John begins his Gospel in a completely different way to any of the other Evangelists. It would appear that he was encouraged to write this toward the end of his life and he did so in order to meet the needs of Greek intellectuals who wanted to know more. As we already know, he also wanted to challenge the heresy of Gnosticism that prevailed in this community, and which appealed to intellectuals who wanted to have worked things out. The bottom line is that God cannot be worked out – and so he begins with the mystery of the incarnation. Barclay begins by suggesting that John had three things to say about Jesus – the Word.
Firstly, the word was already there at the beginning of things: Before creation – when there was nothing other than God – Jesus (the Word) was there and the point that John is making is that God is like Jesus. Before Jesus came to earth, people had to try to figure out what God is like, and this explains the strange conceptions we often come across in the Old Testament. As Barclay explains: “It was only when Jesus came that [people] saw fully and completely what God has always been like … [John]is telling us that God was and is and ever shall be like Jesus; but men could never know and realise that until Jesus came.”
Secondly, John explains that Jesus – the Word – was with God. This means that Jesus is so intimate with God that God has no secrets from him. This adds to the earlier point because this makes clear the idea that Jesus is the one person who can reveal what God is really like and also know God’s feelings towards us.
Thirdly, John makes the point most strongly by claiming that the Word WAS God. Barclay suggests that this does not mean that the Word was identical with God, rather that (as Barclay writes) ‘… Jesus was so perfectly the same as God in mind, in heart, in being that in him we perfectly see what God is like.’
In this lovely passage, we are introduced to the two great themes on John’s Gospel: life and light. The Gospel begins and ends with life; at the beginning Jesus is life and at the very end we are told that the whole purpose of the Gospel is so that we may believe and have life in his name (John 20:31). Life is always on our Lord’s lips; and his regret when people reject him is because they reject life as well (5:40) and he claimed that he came to earth with this purpose, so that we might have life and that in all its fullness. Barclay continues with the following observations:
Life is the opposite of death. Those who believe in Jesus, receive the gift of eternal life but also life in the here and now that is full and wonderful, even in the midst of travail and trouble. Jesus is the bringer of life, but the giver of life is God. It is the will of the Father, who sent the Jesus that everyone who sees him and believes on him should have life – eternal life. But what is eternal life? It cannot mean life that lasts forever, because this can be a terrible curse. When I was still in pastoral ministry, I prayed more for people’s lives to end and that their suffering would cease than for people to live. Eternal life is more than duration it must refer to quality as well. Barclay writes: “Eternal life is life which knows something of the serenity and power of the life which knows something of the serenity and power of the life of God himself. When Jesus came offering men eternal life, he was inviting them to enter the very life of God.”
How do we enter this life?
We enter it by believing, being convinced that Jesus really is the Son of God, more than just an ordinary man, for if he is, then there is no need to follow in obedience. Barclay writes:
“We have to look at him, learn about him, study him, think about him until we are driven to the conclusion that this is none other than the Son of God.”
This is more than intellectual assent, it is commitment and action, living a life of discipleship. When we do this we stop existing and start living.
The second major theme is light. Jesus is the light of life and the light of the world; this light can be in people which makes them children of light. Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness and this is why so many people reject him.
The light of Christ is a revealing light and when people sin, they love darkness rather than light because the light exposes their deeds. As Barclay writes: “It strips away the disguises and the concealments; it shows things in all their nakedness; it shows them in their true character and their true values.” The cynics used to say that people hate the truth, because the truth is like light to sore eyes. Churches are emptying in Europe, because people prefer darkness to light!
We never see ourselves as we truly are until we see ourselves as Jesus sees us.
The prophet Habbakuk adds the idea that God’s eyes are so holy that he cannot even look upon that which is evil. There seems to be a sense that when sin is not dealt with, the divorce from God is great and can even mean that prayers are not even heard; and so those that say that they have prayed – and it did not work – is because they do not come with the attitude of repentance which is the only way.
The light of Christ is also the guiding light: if we do not have this light we walk in darkness and we do not know where we are going, but when we receive this light and believe in this light to follow it we live and travel in the light. Barclay concludes:
“Without Jesus we are like men groping on an unknown road in a black-out. With him the way is clear.”
I focus finally on a third of John’s themes, darkness. For John, darkness is a real as light, but however hard the darkness tries, it cannot extinguish the light. As I referred to yesterday, when people sin, they love the darkness and hate the light because the light shows up too many things.
The nights are incredibly dark at the moment. Last night, when I got up in the early hours, I noticed a quite bright light shining in the kitchen, so I went through to explore what it was. Trish had forgotten to switch off her iPod and the tiny blue light radiated throughout the kitchen. John makes the point that even the tiniest little flame defeats darkness. In the end, Jesus, the light of the world, will prevail and so he exhorts us to make a choice to choose to live in the light.
There are some places where John’s reference to darkness seems to refer to ignorance. Jesus said: “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness.” (John 8.12) Nobody wants to walk in darkness but so often we stumble through life because we are not following the way of the light. One of the greatest problems in the world today is that people have rejected Jesus and so, Europe particularly, is stumbling around, but in its arrogance refuses to accept the light that Jesus offers. We continue to witness the decline in attendance at worship and this is a symptom of the problem. Jesus is the light that shows people clearly the road ahead.
There are also times when John uses the word darkness symbolically. This is particularly true on the morning of the Resurrection when Mary went to the tomb when it was still dark. She thought that Jesus had been eliminated. To John, if Jesus is not present, life is like living in the darkness.
The trouble is that if people are in darkness, they will never understand the light. As Paul explains, the Gospel – for those who do not have the Holy Spirit – is simply foolishness. Barclay writes: “A man cannot understand Christ until he first submits to him.”
It is all by God’s grace – a mystery that I believe, we will never understand. Why is it that God has enabled us to live in the light? I certainly do not deserve to! But we do, and I am grateful and feel privileged to be able to share the way of the light with others.
Blessings,
David
No comments:
Post a Comment