John 1:10-18 (NRSV)

¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³who 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. ¹⁵(John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) ¹⁶From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known. 

Some thoughts from Bishop Tom Wright ...

Jesus is identical with the Word who was there from the very beginning of everything – through whom all things were made – the one who contained and contains life and light. But when God sent the Word into the world, specifically to Israel, the chosen people do not recognise him. This is the central problem that seems to dominate the whole story: Jesus comes to God’s people, and God’s people do what the rest of the world do – they prefer darkness to light. This is the reason why we all need grace.

Tom Wright suggests (and I agree) that what makes this passage really exciting is that it addresses us as well because in verse 12 we read: “¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God ...” This means that anyone – in history, now and in the future – all are invited to become children of God, born into a new family which Jesus began and which has, since then, spread throughout the world.

All human life is special in God’s sight, but something can happen in this life that adds to its dignity and worth, when we become part of God’s special family. Wright continues: “.... this great drama is a play in search of actors, and there are parts for everyone, you and me included.”

Even today, as we journey through our lives, we can see that they are part of God’s play, revealing truth and beauty to the world.

I now turn to Barclay for inspiration.

Barclay makes the point that for the author of this Gospel it was important that John the Baptist did not occupy an exaggerated position in our thoughts and so quotes the Baptist in verse 15 as saying: “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” The Baptist was older than Jesus but this is not what he is saying; he is speaking in the light of eternity and so identifies Jesus as God – the one who existed before the universe came into existence and ‘... beside whom any human figure has no standing at all.’

Verse 16a begins with an interesting phrase: “From his fullness ...” This implies that the sum total of all that is God is Jesus. Paul uses the same word in Colossians when he says that the fullness of God dwelt in Christ. He is implying that the totality of God’s wisdom, power and love is in Jesus, the Christ. Barclay writes:

A person can go to Jesus with any need and find that need supplied. A person can go to Jesus with any ideal and find that ideal realised. In Jesus, a person in love with beauty will find the supreme beauty. In Jesus, the person to whom life is the search for knowledge will find the supreme revelation ...

From Jesus we have also received grace upon grace (verse 16b). In Christ we find one wonder leading to another. Sometimes as we travel a very lovely road we are overtaken by one beautiful sight being followed closely by countless others; at every view we think nothing could be lovelier, only to find there is always more. When a person begins a study of some great subject, they never get to the end of it. Always there are fresh expressions of beauty waiting for them. Barclay continues: “It is so with Christ. The more we know of him, the more wonderful he becomes. The longer we live with him, the more loveliness we discover. ...”

There is another dimension: the grace of God is never static, but always dynamic. Barclay explains: “One need invades life and one grace comes with it. That need passes and another need assaults us and with it another grace comes.”

We are taken to greater experiences of grace as our relationship with Christ grows and develops and we receive grace to meet every challenge ... “¹⁶From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”

The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth come through Jesus Christ. In the old way, life is governed by law: people needed to do things whether they wanted to or not, whether they knew the reason or not – because it was required or even demanded by the Law. But with the coming of Jesus, the Christ, we no longer need to seek to keep the law like slaves, we seek to live as sons and daughters who are inspired to keep the law, not because we have to, but because we want to. Barclay writes: “It is through Jesus Christ that God the law-giver became God the Father, that God the judge has become God the lover of the souls of people.”

Verse 18 is wonderful: no person has ever seen God, in fact no person can ever fully comprehend God, because God is greater than anything we can ever conceive of. What we can know and understand and experience of God is made possible through Jesus Christ. “If you want to see what God is like, look at Jesus.”

Jesus is God: an important tenet of Christian faith, but this does not mean that Jesus is identical with God, it does mean that ‘... in mind and character and being he is one with God. ... To see him is to see what God is ...’ Jesus is ‘...close to the Father’s heart ...’ This is, in Hebrew cultures, an expression of the deepest intimacy possible in human life: it is used for the experience of mother and child, husband and wife, it is used of two friends who are in complete communion with each other. Barclay adds: “When John uses this phrase about Jesus, he means that between Jesus and God there is complete and uninterrupted intimacy. It is because Jesus is so intimate with God, that he is one with God and can reveal him to men.’

In Jesus, the previously distant, unknowable, unreachable God has come to reach all people who would receive him and so God can be known, deeply and intimately by all people.

God bless you all as you journey with our Lord in 2014.