This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder John 1:1-18. The English Standard Version supplies the passage with the heading “The Word Became Flesh.”
In the passage, John tells us what he’s going to tell us in the rest of his gospel. He leads us to believe that he’s going to tell us something changed in the cosmos when Jesus appeared.
John is the last of the four gospels included in the Bible.[1] Unlike the other three gospels, John doesn’t use the word “gospel.”[2]
As I said in my column titled Did Mary and Luke commit sedition? A Malaysian reading, the word “gospel” was politically loaded.
By claiming to be gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, were claiming that Jesus was the true Saviour. Not the Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus.
Perhaps because of the political risks, John chose not to use the word “gospel.” But his work is a gospel. It is good news.
It’s good news because when it infects us, it makes us self-controlled, anchored, steadfast, in the streams and storms of the world; it frees us from the pressure to adopt the goals and values of our neighbours. Because saved people, Christians, add goodness to the world.[3]
The early Christians called John a theologian. They named a church and a monastery for “Saint John the Theologian.” They didn’t call Matthew, Mark, and Luke “theologians.”[4] John’s writing is very different from theirs.
There are many things unique about John, and I’ve spoken about some of them before. Here, I want to stress that John sets out to explain why Christian faith is the next stage of Jewish faith. What do I mean by this?
John begins his gospel with the same words which begin the first book in the Bible, the book of Genesis: “In the beginning.” Genesis begins with creation. John goes behind creation. He begins with him who existed before creation, him through whom all things were created: Jesus.
John also mentions the Law of Moses. He says, in verse 17:
“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
Modern readers often miss the point John makes in that verse. Jews applied the terms “grace and truth” to the Law of Moses. John pointedly says grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
The Law served as a guardian,[5] to show us the standard of purity and obedience God expects of us, to show us that we have failed to meet the standard, and to show us that Jesus makes up for our failure.
Why does John refer to Jesus as “Word,” Logos in the Greek?
First, John used a word common at that time. A word filled with meaning by philosophers called Stoics.[6] For Stoics, Logos meant reason. Logos was the same as God and must always be obeyed. But for John, “the Word” was God, and was also separate from God. In his first sentence, he says:
“… the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
So, John was challenging an idea of God which was common at that time. This makes me wonder what ideas of God we should be challenging today.[7]
Second, John was developing an idea common in the wisdom literature of his day, known as apocrypha. The apocrypha spring from texts like Proverbs 8:22-31, which says Wisdom was “with God” when he created the universe. Wisdom was presented as a person who revealed God, in creation and in the Law – though the apocrypha used Sophia, not Logos.
Even so, John was challenging another common idea about God.
Third, John wanted to show how Jesus’ work and words both match and exceed the Hebrew teachings. Theologian Andreas Köstenberger brings this out very well. He notes seven parallels between Exodus 33-34 and John 1:14-18. I’ve reproduced a table from his book, Encountering John.
If you review the table, you’ll see that John promises to show that we find in Jesus what Israel found in YHWH: glory, grace, loving kindness, truth, and a mediator. And that in Jesus, we can behold the glory of God.
As Bishop Thomas said in his Christmas Day sermon, we must centre our lives on truth: truth which can be communicated and understood.
Jesus is the Word. He is truth incarnate. He is the true light which enlightens everyone.[8] Light which dispels the darkness, like at the beginning, at the creation of the universe. Therefore, his work and words are good news. That’s the meaning of “the Word became flesh.”
New light came into the cosmos when the Word became flesh. We are called to walk in that light, to become children of God.[9] But we can also reject him. Sadly, his own people, the Israelites, the Jews rejected him.
What does it mean to walk in the light? It means to live a life of service to our neighbours.
It means restraining and overcoming evil and its results, as Jesus did through his appeals to keep the law and through his healings.[10]
It means recognizing that Jesus is the Word sent by God, the Word who was with God, before anything was created.
Peace be with you.
[1] The four gospels are said to be included in the “canon” of scripture.
[2] In Matthew, the word “gospel” first appears in chapter 4, and has a total count of 4. In Mark, it appears in the first verse and has a count of 8. In Luke, it first appears in chapter 9 and has a count of 2.
[3] This sentence is a revision of what I said in The gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
[4] This sentence is a revision of what I said in Jesus, the light of men.
[5] As the Apostle Paul famously put it in Galatians 3:24.
[6] Stoicism was founded by the Greek philosopher Zeno. But it was popularized by a Jewish man called Philo. He “saw” Greek reason in the Hebrew scriptures.
[7] Many hold beliefs they are unaware of or are unable to express, for example Stoicism and Taoism. Read this and see whether you recognize their practitioners in your circles. Is it possible to be Christian and at the same time, a Stoic or Taoist?a
[8] See verse 9.
[9] See verse 12.
[10] For example, in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7 and “Give unto Caesar …” in Mark 12:17. Reports of healings and feedings can be found in all the gospels.
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