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 overcome 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,[c] 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 few days
ago we were in this Sanctuary on Christmas Eve, celebrating the birth of Jesus
Christ. There are four Gospels in the
New Testament – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Only Matthew and Luke tell about the birth of
Christ. Mark begins with Jesus as an
adult and is not interested in the birth narratives.
John, on the
other hand, is not interested in the birth of Christ, but goes to the very
beginning of time itself.
Using words reminiscent
of the Old Testament Book of Genesis, John begins his Gospel with the words, “In
the beginning…”
John starts
not with the birth of Christ, but with the nature of Christ. Before telling us about the ministry of
Christ, he wants his reader to understand who this Jesus is.
In these
opening lines John tells us four things about Jesus Christ.
First, Jesus is the WORD.
John’s Gospel
begins with a poetic description of Jesus.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.”
Those are beautiful
phrases – but what do they mean? Jesus
the word?
This one
phrase is enough to spend a lifetime discerning, but in a nutshell it means
that the silence of heaven is broken.
To say that
Jesus is the Word of God is to affirm not only that God exists but also that
God has spoken, that God has communicated with us, that God has told us what we
need to hear, and that Jesus Christ is what God has to say to us.
This is one
of the things that makes Christianity a difficult challenge.
When Jesus
says, “Love your neighbor,” that is God’s word to us, and that leaves us
struggling with the challenge of how to live that out in our lives in which our
neighbor is a flesh and blood person who is not that easy to love.
When Jesus
says, “Pray for your enemy,” that is God’s word to us, and that leaves us
agonizing on how to pray for people who do evil things.
When Jesus
says, “Let not your heart be troubled… in my father’s house there are many
rooms,” this is God speaking to us to comfort us about life and death.
Jesus is the
Word of God made flesh. And words are
powerful things.
“What’s the
good word,” is something we often ask
and hear.
With a word,
I can make you laugh, or cry.
I can draw you closer with
words of love and grace.
And I can push you away with
harsh critical words.
I can discourage you with
things like, “What a stupid thing to do,” and “you’ll never amount to
anything,” “loser” “quit now and avoid frustration.”
Or I can encourage you. “Yes
you can, I’ll help you. I will never quit on you. You can count on me to be in
your corner.” “I WILL love you NO MATTER WHAT!”
If I can speak properly, I can
stir up almost any emotion –
determination,
patriotism,
love,
anger,
jealousy.
“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
And what are the words that the
Word of God verbalizes?
Love.
Grace.
Forgiveness.
Back on Christmas Eve, it was
easy to believe these words of love and grace.
But Jesus gives these words for
the whole year, and for all of the years of our lives.
The
second thing that The Gospel of John tells us about Jesus is that Jesus is God
One of the
most important messages of John’s Gospel comes at the beginning. He is poetically talking about Jesus as The
Word. “In the beginning was the Word –
Christ. And the Word, or Christ, was
with God. And the Word, or Christ, was
God.”
The rest of the world would
say, Jesus was a good man.
Which
he was.
The rest of
the world would say, Jesus was a good teacher.
Which he was.
The rest of
the world would say, Jesus a real person who certainly in fact lived.
Which
he did.
However, the
rest of the world would feel more comfortable leaving out a statement that said
that Jesus was the Son of God and was himself, God.
John’s Gospel reminds us that Jesus was – and is – God.
That is a
difficult thing to comprehend. In fact,
for Muslims this is heresy. They say
there is only ONE God. They look at us
and say we have THREE Gods – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
But no – we say
the same thing – there IS only ONE God.
But we understand that God exists in a Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. ONE God, three persons, blessed
trinity.
In the same
way that water can exist as a liquid, or a solid block of ice, or as a gas as
in a steam – God exists in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And yet to talk about the Trinity as being
like water is to over simplify the Trinity.
In fact, any
teaching tool will oversimplify the reality of God.
The bottom
line is that at this point John is telling us that Jesus is not just a teacher,
he is THE teacher. He is not just a godly
person, he IS God.
Whatever
words Jesus speaks are the very words of God.
The
third point that John makes is that Jesus is unchanging
Nothing
brings home how much our world is changing than Christmas, and nothing produces
a greater nostalgic longing for the world to STOP changing than Christmas.
At Christmas,
we see changes all around us.
Children are
growing up.
We may be
reminded once again that someone we loved has died and is no longer with us to
celebrate the holiday.
We remember
the way things used to be when we were children and we miss the past.
We may feel
overwhelmed by the changes.
And we may
long for the world to stop changing.
I don’t think
we are opposed to changes in our lives. We need change. We’d be very bored otherwise.
But we need
something, or someone, who is consistent in our lives. Who never changes. And Christ is that
unchanging consistency.
The Gospel of
John says, “He (meaning Christ) was with God in the beginning.”
The
Book of Hebrews tell us that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and
forever.” (13:8)
The world may change. Christ does not.
I like change. I look forward to change. But as much as I like change, I, like
everyone else, need an anchor in my life that I can depend on that will never
change – and that unchanging anchor is Christ.
Finally,
John tells us that Jesus is the Light of the World
John goes
into great detail here, explaining how John the Baptist came to announce the
arrival of the light of the world, and how John the Baptist was not the light,
but was announcing that the light would soon arrive.
Jesus is the
light of the world.
And light is
a comforting thing.
All parents
know that the best defense against the monster who lives in a child’s closet or
under a child’s bed, is light.
Turn the
light on!
Darkness is a
frightening thing.
Light is a
comforting thing.
For many
children, darkness at bedtime is scary.
The comfortable teddy bear of the day light becomes at night a shadow of
a monster!
As adults, we
put up all sorts of lights in our yard so that at night the burglars will not
break into our homes!
Darkness – it
is a frightening thing, and nothing dispels the fear like the light.
To live in spiritual darkness
is to live in loneliness and despair and fear – and nothing dispels that
spiritual darkness better than Jesus Christ, the light of the world.
Through
Jesus, we have a relationship with God
Now, John is
making several points here, but he is moving all of them into one single,
important point.
Jesus is
the Word.
God.
Unchanging.
The light.
All of these
points converge into one most important point – Jesus is someone through whom
we can have a relationship with God.
Jesus is not just
the Word – he is God’s word for YOU.
Jesus is not
simply God – he is your connection with God.
Jesus is not
just unchanging – he is your stability in your ever changing life.
Jesus is not
just a light – he is your guiding, comforting light in a life that is often
dark.
