John 1.1-14
1In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and
without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the
light of all people. 5The
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the
light, so that all might believe through him.8He
himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The 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. 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.
Brother,
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 Barlcay 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.’
A mystery …
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.”
Let us always take special care to walk in the light …
A third of John’s themes is darkness. For John, darkness is a real as light, but however hard
the darkness tries, it cannot extinguish the light. 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. A few years
ago, 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 to all this Christmas,
David
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