Jesus is the Word of God to us
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
The first eighteen verses of John are among the most famous verses in the entire Bible. They are very rich and worthy of much study and meditation, and nothing we could do this morning will do them justice.
John introduces us to his gospel — or, better, introduces us to Jesus — with a flurry of images that can overwhelm our senses:
He is writing a new Genesis: “In the beginning…”. Jesus is the Word, who was in existence at the beginning of all things, who was there alongside of God bringing all things that exist into existence. Jesus is the Word who is God; what God was, Jesus was; what Jesus is, God is.
Jesus is Life; he brought life to all living things.
Jesus is Light; he brings light to us in the dimness of our understanding; a Light that we will not fully understand, but the Light that gives us the little understanding that we do have.
Jesus is Flesh; born of God, but really, truly human.
Jesus is the maker of the World, but the most of us in the world didn’t understand who he was.
Jesus is the savior of the Jews, his own people; but many Jews of his time didn’t understand who he was.
Jesus is the temple and tabernacle of God in our midst; the shekinah glory of God, “full of grace and truth.”
Jesus is the only one who has seen God; Jesus is at the Father’s side; Jesus is the one and only God; Jesus reveals who God is.
Don’t you feel a little battered? Perhaps if we focus on just one part, we might be better off. Let’s attempt to understand a bit more about Jesus as “the Word” means.
We could start, as many theologians have, by thinking about the ideas floating around the ancient middle east concerning “the Word.” We know that lots of Greek and Greek-influenced philosophy and theology discussed “ὁ Λόγος”, the Word. Looking at ‘the Word’ in this way will lead us to consider Jesus as, say, the mind of God — God’s intelligence and thought. Later, many Gnostics (both those influenced by Christian thought as well as those who were not) will build elaborate schemes in which way up there in the realms of the most abstract there is the the real God, who is uncorrupted by fleshly materialism, and between way up there and here there are various demigods who get more and more fleshly and eventually make the mistake of creating the universe. There’s a kind of parallel here to John’s description of Jesus as the Word who creates the universe. But of course, the creation that Jesus creates is a good creation, and most importantly, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Even if John were not influenced in any way by Greek thought—this is a matter of some debate, actually; although the fact that he is writing in Greek certainly hints that he wouldn’t be completely uninfluenced by non-Jewish Greek writers—even if John were not influenced by Greek thought, we could also see strong parallels to the Hebrew Bible—or, more accurately, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, and other Jewish writings that John is likely to have known. Proverbs 8:22-31 describes Wisdom personified as being present at the creation, working alongside God to build the world:
Then I was the craftsman at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence,
rejoicing in his whole world
and delighting in mankind.
But it might be even more instructive to think of John describing Jesus as Torah, the Hebrew word for God’s law. As David Reed notes, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible uses logos to refer to the Torah either explicitly or implicitly [1]. Reed sees an explicit equality of “logos” and Torah in John 10:35-36:
“If those to whom the word [logos] of God came were called ‘gods’-and the scripture [graphe] cannot be annulled-can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?”
So, with Jewish glasses on, we might read John 1:1 as, “In the beginning was the Torah, and the Torah was with God, and the Torah was God.” or “In the beginning was the Law, and the Law as with God, and the Law was God.” Again, of course, we need to read the entire chapter, especially those all-important verses: “And the Torah became flesh, and dwelt among us,” and the equivalency of Jesus as this Word, this Law; the equivalency of Jesus and God.
Is your mind reeling as mine is?
I think we can, without getting PhDs in ancient Greek and Jewish thought, still get a grip on what John is saying here. I think, in fact, that John is tapping into some very basic human ways of understanding and communicating here. As T.S. Eliot’s Sweeney said, “I gotta use words when I talk to you.” We are all aware that words are the main medium we use to communicate who we are. If I want you to understand me, I have to use my words. Emotions are non-specific; actions are often ambiguous; if I need to get thoughts that are in my brain into your brain, it’s going to take words.
So, it is natural to think of Jesus as God’s Word. When God wanted to act creatively, God spoke God’s Word, and the universe was created. When God wanted to reveal God’s self to the world, God sent the Word in the flesh to live among us. God wants us to understand truth and grace and glory and our right relationship to the divine, and so God sent Jesus the Word to us. Jesus perfectly communicates who God is, and always has. Jesus is and has always been what God wants to communicate; those who have truly heard Jesus truly hear God.
In other words,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
(He is what God is trying to say)