(whimsical music)
- [Tim] In the Bible, there are four accounts
of the life of Jesus that all together are called the Gospel.
And the Gospel of John begins by introducing Jesus
as the Word of God.
- [Jon] What does that mean, for a person to be a word?
- [Tim] Yeah. That's a great question. Let's check it out.
So John's account has 21 chapters,
and it begins with a carefully-designed prologue
that places Jesus' story in a cosmic context.
It starts like this:
- [Narrator] "In the beginning was the Word."
- [Jon] "In the beginning," that's how the story
of the whole Bible begins.
"In the beginning, God created the skies and the land."
- [Tim] Right. John is claiming that to really understand
who Jesus is, you need to start way,
way back in the beginning.
And what was God doing in the beginning?
He was speaking his creative word into the darkness.
- [Jon] Words like, “let there be light;”
“let the dry land appear;” “let plants grow.”
- [Tim] Picture a king who can get things done just
by speaking a word.
That's how God speaks in Genesis 1, 10 times.
And each word turns the dark chaos
into an ordered cosmos that is full of life.
- [Jon] Creation hears the word and obeys.
- [Tim] Now, think about it.
A person's word is their word because it embodies
their thoughts, but as it goes out from them,
it becomes separate.
It's this idea that John explores next.
- [Narrator] "And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God."
- [Tim] Notice how John has designed this opening statement.
So the outer lines are about the Word's eternal nature--
he's “from the beginning." And then the center lines
are a claim about the Word's identity.
- [Jon] The Word is both with God and is God.
They're two and also one.
- [Tim] Now, after these opening lines
are six more paragraphs that are arranged
in two matching groups.
The first three tell the story of Jesus with imagery drawn
from the scroll of Genesis.
Creation began with God bringing light into darkness,
and now, with the coming of Jesus,
God's beginning a new creation.
- [Narrator] “In him was life, and that life was the light
of humanity, and the light shines in the darkness,
but the darkness did not overcome it."
- [Jon] In the next paragraph, we meet a new character,
John the Baptizer.
- [Tim] Yeah. He was preparing Israel for something new
that God was going to do by bearing witness to Jesus
when he arrived.
- [Narrator] "John came as a witness so he could bear witness
to the light so that everyone could believe through him."
- [Tim] After this, the third paragraph explores
the choice people face when God's light enters
the world through Jesus.
Some choose to stay in the dark,
but others enter the light and are recreated--
reborn--as new kinds of humans.
- [Narrator] "Unto his own he came, but his own
did not receive him, but to those who did receive him,
he gave authority to become children of God
to those who believe in his name.”
- [Jon] So these three paragraphs summarize the story
of Jesus as God's word bringing light to the darkness--
all imagery from Genesis.
- [Tim] Right, and now watch. John will go back
and retell the same story again,
but this time with imagery taken from the scroll of Exodus.
- [Narrator] “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we saw his glory, the glory of the one
and only, from the Father."
- [Tim] So the eternal word of God entered into creation
by becoming a mortal human named Jesus.
- [Jon] And he dwelt among us?
- [Tim] Yeah. The Greek word for “dwelt” is skaynein.
It means literally to live in a tent.
John is comparing Jesus to the sacred tabernacle
that Moses built at Mount Sinai,
the place where God's glorious presence came to live
and unite with his people.
- [Jon] So Jesus is a human tabernacle?
- [Tim] Yeah. He's the reality to which
the tabernacle pointed, the place where God
and humanity are united as one.
- [Jon] Next, we get another mention of John the Baptizer,
who's bearing witness to Jesus, saying:
- [Narrator] "This is the one of whom I said,
'The one who comes after me actually proceeds me,
because he was long before me.'"
- [Tim] After this, John tells about how he
and his friends actually met Jesus,
and how they made the choice to follow and trust him
and so we're transformed by his light.
- [Narrator] "From his fullness, we all received
grace upon grace.
The Torah was given through Moses,
grace and truth came through Jesus Messiah.”
- [Tim] John was an Israelite,
part of the family that received, through Moses,
the generous gift of the Torah that shared God's word
and wisdom. And now, through Jesus,
John and his fellow Israelites have received
the ultimate gift of God's truth and love, Jesus himself.
- [Jon] And this time, God's word isn't written--
it's a person.
- [Tim] Exactly. Now to wrap things up,
John concludes the prologue with words
that echo the opening lines.
- [Narrator] "No one has ever seen God.
The one and only God who is in the lap of the Father,
that one has made known."
- [Tim] So on the one hand, God is transcendent
and above all--totally other.
- [Jon] And if that were the end of the story,
God would remain distant from us.
- [Tim] But then John starts talking about this one
and only God who's in the lap of the Father.
- [Jon] Now what does that mean?
- [Tim] Well remember, in the prologue opening,
John used the image of God and God's word.
Now he uses another image of a father whose son
is sitting really close.
- [Jon] A king and his word, a father and his son--
they're both ways of saying the same thing?
- [Tim] Right. John wants to make clear
that the Jesus he knew was both distinct from God
and also God. And as God's word and Son and light and glory,
Jesus came to make known...
- [Jon] Yeah. To make known what?
- [Tim] Yeah, exactly! In Greek, John doesn't say.
He actually leaves the sentence open.
- [Jon] He forgot to finish the last sentence?
- [Tim] No. It's on purpose.
It's John's invitation to keep reading the story,
so you can discover yourself what Jesus wants
to make known to you.
Ultimately, John sees the whole story of the Bible
as an invitation to know and be known by the Father
and the Son, who together are the one God.
(calm music)