“Making God Known”
John 1:1 – 18
Introduction: John’s Christmas Story
And so it all comes down to this one day. All the preparation the last several weeks have been about this one day: Christmas Day.
And by the end of the day today, we will have unwrapped most of our presents, spent time with family and friends, and eaten lots of Christmas dinner and sweets. Some of you have already done a fair bit of celebrating, and some of you perhaps will start celebrating once this service is over. Perhaps even now your mind is wandering to that turkey cooking in the oven or to those relatives who will be arriving anytime. But, in any case, by the time the day is done, as my late grandfather said every year after Christmas dinner, “Christmas is further away now than it ever is.”
So far this Advent we have looked at the Christmas story through Matthew, Luke, and the prophet Isaiah. We have viewed Christmas through the eyes of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and through ancient words written in anticipation of the coming Messiah. We have reflected on what it means to have a perfect Christmas. We have seen that the Good News announced to shepherds is for anyone and everyone. We have caught a glimpse of a Messiah who brings peace to our conflict-torn world one heart at a time. Well, today I want to look briefly at the beginning of John’s Gospel. John, too, has a Christmas story; and in comparison with the more familiar Christmas narratives of Matthew and Luke, his is unique. [Read John 1:1 – 18.]
“And the Word was God . . .”
In echoing the very beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis, John’s Christmas story starts in a strange way: “In the beginning was the Word.” Much of the first chapter of John uses abstract concepts like “Word” and “life” and “light.” How does this passage tell the Christmas story? Where are the angels announcing the birth of Jesus? Where are Elizabeth and Zechariah? Where is Simeon? Mary and Joseph are wholly absent from John’s account. There is no escape from a paranoid King Herod to Egypt. There are no Wise Men from the east. There are no shepherds. There is nothing here that we normally associate with the story of Christmas.
To begin, I want to focus on one word from our passage in John, and that is the word, “Word.” In Greek the word is logos and draws upon the concept of the Word of God in the OT. As I said, John’s Gospel begins by recalling the opening verse of the Bible in Genesis, “In the beginning.” God’s spoken Word governs the creation accounts in Genesis. God also spoke His Word through the prophets. The notion of “Word” also has associations with the Jewish wisdom tradition, especially in Proverbs 8 where wisdom has been with God since “before the beginning of the earth” and works alongside God to accomplish His plan for creation.
The most important thing, however, to note about the concept of “Word” is this Word’s eternal existence and relationship with God. We are told here that the Word is with God and, more than that, the Word is God. What we need to get from this is that this Word is the revelation and self-expression of God. What God says, this Word says; what God does, this Word does; and what God is, this Word is. This Word, through Whom God created everything, is one with God; and this is something we can hardly begin to comprehend. But Scripture here is not asking us to understand how this is true, but only to believe that it is true.
If this Word that John speaks of is God, then knowing this Word means knowing God. If only God would speak this Word to us, then we would know Him. And that’s where Jesus comes into the world, literally.
“. . . and became flesh and dwelt among us”
This Word, says our passage, then “became flesh and lived among us.” Another translation says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” In our passage, therefore, we have two seemingly mutually exclusive statements: “the Word was God” and “the Word became flesh.” How can this Word be both God and human? Yet that is exactly what this passage is saying. This Word really is God and really became a flesh and blood human being. This very same Word that existed with God from all eternity, and is one with God, became a little child born in a manger. The true light that existed from all eternity was “coming into the world.” Jesus is not a mere human being. Nor does he only appear to be human. Jesus is both God and man. John leaves it at that. He leaves it to us to respond.
What we are talking about in all of this is something we call the incarnation. This is a theological word, a technical term, for saying that God became flesh and blood in Jesus Christ.
And the question we may ask ourselves is this: Why did God come as a human being?
Making God Known
John gives the reason for this Word becoming flesh, and it is a very simple reason indeed: to make God known. Verse 18 is key for us in this regard: “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.”
This is why the Word became flesh – to show us the Father, to let us know what God is like. God had spoken through Moses and the prophets, but now, as Hebrews 1:2 says, “In these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.” Jesus is God speaking to us as directly as possible. Jesus is God Himself, coming down to say, “This is what I am like. Watch me. Listen to me. Hear me.” Ultimately, of course, Jesus says, “Follow me.” By coming in the flesh, the Word of God – God’s only Son – cut out the middle-man. Only the Son is qualified to reveal God fully, for only the Son is fully one with God.
John’s Gospel is saying, quite simply: this Word that was with God in the beginning has now dwelt among us. This Word that is God has also become flesh. This Word has become flesh and dwelt among us in order to make God known to us since none of us has ever seen God. Jesus comes to make God seen and heard. This means that seeing Jesus is seeing God and that hearing Jesus is hearing God. Do you want to know who God is? Look at Jesus. Look at this Word made flesh, who is close to the Father’s heart and who, in becoming flesh, has made the Father known.
Knowing Jesus is Knowing God
In a way, this prologue in John is his introduction to rest of his Gospel. If the mission of Jesus is to make God known, then throughout the rest of the Gospel of John does exactly that. By telling us the story of Jesus, John’s Gospel tells us about God. It tells us what it means to come into relationship with this God. The message of John is this: “The Word becoming flesh is the decisive event in human history – indeed, in the history of creation – because the incarnation changes God’s relationship to humanity and humanity’s relationship to God. The incarnation means that human beings can see, hear, and know God in ways never before possible.”
Isn’t that what Christmas is all about? Isn’t it about God making Himself known to us in a way previously unheard of and unseen? Do you long to know God? Is there a desire in your heart, or a curiosity in your mind, to understand more about who God is? If so, Jesus is the answer to the questions of your mind and the desires of your heart. In becoming flesh, God is deliberately drawing near to us, so that we may come to know Him. That is the story of Christmas. At least that is the story as John tells it. Or at least how he begins it.
