John 1: 1–18
The Word: the introduction to the Gospel of John relies heavily on this idea of the Word. The Greek word is Logos. It’s the root of all those endings we have on our English words to mean “study of…” as in geology (study of the earth), biology (study of life), psychology (study of the mind) and so on.
Logos was a typically Greek idea and was first discussed by the philosopher Heraclitus around 600BC. It could mean a number of things:
• A spoken word expressing an idea from inside the mind.
• The rational, thinking processes of the mind.
• The logical (logos) rational system of working of the universe, i.e. the way things work, the scientific principles of nature.
• The creative energy and mind (nous) of the universe – this relates to the present-day idea of Gaia – the idea of the life-principle of the earth; that this planet is a living mind, if not a living being, and will punish humankind for damage inflicted on it.
Heraclitus rejected the idea that the natural world is only physical; he believed it included a spiritual reality also – another idea that has resurfaced in our own era. In his thought, Logos was eternally-existent. It was the ultimate Source of all things. It was the stabilising, sustaining force which held everything together. It was connected with the ever-present Wisdom by which everything in the universe is managed, including the Greek idea of Fate and Destiny. This concept was extensively reworked by Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher in the 50 or so years before Jesus was born. So it was a very current notion!
With this classical background it is easy to see what John was doing in this introduction. But before we comment on that, let us see what the Word meant in traditional Jewish thinking.
Logos – the Word of God – the dabar JHWH in Hebrew – appeared in such expressions as:
By the Word of the LORD, the heavens were made (Psalm 33:6).
So shall my Word be that goes out from my mouth: it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose (Isaiah 55:11).
Proverbs 8 is an extended meditation on the Wisdom of the LORD, while Psalm 29 is a meditation on the Voice of the LORD in creation. In the Jewish Targums (the Old Testament translated into Aramaic which were the only written scriptures read daily in synagogues in Jesus’ day), the Word of the LORD as a synonym for God (YHWH) himself was commonplace.
In this majestic introduction to his Gospel, John brings together centuries of Jewish and Greek thought. He takes the combined literary wealth-hoard of two major religious systems, Greece and Israel, and unites the Central Idea of each in the Person of Jesus Christ.
It is as though he were saying: Everything that you have ever thought or dreamed about as the Ultimate Source, the Defining Mind, the Deep Wisdom of the Universe, the Beginning of Time, the Creating Force of Life itself – all of these have landed on our doorstep as it were, in the person of a human being called Jesus of Nazareth. He is the eternal Logos – WORD.
Here is my paraphrase of the opening half, approximately:
Deep, down deep at the root of the universe when the cosmos cried out, being birthed,
there was first the Speaking-Word, inclined in love toward the face of God – at one with each other’s Spirit in the intimate enfolding of their Being and Speaking and Forming.
No thing ever had any other birth than this; all things and beings were spoken into existence, into being, into breath, into life, into their own speech. The brightening Light revealed the Human, the Shining One of God, who has come to dwell on earth amongst us. The Shining Speaking-Word took form in flesh, inhabiting our home, nestled amongst us.
Darkness, trembling, fled into itself – No-Light, curled and coiled, knowing defeat at the last.
Oh! Remember how our dark dwelling-places were set ablaze in Light!
Fire and flame and flashing glory filled us
Till we were utterly at Home with Him, knowing truly at last.
Peace and goodness kissed in our embrace.
We need to be very clear about a small verse at the end of our passage which is often misunderstood. For the law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (v17). Some people think that Moses’ law was somehow deficient, and needed upgrading like an out-of-date computer program, and Jesus came to fix it up, to reboot the system. That is NOT what John intends.
For the fact is that Jesus himself was the Word who gave the Commandments in the first place. Jesus is part of the indivisible Trinity. Nothing spoken ‘by God’ in the Old Testament was spoken by anyone other than Jesus Christ. He is the Eternal Word. Wherever we read of God speaking or appearing in the Old Testament, we can think of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus, as the speaking actor in that place. John is making the point here that the joy and beauty of the Law given by Jesus through Moses is now further illuminated – not replaced – by the gracious truth that is expressed in the personal coming of Jesus Christ.
The outline of Jesus as the Divine Word who was made flesh and has come to dwell with us forms the basis for the whole of John’s Gospel. The heart of John’s message is that Jesus is the Bread of Life, who provides our sustenance just as the manna was provided for the Israelites in the wilderness, and that we must receive him (vv11–12) as that Bread of Life, and hear (obey) his Spoken word. We will find ourselves coming back to this over and over again in these reflections.
Before Jesus came, the Wisdom of the Ages was dimly grasped by pagan mystics from Greece and Babylon, by the Teutonic and Norse mythmakers, by the indigenous peoples of North America, Australia and Asia, and was closely encountered by the Hebrew people in covenant relationship with the Living Word of God. Now, in this era of God’s favour in history, this Ancient Wisdom has come to us, born as a human being. His name is Jesus, and this is his story. Listen up!
Prayer: Oh, my Lord Jesus Christ! What can I say? I bow before the majesty of your coming and thank you for the advent of your Word. Help me, please, to hear your words and to obey them. I desire to listen to your Word with Bluetooth clarity. Amen.