1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
We will start here. This verse is incredibly deep and strikes me as one of the best places to start a conversation about Jesus, God, Creation, the Trinity, Man and our relationship with God.
I'm going to leave it open for the moment. What strikes you about this verse??
13 comments:
God was, is and will always be.
Ok,, so the "word" is also "him"????? and also god? who is "him" and why do they call it/him "word"? could the word be jesus? if so why would they call him word? IM CONFUSED
In Genesis we read " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light."
So in the beginning, there was God. The Spirit of God was hovering over the water. And God spoke. The sound that God made created light. The sound that God made was also God and through that sound creation came into existence.
That sound, we see in John, was the Word. And the Word, was Jesus.
So in the begining was the trinity. The Spirit, The Father and the Word (Jesus)....
But, here's a question...
"In his was life and that life was the light of all mankind."
So, the essence of the Word is life. But how is life, light?
I guess it depends on how we look at light here, and what we mean by life. I think that John here is using life beyond mere existence. Instead, I read it as the state of being we were created to long for, the greatest expression of who we can be in relationship with God. In this case, I'd see light and darkness as an illustration of our existence relative to this ideal.
Perhaps without Christ we only hunt after a true life in the dark, where we try to fill the void in our souls with things that are not God, not knowing how to truly live. The light, then, would be the illumination of this condition of our soul, allowing us a choice to pursue an alternative path after God.
Thoughts?
...and iTunes just served up a somewhat appropriate song on this theme. I like these lines from Mumford and Son's "Roll Away Your Stone:"
"and so I'll be found with my stakes stuck in this ground, logging the territory of this newly impassioned soul"
Or, in reference to the verse, our newly illuminated souls :)
Here's a related article from the world of science: rumors are flying that physicists may have found the so-called "God particle":
http://yhoo.it/ejOnUn
This particle, which science has yet to find direct evidence of, is (if it exists) an "integral and pervasive part of the material world."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson
Or, as it says in Colossians 1:17, "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."
There is one truth, and one reality. And something we can barely understand, from the dawn of time, pervades that reality and gives it form.
It kind of goes without saying, but it would be really interesting to have met Jesus. What is it like to meet the living embodiment of the light of creation? What is it like to see someone living in perfect relationship with God and man? Would it seem extraordinary or would it just seem natural?
Apparently it made an impression on John.
Tyler
I like your analog of life and light. Thinking of it that way brings so much to the following verse:
"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
If the "light" is the way to "life" the true living that God has created us for and the "darkness" is all the distractions we pursue instead and the void that we can't seem to fill on our own. Then this verse points to Jesus reaching out to us in our brokenness and bringing "light" in such a way that our "darkness" cannot overcome.
I am touched that even in my doubts, my quest for purpose, my searches and to-do lists -- that Jesus's light will reach out. That for everyone. Jesus will reach out and the darkness won't overcome his call to draw us into the life he has created us to live.
Tying back to what Ulrich said, I think that's why I love the Gospel of John so much. Unlike the writers of the other gospels who focused on getting the "facts" right. John was one of Jesus's BFFs and wrote this book in hopes that we (the whole world) would be able to know him intimately. That we would be able to encounter the person of Jesus AND the God-Light-Life-Creator who reaches into our darkness.
I think it is profound to imagine this man Jesus who embodied God and the light and love of God. Leslie once reminded me that the scriptures described Jesus as a normal looking (if even unattractive person) That to look at him you wouldn't see anything that stood out. Yet, people were deeply drawn to him. People who were seeking light, seeking God, seeking change. Those people encountered Jesus and his light shone to them.
I feel that as we read and we open ourselves. We might encounter Jesus again and receive light.
Well, I know I'm behind and I'm going back to the beginning...but I want to take advantage of the opportunity that John 1:1 provides us to discuss the Holy Trinity.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
If we have established that "the Word" = "Jesus", then this passage now reads: "In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God."
I can wrap my head around the fact that the Holy Trinity is three, connected, integral components of the Christian faith. What I can't wrap my head around are the conflicting references to Jesus being both the Son and God himself.
We are all the daughters and sons of God, and therefore we all have a part of God in us - especially when we consider Genesis (having been created in the image of God). So, the idea of Jesus being the Son of God is not only supported by scripture and historical accounts, but it also really isn't that far of a leap if we consider our shared "parentage" in the first place. So, I think we can look to Jesus as being the perfect human example - what we all have the potential of being if we were to live the perfect Christian life.
Where things get sticky for me is "the Word was God." Because while a father is a part of his son, the son is not his father. Not to mention I feel like this puts Jesus on too high of a pedestal - in the sense that he is then no longer a being that we can ascribe to be. If he is considered God, then we have no hope of truly living out his teachings and way of life. I feel like that's almost detrimental to the core of Christian belief; because as Christians our ultimate goal should be to be as Christ was.
I'm confused by the conflicting references throughout the Bible - Jesus as God vs. Jesus as Son of God. For example, why would Jesus have cried out to his "Father" while on the cross if he was God? Why did he not perform miracles until after he was touched by the Holy Spirit through baptism - if he was God, why would he need to be joined with the Holy Spirit by John? etc...
Lots of rapid-fire questions here; hoping someone can shed some light :-)
Testing ...
Oh, yay! I haven't been able to comment here -- Blogger kept giving me error messages, but I seem to have fixed it.
Kelsey, great questions. I wrote a long response which Blogger ate, and I'll try to reconstruct it and post it here in a bit.
Okay, so the early church had a lot of intense debate about exactly what Jesus' true nature was. Some said he was only human; some said he was only divine. Both of those views were eventually rejected in favor of the doctrine that Jesus is *both* fully human *and* fully divine. That is, Jesus is both God and the Son of God.
How is this possible, and why did the church come to believe this? One important passage from Philippians sheds light on it (verses 6-11 are thought to be the earliest surviving Christian hymn):
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Notice the "very nature of" in verse 6, and then again in verse 7. This points to the two natures of Jesus, divine and human.
The church believes that Jesus, as the Word of God, is part of the trinity, having existed forever before the beginning of time and the creation of the world (and was, in fact, the Word God spoke to bring everything into being -- the very creative force of the Trinity).
But in the Incarnation, when Jesus took on human form and was born as a baby, he voluntarily laid aside some aspects of his divinity. Why? So he could live life as a human -- and not just a human, but one fully dependent on God and fully obedient to God. ("And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross.")
Why did Jesus call out to his Father on the cross? Because in his humanity, he needed to. Why did he wait to do miracles until he was baptized, and the power of the Holy Spirit had descended? Because he had chosen to live, not in the power of his divinity, but in faithful obedience to God the Father.
This is why, even though we cannot live a perfect life, Jesus is still our role model -- we can all aspire to imitate his humility, faithfulness, obedience, and dependence on God. The power of the Holy Spirit can work through us, just as it did through Jesus.
A final why, which you didn't mention but is implied in all these other points. Jesus had to be human to die for us -- but if he had been only human, with his own sins to pay for, his death would not have bought our freedom. Both his human and divine natures were essential to our salvation, which is why the church wound up rejecting the idea that he was only one or the other.
I know that's about a 15-course meal I just served up, so feel free to ask more questions as you try to absorb it. :)
Post a Comment