Isaiah 61: 10 – 62: 3 --- Psalm 147 --- Galatians 3: 23 – 25, 4: 4 – 7 --- John 1: 1 – 18
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL on Sunday, December 30th, 2007 (Read by Mr. Barney Bruce, Licensed Lay Worship Leader)
Wow! “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”
The “Word”? Who is this “Word”?
And while we are trying to define some of the terms we read in these first 18 verses of the Fourth Gospel, the Gospel according to John, what does John mean when he talks about the “light”?
Who (or what) might John be talking about?
Jesus Christ, of course….John takes the time to make it clear just who he is talking about….
We read the first indication that help us to establish the identity of the light in verses six through nine, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but be came to testify to the light. The true light that enlightens every man, was coming into the world”.
So the writer of the Fourth Gospel places the coming of the light, the true light, in the connection with the explicit witness of John (the Baptist). From our reading of the other three Gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark and Luke), we know that John bore witness to Jesus.
Then, we have the second indication, of the indentity of the “Word”, found in verses 14 through 17, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” But then, going on a little further, we read another reference to John (the Baptist), “John bore witness to him, and cried, ‘Thus was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.’ ” And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
Now, we can understand perfectly that it is Jesus Christ who is the “Word”, the “true light that was coming into the world”. For we remember (from the other Gospel accounts) John the Baptist’s exclamation about Jesus, or as John puts it in our reading today, “He who comes after me ranks before me.”
As we look a little more closely at these first verses of the Fourth Gospel, we see a pattern:
- God’s eternal “Word”, the “true light light that enlightens everyone”, through whom all things were made,
- Takes on human flesh, dwelling among us in time and in history in the person of Jesus Christ.
The overall pattern is a union of:
- the eternal with the temporal,
- the divine with the human,
- the greater to the lesser.
In the process, the temporal, the human, the lesser, are forever changed.
Your life and mine are forever changed, not merely by the events that occurred in a time 2,000 years ago and in a place called Bethlehem, Nazareth, Capernahum and Jerusalem, but here and now.
Your life and my life are forever changed, not merely by the life and teachings of the person Jesus of Nazareth, but by the coming of the eternal “Word” into this world, the world (as John reminds us) that was created by that very same “Word”.
The eternal nature of the “Word” means an ongoing presence….Once the Word took on human flesh and entered our common life, there was established an ongoing, eternal presence in our lives. Jesus Christ is present with us today, with the same force and effect as He was for those who ate and drank with Him, with those who sat at His feet and heard Him teach.
We ought to pause right there for a moment, and reflect on the ancient Hebrew understanding of words (or, in the case of Jesus Christ, the eternal “Word”)….
To ancient peoples, speaking a person’s name had the same force and effect as if the person were physically present with the persons uttering the name. We modern people tend to separate ideas from physical reality. No such distinction existed for ancient peoples, however. To them, there was a unity between thoughts and concepts, and the physical reality of the world they lived in.
That unity extended to persons, through their names, not just to concepts or ideas.
The Gospel writer takes considerable time and effort to make sure we understand the full divinity of Jesus Christ. (Theologians call this emphasis on Jesus’ divine nature high Christology.)[1] “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”, John writes. And to underscore this high understanding, John continues, “He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”
In the light of Jesus Christ, the “light of the world”[2], we are able to see God the Father, for, as John continues, “No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.”[3]
Cosmic stuff, these first 18 verses of John are…..
That God the Father, creator of the world through the work of the eternal “Word”, would care enough for us human beings to send his Son into the world to redeem the world,[4] is the cosmic part of this amazing story.
These 18 verses draw us into a deeper understanding of God the Father’s work in Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son.[5]
They invite us to take our part in the eternal plan of God for the world and for the people in the world. John puts it this way, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
They urge us to expand our thinking and believing, understanding that we are swept up into the great, eternal plan of God.
Thanks be to God the Father, for sending His Son, the “true light that enlightens everyone”.
AMEN.
[1] Conversely, the emphasis on Jesus’ human nature is called low Christology.
[2] John 8: 12: Jesus said, “I am the light of the world, he who follows me with not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
[3] John 1: 18
[4] John 3: 17
[5] John 3: 16
