|
||
|
Text: John 1:1-18 ● One author made this comment about the book of John: he said that “it was shallow enough for a child to wade in, but deep enough to drown a hippopotamus”. As I read the first (18) verses of John, I feel more like the ‘hippo’. ● What John is about to say is introduced to us in the context of some pretty familiar phrases and stories… “beginning”, “creation”, “light and darkness”, “life”, “truth”, “birth”, “glory”. Whatever else John is going to say, he wants us to see it not as ‘separated from the story’, but as a cohesive part of what’s been going on all along. John longs to connect something of what was happening “in the beginning” to what was happening now in Jesus. ● His approach is different than that of the other gospel accounts. Mark introduces us to Jesus at the beginning of his ministry. Matthew locates Jesus in the context of Jewish history with his opening list of genealogy. Luke seems to want us to see Jesus somewhere in the intersection between the Jewish hope of Messiah and the prevailing power of Rome. ● With John, there is no manger scene, no angelic messengers, no adoring shepherds, no wise men from the East--- just the incredible revolutionary announcement that God is with us… God has become like one of us. John places us firmly in the context of “beginnings”… the creation and meaning of the world. John boldly declares that everything that has happened from the beginning must be understood or filtered through Jesus; that everything from ‘time before time’ has somehow been connected to Jesus. ● We can’t escape John’s emphasis on the word, “Word” that he utilizes. In the Greek word would be written in English letters ‘logos’, from which we get our words ‘logic’, ‘logo’, etc. ● It comes from the verb which means “to pick out” or “select”; to “pick words” in order to express one’s thoughts. Also from the root ‘leg’ in ‘lego’ which means to “lay out” then “pick out and gather”. ● To describe Jesus as the “Word of God” is to point to at least one unmistakable truth: that God has selected and gathered up all that he wants to say and expressed it in Jesus. Jesus is the message of God--- he is what God would have us know about himself. ● In Greek philosophy, used it as a way to describe the relationship between God and the universe; they spoke of an unknown mediator they referred to as “logos”. It was the underlying rationality of the world. The Greeks believed that such a ‘force’ was resident in all and that to discover it was to discover and access life’s true meaning. ● John is saying that the “Word” is the source of all things. He is the visible representation of the invisible God. The reason for the incarnation is that we might actually be able to better comprehend God; be better equipped to perceive. “in him was life”--- not just biological life, but “zoe”… the life principle. ● John says, the reality that we are pursuing is not some abstract principle, but a person--- Jesus. John would have us understand Jesus as “the” Word. He is the definite and unique one who is able to restore peace (mediator) with God; he is pre-existent, he is uncreated, he since he is eternal, he is, therefore, God. Jesus will serve both as God’s way to us and our way to God. ● If we are attentive to the text, what we discover is that the situation in which man finds themselves is so grave, so desperate, that its remedy will be nothing short of a new and fresh creative act of God; a strange new “genesis”. ● The theme of John’s entire writing is: if you want to know what God is like, take a good, hard look at Jesus. Jesus offers to us God in concrete fashion; he demonstrates what God is doing, what he is thinking, what he is feeling. Jesus not only did the things that humans do, but the things that God does. In Genesis 1, the pinnacle of the story is humanity as God’s unique, image-bearing creation. In John 1, the climax of the story is Jesus as the truly human one. ● But, we were confused, because we kept expecting him to ‘act like God’; sometimes Jesus merely adds to our confusion about God (“Come on, Jesus, show ‘em what you got… show ‘em who they’re messin’ with!”) It didn’t seem to his advantage to “not look like God”. He seemed to have been saying things and doing things differently than the God we were used to (“Whew, I’m glad you’re here Jesus, that other God was starting to make me nervous!”) ● John wants to ensure that we know that all of Jesus’ actions proceed from a ‘face to face’ understanding of God and what he was up to in creation. Jesus is making statements about God when he is touching lepers, when he is conversing with adulterous woman, when he is eating with sinners, when he is forgiving criminals, when he is welcoming children, when he is crying at the mouth of the tomb of a friend… ● Reflecting on Jesus restores my faith in God. I have spent what seems to be an inordinate amount of time in my life grappling with the things that cause me to doubt God (i.e. prayer, free will, tragedy, etc.) ● Jesus is the God we have all been looking for. In him, I don’t find the answers to questions like unanswered prayer, but I find him praying and saying things like, “I know that you hear me, Father”… “I know that you love me”. I see him weeping over the plight of humanity, even in their ignorance and rebellion, and moving toward those in pain as to help eliminate some of their suffering or help to make their circumstances bearable. ● I may not always learn from Jesus the “whys” about my human experience, but I can now understand how God feels by observing Jesus. I realize now that everything that disturbs me about this world troubled him as well! ● But it’s really “dark out there”… Darkness doesn’t create a different reality, it just hides all that’s real. Some centuries ago, humanity diverted from the notion of a grand story (with God as author and the main character) and determined that man was somehow limited by that story; it wasn’t ‘tapping into’ our full potential. We concluded that, if given time and freed from the constraints of the ‘God story’, humanity could truly progress. This is the darkness that we have chosen… this is the darkness that it creates. Such darkness plays on our fears and makes us do irrational things. What’s worse… sometimes the darkness ‘around’ you becomes the darkness ‘within’ you! Having dismissed the ‘Author’ of life… the ‘Author’ of the story… we lost the story itself; we lost meaning. And, having lost the story, you’re left to fend for yourself; to determine reality for yourself (which is the worst possible position to be in). ● In reality, this is at the center of our continued brokenness… the darkness that’s prevalent that keeps us from ‘receiving’ him. We have exchanged this broad, expansive story- with God at center, for our own puny stories- with us at center. ● But, it hasn’t worked, and it never will--- it can’t work! In fact, centuries of ‘freedom from the God-story’ have simply made matters worse; it’s left us with all these random stories and no context… nothing to help us make sense of them. It never actually lets us ‘be ourselves’ (honest; broken; without all the answers- but ‘loved’). ● Granted, there is no shortage of religious expressions that are overly demanding and ‘grace-less’. But, there is also no shortage of religious expressions that are ‘grace-full’ and hollow--- not expecting anything, therefore, not experiencing anything! Remember, grace not only means that I am acceptable, but that I am accountable. If I’m accepted as I am, but not accountable to pursue the ‘rightly-ordered life” that God has come to secure, it leads to indifference and deception. But, if I’m accountable without being accepted, it just confirms what I suspected all along: God couldn’t possible love someone like me! ● Grace and truth are not ‘polar opposites’ but necessary components of love. Grace, properly understood and embraced will always produce truth--- a reality consistent with God’s created-order. Grace is somehow always able to produce what truth requires. ● In Jesus, not only do we understand God better, but we can be certain that he understands us better. “the word became flesh”--- it’s not just that God took on a human body; the word “flesh” describes humanity with all of our limitations… dependent, hungry, thirsty. God became a human being with all of our frailties. Because of Jesus, God knows what it’s really like to be human! “we have seen his glory”--- in Jesus, we recognize God… we know what he values. ● Interestingly, the incarnation, somehow, had meaning for God as well. It allowed him to sense our human condition in a way that could only be experienced. Only as man could God completely sympathize with us. How else could he know? How else could he sympathize? Hebrews 5:7-8 “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death and he was heard because of his reverent submission… he learned obedience from what he suffered…” “full of grace and truth”… closely connected an OT expression in Exodus 34:6 surrounding the giving of the Law: “God is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness”. Steady love… it’s what our hearts have always wanted and has been most glaringly absent from all of our relationships. You notice a confidence, security and sense of ‘ease’ with people who know that they are loved in such a way. Grace and truth not only allow you to be yourself, but secure enough in God’s love to become someone else! ● We are to become a people in and through whom God is creating a ‘new reality’, because there is such a thing as grace and there is such a person as Jesus who came to embody grace and truth and become the ultimate expression of what God desires for each of us.
● In Jesus, we need no
longer wonder if God is “remote”; we need no longer question God’s motivation
because all of his activity with creation is ‘self-initiated’, and therefore,
rooted in grace; we need no longer fear ‘walking into the light’ because we were
loved even in our darkness! |
