Jesus.
But it means we most certainly care for the planet, and seek to be the best stewards of the planet, and pursuers of justice for all on the plane.
And it means to listen to the Word, to let his light shine into our lives. It is to trust him.
The Word is conqueror
The Light Shines in the darkness. That’s what light does. It shines, it radiates. It enables us to see; it enables plants to make food; it changes what it touches even making them change colour. There’s no such thing as non-shiny light. Where there’s darkness, light stands out. Because light shines. John often shows the contrast between opposites. Light and darkness; life and death; good shepherd and hired labourer; flesh and spirit.
Despite the beauty around us in the created universe, there is also darkness: fear, hunger, greed, aggression, rebellion, deception illness and death. We see it in the little newly hatched iguana that have to run the gauntlet of snakes, to get into the water. We see it in ISIL, in Mugabe’s black supremacism; in the return of far right politics in the USA and in Europe.
John says “Darkness has not overcome [the Light]”; or “has not comprehended it”. The root word means to seize or grasp. It could mean to comprehend, to understand. We sometimes talk about “grasping a difficult subject”. I could never grasp the finer points of algebra. But the real heart of the word is about getting a hold of something to conquer it, to eat it up, to overpower it. And in fact, part of our motivation for understanding is about control or conquest. Remember when Jacob wrestled with God? He wanted to know the Name of this Being. But it was Jacob whose name was known – and changed.
The Light the Word brings, the light of Jesus Christ, will triumph. But there is darkness on all of us. So we are never going to comprehend, fully to understand, the mystery of God.
The word is present… incarnate.
In verse 6, there’s a new start. The tone and language and scenery suddenly change. “There was a man named John.” In verses 1, 2, 4, the word “was” means “existed”. In verses 1-5, all the verbs are in continuous tenses. The word was (continuously) with God. The light shines (continuously) in the darkness. John is trying to describe eternity, and the Eternal Word, remember. In verse 6 the Greek verb "Was" means "came into being" or “became”. The word “appeared on the stage of history”. This time the verb is a once-of action. Now John is describing on man, one wee dot on a tiny planet; one short, temporary life. The scene has shifted from eternity to Roman-occupied Judea,
There was a man sent from God – like the Old testament prophets – to be a witness to the Light. To prepare the way. Because the Word has come into history “The Word became flesh.” (v 14) The very fact that the pre-existent Word could possibly become anything, is awesome. That he became flesh is more awesome still.
If you weren’t in awe with God before, be in awe of him now.
And like John, be a witness. Because like John, you have been sent by God. Like John, we are called be centred on Jesus. Like John, you have been sent so that all might believe.
© Gilmour Lilly December 2017
