A reflection on John 1:1-18 for the Second Sunday After Christmas Day, January 2, 2021.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.”’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 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.
John 1:1-18 (NRSVA)
The prologue to the Gospel of John is my favourite account of the first Christmas.
To be sure, there are no foreign wise men here. No shepherds. No angels. No manger scene or star. And yet, this is surely another telling of the Christmas story.
After all, this is an account claiming that ‘…the Word became flesh and lived among us.’ Eugene Peterson puts it most memorably:
‘The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighbourhood.’
Yes, this is unmistakably the Christmas story.
Unlike Luke and Matthew, this telling of the events that inspire the annual celebration of Jesus birth does not start in Israel. Rather, it begins well before the establishment of Israel – or any – nation. John begins pre-time and pre-creation. His use of the phrase ‘In the beginning’ to open his account of the gospel deliberately echoes the opening words of Genesis.
This is, at least initially, a creation account. The open paragraph is worth reading again with this reality in mind:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
The hero of this story was before time and creation, was ‘with’ and ‘was’ God. Nothing is apart from this one. Here is the source of all ‘life’ – including all people.
I love the name John gives to this one: ‘The Word’. In the Genesis account of creation God calls – or speaks everything into being. There we are constantly told that ‘God said…and it was.’ To call this one the Word makes an intimate connection between this one and the creator God. In fact, the Genesis account makes almost no distinction between God and God’s creative voice. Here, however, we have both a distinction – and an insistence that the two are one.
There’s another connection between the Word and creation here. ‘Light’. Harping back to Genesis once again, light is the first reality bought into being by the voice of God. John, however, does not link this with general creation – but much more specifically. This one is the ‘light of all people’ – and importantly for the end of John’s gospel – no ‘darkness’ will ‘overcome’ it.
Clearly, John understands his story to be one of profound and intimate importance to everyone. His is not a story exclusively for the Jewish nation – or even for the world-wide generation at the time of Jesus’ coming or John’s writing. It is far bigger – and more cosmic – than that. The linking of this one with people from the very beginning of time establishes this. Terms like ‘the light of all people’ and the ‘…true light, which enlightens everyone…’ makes this unmistakably clear.
And this one – unimaginably – ‘was coming into the world’. As if to reconfirm, John immediately repeats himself as he opens the following paragraph: ‘He was in the world…’
What John adds at this point is surely as surprising as any claim made so far: ‘…the world did not know him…’ and ‘his own people did not accept him…’
I wonder what people would have made of all this – at least initially? John is saying that the source of all created things has, unrecognised, come into the world. So far, I suspect many would consider this to be anything but good news. The dominant paradigm – in Israel and beyond – was that God, or the gods, were far from pleased with people – and that sacrifice and offering were paramount to keeping them appeased and at bay.
God coming unrecognised and unaccepted into the world was a disturbing claim indeed.
And yet, John’s prologue has at least two more plot-twists to reveal. First, there are exceptions: some did recognise and ‘receive’ him – embracing the opportunity to ‘become children of God…born…of God’. Second, the ‘glory’ of this one was revealed not as a source of wrath and revenge, but as – of all things – the source of ‘grace and truth’. This delightful – and unbelievable – surprise is only confirmed with the memorable phrase: ‘From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace’ (there’s John’s use of ‘all’ again’).
This is not a story of ‘revenge upon revenge’ or ‘wrath upon wrath’ or ‘rage upon rage’.
It is, however, a story of un-earned and un-imagined love upon un-earned and unimagined love. John’s is an invitation to discover that ‘…grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.’ This is not a creation-revenge account – but, of all things – a creation-recreation account.
I suspect all this is a very deliberate opening – baiting us with the outrageous claim of the claims of Christmas.
It is all designed to put us off balance enough to make us read on!
Conversation Starters:
Have you ever considered the opening passage of the Gospel of John as another account of creation? What changes for you if you view it through this lense?
Are you inclined to understand the gospel as a story of ‘revenge then grace’ or ‘grace upon grace’? What changes if you adopt the latter?
Does John’s prologue make you want to read on? If so, take to time to read through the entire Gospel of John with the claims of John’s introduction in mind.