John and the Word
He had experienced astounding, amazing, and wonderful things. His time on earth was growing short; perhaps encouraged by those who honored him, but certainly prompted by the Spirit of God, he would record his witness so many more might gain insight from his experiences.
Who is he? He did not come out and explicitly name himself. He identified himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 20:20-24). Christian tradition considers this disciple to be “John.” “John” is a common name in Second Temple Judaism: there is John the Baptizer, who came before Jesus; John ben Zebedee, brother of James, an Apostle; and early Christians also spoke of “John the Elder.” Our author is generally associated with either John ben Zebedee or John the Elder. Peter and this “disciple whom Jesus loved” were the ones who ran to the tomb when Mary Magdalene reported it empty (cf. John 20:2-8). In the book of Acts Luke recorded how Peter and John ben Zebedee would visit the Temple together (cf. Acts 3:1): thus, John ben Zebedee might be the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” Papias of Hierapolis, who lived from 60 to 130, considered John the Elder the author of the Gospel and Letters of John as well as Revelation. Good arguments, therefore, can be made for either.
Whichever John wrote this Gospel did so as an eyewitness of these events which so transformed him, and he wrote so that people who heard it might believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and would have life in His name (John 20:31).
Where did John decide to begin his Gospel? Naturally, he chose the beginning; yet not the beginning we might imagine. John began before the beginning with the Word (Greek Logos). The Word was in the beginning; the Word was with God; the Word was God; all things were created by and through Him; the Word was life; the Word was the light of mankind (John 1:1-4).
There was no end of philosophical speculation regarding the Logos in the first century world, but John was no philosopher. John was attempting to communicate the profound mystery which he had encountered. The Scriptures testified to how God made all things by speaking them into existence (Genesis 1:1-2:3); the Psalmist provided confidence such was no mere rhetorical flight of fancy (Psalm 33:6-9). Moses had told Israel how YHWH had fed them with manna so they might learn how people do not live by bread alone but by everything which proceeds from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:3).
Thus we can understand John’s witness in John 1:1-4. By what means did God create all things? Through speaking His Word. What provided life for every created thing? God’s Word. What created thing sustains all life? The energy which comes from light. And so the Word of God is life and light.
The beginning of John’s Gospel, therefore, is the beginning of all things, the beginning of the revealing of God, for his Gospel testified to this Word who created and spoke all such things. John will continually evoke these themes throughout his Gospel.
We speak of light as a source of energy but also light as a source of illumination, or understanding; its contrast, darkness, would bring death, and would represent a source of confusion and ignorance. The story of humanity might lead one to conclude that the forces of darkness have overcome the light; but John testified to the contrary. The light of the Word has shined in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5).
John then introduced his first witness. God sent a man, John (the Baptizer); he testified regarding the Light to come (John 1:6). He readily confessed he was not the light; he wanted people to be ready to believe in the true Light who was coming to give light to all (John 1:7-9).
John then lamented how this Light, the Word, came into the world which had been created through Him, yet it did not recognize Him (John 1:10). For that matter, He had even come to His own people, the Jewish people, the people of God, did not receive Him (John 1:11). Yet John had experienced and knew the promise: those who received Him by believing in Him were granted the right to become children of God, not by genealogy, parentage, or any other human means, but by God (John 1:12-13).
John then simply declared the most profound expression of this great mystery: this Word – the Means of creation, the Life, the Light – became flesh and dwelt, or “tabernacled,” among mankind. John and those who were with him saw His glory, the glory of the One and Only Son of God, full of grace and truth, who had come from the Father (John 1:14).
How could it be? How can the magnitude of divinity be confined to a human body? We do not know; we likely cannot know. Yet our inability to know does not mean it did not happen.
The Incarnation of the Son of God thus remains one of the most profound mysteries and essential tenets of the Christian faith. The Word becoming flesh (as Jesus of Nazareth, whom John will not identify by name until John 1:17) truly is the miracle which leads to all other miracles, as C.S. Lewis attested. Unless Jesus was born, He could not die; if He could not die, He could not be raised from the dead. Everything Jesus will do flowed from His Incarnation.
John’s language remains quite deliberately chosen and maintains a powerful effect. In the Wilderness YHWH made provision for Israel to create and erect a tent, known as the Tabernacle; in the Tabernacle YHWH would maintain His Presence among His people Israel (cf. Exodus 40:34-38). The Tabernacle was retired when the Temple of Solomon was built (cf. 1 Kings 8:1-11), and the Presence of God remained in that Temple until it departed in the days of Ezekiel (cf. Ezekiel 10:1-22). After the exile the Jewish people returned and built another Temple, yet no one ever testified they saw the Presence of God return to it. Yet YHWH did return to Israel as He had promised; He did so by taking on flesh and tabernacling among them as Jesus of Nazareth!
John and his associates perceived His glory. They experienced the power and majesty of God working through Him. They had every confidence in His promise that they would receive the glory of God if they remained faithful to Him (cf. Romans 8:17-18).
John then returned to the testimony of John the Baptizer, for he spoke of how the One who would come after him was greater than him because He existed before him (John 1:15). Ostensibly John waited until here to provide this testimony because it would be otherwise difficult to understand how the One who came after the Baptizer had existed before him.
John then testified how he, his associates, and likely his audience had received all kinds of gifts, grace upon grace, from His fullness (John 1:15). The Law came through Moses; grace and truth came from this Word made flesh, whom John now names as Jesus Christ (John 1:16). “Christ” is Jesus’ title: the Anointed One, the king. It is not as if grace and truth were entirely absent from the Law of Moses, or that in Christ there are no commandments. Instead John spoke of framing and emphasis: Israel had been given the Torah and the Torah defined the covenant between God and Israel, but now our lives in faith are defined by Jesus. Gifts come through Jesus; Jesus is the embodiment of the truth.
John then confessed how no human had ever seen God (John 1:18). No human being has ever perceived the fullness of God with any of the five explicit senses, nor could anyone. Yet John testified how Jesus, the Word made flesh, who is God and in fellowship with the Father, has made God known (John 1:18).
Thus John concluded what is deemed the “prologue” of his Gospel. He has set the tone and the framework for all which would then be related. We can understand how and why John was completely transformed by his experience of Jesus of Nazareth. He had encountered God in the flesh, communicating all the relevant characteristics of God, the embodiment of the means by which God created and sustained all things. John had heard the words of God as his ancestors had heard for untold generations; but John would then be able to experience the embodiment of God’s Word and could share in Him and follow after Him. And now he invites all of us to learn of Jesus, the Word made flesh, so we might also share in Him, follow after Him, and find life in His name!
Ethan R. Longhenry
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