�Of Tents and Timeless Worlds� by Matthew Everhard. A sermon on John 1:1-18. Originally preached at Hudson Presbyterian Church on March 25th 2007.
The Prince: Soren Kierkegaard the Danish theologian tells a story about a certain kingdom with a handsome prince. Now the prince was searching for a woman worthy enough to become his wife and to rule the land with him. But no one in the royal court could be found to please him. One day as he was running an errand for his father he glanced out the window of his golden-carriage and he happened to see a beautifully stunning maiden working in the fields. He was instantly struck. And so he decided to pursue her. He had a choice: he could show up at her village with his splendid uniform and six-horse carriage, and his entourage of attendants. But then how would he know if she truly loved him? She could just agree because she was overwhelmed by his power, of out of fear of punishment, or even out of greed. And so he chose an alternate plan: he endeavored to remove his royal garments (no more crown, nor scepter, nor purple robes!) and don the ragged clothing of a peasant�tattered pants, worn shoes. Next he moved into the village and took a job as a common laborer. He worked his way into her life, placing himself in her path. And his wooing worked! The fairy tale ends as all fairy tales do. It�s the kind of story Disney would make a movie out of, or fathers would tell their daughters. As a parable, it has its flaws. Yet Kierkegaard saw a much deeper reality than a children�s story�the truth of the incarnation of Christ.
The Apostle John: Begins His gospel with the truth of the Word-made-flesh. John has an amazing gift of writing. Of all the books in the New Testament, The Gospel of John has the simplest vocabulary. First year Greek students can begin translating it in a few months time. And yet if you had to ask which of the four gospels is the most profound, the most theological, the most stirring�John takes it hands down. Only a real master can do that. He writes as one who has spent much time with Jesus. John�s One Goal: In these first 18 verses of his gospel, called the prologue, John has one simple goal: to introduce his readers to his love, his passion, his consuming drive in life: Jesus Christ the Messiah. (That�s a pretty worthy goal isn�t it? To introduce human souls to Jesus�and then get out of the way!)
John 1:1: In the Beginning was the Word. Like any good writer, his first task is to draw in his audience. Even from the first line of the first verse, John has done something amazing. In six short words, John has connected with both his Jewish and his Gentile readers. How has he done that? For the Hebrews: He has started off his gospel with the same words that the book of Genesis began with, as if to say, �the story that I am about to tell you is a continuation of the Creation story!� His Jewish readers would instantly connect. John says I am going to tell you about the One is who is both the continuation and the fulfillment of our ancient Creation story. He is called the Word because God spoke creation into existence.
The Logos: And yet in that same first line, John has also struck a chord with his Gentile audience as well. How has he done that? You see, John begins the prologue with the Greek concept of the �Logos� which we translate as the �Word.� For the Greeks the �Logos� was a philosophical concept of a sort of impersonal force that guided or governed the universe. The Logos was viewed as a mindless ever-present Reason that steered all events even creation itself. And so John is essentially saying, �What you once thought was a blind, impersonal force, I am going to reveal to you as a loving savior! A divine redeemer! A promised deliverer!
Three Truths About the Logos: And so in this first verse alone, the Apostle John introduces three truths about the Logos that we can only scratch the surface of this morning.
1) First of all this person called the Logos is timeless. In the beginning was the Word. He has existed for all eternity past. John is not saying that the Logos came into being at Creation, but rather that He has already existed when all other things were made. This is clear in verse 1:3 when he writes: all things came into being through him and without Him not one thing came into being. Did you hear that? In other words, not even one thing was created without Him involved in the process!
For most of us we cannot even imagine anything existing before we form our first memories at about age three to four. The only thing that we can possibly do to conceive of time before our own time is to look at pictures or read history, or watch old films. But in reality we have experienced none of it before our birth. But think about this: this Logos that John is describing�this One is truly eternal. Ages upon ages upon ages have not outpaced His timelessness. Can you even wrap your mind around a concept of a time before even time existed? But we are only one line into this gospel!
2) Secondly, the Logos has existed before time, not in isolation, but in relationship to the Father! In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God! Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God has always existed, not alone out there floating around in space, but in relationship to God the Father Almighty. He has been, with the Father. God did not create the Son. The Son did not come into existence at Bethlehem, but rather the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have always existed in unity and relationship. In fact, in verse 18 John writes, it is God the only Son, who is close to the Father�s heart. John describes the relationship of the Father to the Son in the most tender terms possible, in Greek it literally reads, �at the Father�s bosom!� And then get this:
3) Finally, the Logos too is fully God. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God! Not �a god� as though he were one of many, but He is God with the Father in unity. In every way that the Father is God, so also the Son is God too. The Father is holy, the Son is holy. The Father is perfect the Son is perfect. The Father is almighty the Son is almighty. In fact, can you imagine the look on the disciples faces when they are sitting around the dinner table with Jesus and he prays in John 17:5 So now Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed? Who else could pray a prayer like that and not be struck down immediately unless it were true?
The Eagle: The Gospel of John has often been described throughout church history as like an eagle. It is lofty, soaring, majestic, grandiose�and yet like an eagle, this book can swoop down in a flash and strike right where you are standing. If John has been ethereal and esoteric so far in the prologue, he is about to get real with you.
Let�s fast-forward to John 1:14: And the Word (this majestic, eternal, timeless one) became flesh and dwelt among us. This Christ the Son of the Living God has now entered time and space and become a part of the Creation itself. More than that, he took on flesh, human flesh and became like us, one of us.
� He left eternity (perfect rest, perfect peace) and entered human history (full of conflict and strife)
� He left the �bosom of the Father� (v. 18) to take part in a world that is cold, dirty, with natural disasters, and diseases
� He left the throne of glory and took on flesh; human, aging, hurting, kill-able human flesh.
He Tented: And then John shocks his readers by saying �The Word�lived among us.� You see there are two major Greek words that we translate �to live with� or �to dwell with� in the NT. The first verb has as its root the word �house.� Obviously it means to co-habitate with just as a family might live together under a common roof. But that�s not the word John uses in 1:14. Instead, John uses a dirtier word, a grimier word, a more rustic word which has as its root �tent.� So you might literally translate this phrase �And the Word became flesh and �tented� among us!� Again his Hebrew hearers may have thought of the Tabernacle in the wilderness.
Camp Carl: I served as a camp counselor at a Christian Camp called Camp Carl for three summers during college. And there were two kinds of dwelling places for the campers. All of the girls and most of the boys got cabins. They were warm. Heaters if you needed them. Showers inside. They were practically mansions! But way at the end of the property of the camp--there were tents A-F! This is where the wild-life happened! Have you ever read the book Lord of the Flies? That�s what it was like. No restrooms or sinks or mirrors like everyone else had: we had a porto-potty. Guess who was assigned to be in charge of the tents? Me. We�d show up and chapel and meals dirty, nasty, stinky, war paint on our faces. Wild animal skins that we just killed on our back. Nobody who wasn�t forced to ever ventured back where the tent-dwellers lived! Jesus Christ left the throne of glory in Heaven and pitched his tent among fallen humanity.
The Incarnational Jesus: Tents A-F are not too far from the way Jesus lived. As a matter of fact, one time a scribe (a theology major of the day) came up to Jesus and said, �I will follow you wherever you go.� And Jesus looked at that young man and said, �Young man foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.� (Matthew 8:20). As far as we know, Jesus who was a carpenter by trade never built himself a home. He may have built them for others but He never built one for Himself.
On the Move: Jesus never had time to build a large and luxurious home for himself. He didn�t care to. Can you think of even one possession the Bible states that Jesus owned? He would rather be placing his hands on the rotting and dying skin of diseased-social-outcasts than put his boot to a shovel and build a mansion. He was too busy putting his hands on the eyes of the blind. He was speaking gently with the demon-oppressed man in the Geresene graveyard. Standing next to a whore at her execution by stoning. And so �he tented among us� strikes me as just the right phrase to describe a man who spent every ounce of his humanity: living, loving, healing, praying, saving, and dying. Yes, dying at the young age of thirty-three; a short life lived powerfully for the Glory of the Father.
So what do these 18 verses say to us today? The Apostle John is intensely concerned that we do not worship a Jesus that is any less than the Word-made-flesh. I would submit that John has shown us that we often worship a God that is too small. You see, some of us have settled for much less than the real thing. We�ve settled for:
� Baseball-bat jesus: the jesus we use to clobber non-believers (and sometimes even other Christians) over the head until they see things the way we do.
� Gumdrop jesus: The jesus we use to get what we want. You put in a dime, turn the knob. The results last as long as the flavor of that gum too! But who cares it didn�t cost you anything anyways.
� Fortune cookie jesus: The jesus we use in a pinch to find what to do in a jam. Also sold under the name the �magic-eightball Jesus.�
� Nick-nack Jesus: The jesus we use to give us an emotional cheer-up when we are down. He�s good for a brief emotional stir and then you put him back on the shelf in your dining room.
Do you see any of these superficial fakes in the prologue to John�s gospel? Do you see in these verses any sense that Jesus is a take-Him-or-leave-Him savior? On no! Jesus Christ the Alpha and the Omega can only be either worshipped and glorified as God or else spit on as a criminal. There are no other choices.
Behold Him: No, on the contrary, John says that the only proper response when we encounter the Logos�the Son of God�is adoration. Look at the second half of vs. 14: and we have seen His glory, the glory as of a Father�s only Son, full of grace and truth. Actually I prefer the old KJV which says, �We have BEHELD His glory. Because to �behold� something is far more than to merely �see� something. You see a traffic accident, you behold the face of a newborn baby. You see a tv show, you behold your bride on your wedding day. You cannot look upon Jesus Christ and remain the same ever again.
Yet some do not accept Him: Jesus Christ is: the majestic, pre-existent, Word of the Father. He has come into the world to be light and life. And yet sadly, many many people reject Him. Look at the 10th verse, �He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him; yet the world did not know him.� Many rejected Him then. Many reject Him now.
The Promise: But there is a massive promise of baffling proportions: in verse 12: the promise of 1) transformation: 2) the promise of acceptance no matter who you are and what you�ve done: But to all who received him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become the children of God. And of all the things that John has told us that are beyond our comprehension�this might be the most stunning of all.
