Day 1 - John 1:1-18
02 Jan 2017
John begins his gospel in a different way to the other three. There is no mention of the angels, the birth, or the wise men. Unlike Mark we don’t begin in the wilderness with John the Baptist. We are taken further back into history. With a phrase that deliberately echoes the opening to the whole Bible, John tells us that the one he is about to write about was there “in the beginning”.
But who is the person John is writing about? John does not want us to think that Jesus is an ordinary man. No, he is “the Word”, God revealing God to us. He is the creator (vs 3), and because of that he is the source of all life (vs 4). John is writing his gospel so we will know him, and so we will share in the life he has - just flick forward to read what he says about why he writes his gospel in chapter 20 verse 31.
Why has Jesus entered our world? Because we need to know God. As well as being “the word” Jesus is also “the light”. We are in “darkness” and need “enlightening” (vs 9). This is not because God has not been clear about who he is - because because although he created us, we have rejected him. We are ignorant, but we have chosen this ignorance and are in rebellion against the truth.
In these fourteen verses John introduces the themes that will come up throughout his account of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. We will see the opposition to Jesus - this dark sinful world trying and failing to overcome the light (vs 5). We will see the rejection of Jesus by the people you would most expect to welcome him (vs 10-11). And we will see people coming to recognise who Jesus really is - because God opens their eyes to see, and gives them new birth (vs 12-13).
We cannot stand at a distance and treat John’s gospel as a great story or a well written book. No, we must take seriously what we are told and pay attention to these witnesses to the light - whether they be John the baptist (vs 6-7) or John the writer of this gospel.
What we read in these pages is wonderful and vital. God himself has come and dwelt among us! What the tabernacle and temple pointed to in the Old Testament is a reality now in Jesus. What was promised in the law is now fulfilled in Jesus (vs 17). God is no longer at a distance from us. We must no longer say “I like to to think of God as…..” Jesus has made God, and the way to God known to us.