2nd Sunday After Christmas
John 1:1-18 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 All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. 9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13 who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.
14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified concerning him and exclaimed, “This was the one of whom I said, ‘The one coming after me ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.'”) 16 Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, 17 for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.
The Gospel of John is set apart from the other gospels in a number of ways. All of the gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – are all perfectly inspired and without error in all they say, but John approaches the life of Jesus differently. It’s kind of like a newspaper reporter who observes and investigates an event, and what he writes ends up in the paper the next day. It’s completely accurate. But then there’s another writer who observes the event, reads the newspaper account, and maybe another account, but then waits a year or two and writes an essay for some journal. His account is completely accurate as well, even though he leaves out some things and adds other things not found in the first account. Some readers will read only the newspaper and some will read only the journal. Some will read both. But both are accessible to all and both can benefit everyone, even if one account might be directed to one kind of reader more than the another.
One of the ways in which John differs from the other three gospels is how he starts out. Matthew starts out with the genealogy of Jesus and then goes into his birth. Mark jumps right to the ministry of John the Baptist. Luke begins by putting forth his credentials as an investigative reporter and historian, and then reports on the events surrounding the birth of Christ.
John, on the other hand, has an eighteen-verse prologue, which is our text for this morning. And the prologue is amazing because it touches upon, in a very majestic prose fashion, so many essential truths about Jesus, about man, about Christianity. It’s like John is saying, “Here’s what I want you readers to know up front as you read through the next 20 ½ chapters.” So here is a paraphrase (and commentary) of what John is saying.
“Dear reader, Here is what I want you to take with you as you read these chapters. Whether you believe it or not, I may never know. But try to keep the points of this prologue in mind as you read.
“I am claiming that in the beginning this One was the Word, the powerful Word of God, who not only was with God, but was God.
“I am letting you know that the reason for the existence of the universe is not because of the universe itself, but because of this One. He is the One who created everything, including you.
“I am putting before you that in this One is something you don’t have, but he has: life! You have death, he has life. And that life is also the light that shines on men living in deepest darkness; an everlasting light that the darkness can never put out.
“I want you to know that no man, not even the greatest of men or prophets, like John the
Baptist, compares to this One. At the same time, all the prophets, especially John, pointed to this One.
“Let me tell you how people respond to this One. Though he powerfully created the world and everyone in it, including the people of Israel, when he came most would not acknowledge him or accept him. They said No.
“But others would receive him, and upon receiving him they are given a right they have no right to: they become God’s own dear children.
“And how do they go about receiving this One? Very simple: by believing in his name.
“When that believing takes place, they are born again as children of God, a birth brought about not by any human effort, plan, or activity, but brought about by God. God does it, all by himself.
“And here is what all this depends on: this One, this Word who was with God and was God, and who was the Creator of all things, he became flesh, became a human man, and in that flesh he dwelt among us.
“We, the apostles, with our eyes have seen his glory, the glory that belongs to the one and only Son sent from God the Father. Keep reading and I will describe to you where, when, and how we saw his glory. It is in this glorified Son where the fullest mercy and grace are found and in whom truth is found and will never change.
“God gave the Law, the Old Covenant, through Moses. But the New Covenant of grace and truth came into existence through Jesus Christ, the one and only Son of God, who is himself God. It is he who has made this known.”
So, this is what we find in the prologue, and there are some other things there too. But I do want to add one more thing that is not technically in the prologue. It is kind of implied, but it is not plainly spelled out until verse 29. It is a statement spoken by John the Baptist as he saw Jesus coming toward him. You probably all know it. In this statement John the Baptist makes it clear that this Jesus Christ – who was and is God, who is the one and only Son of God the Father, who is the Creator of all things, who brought life to those living in spiritual death and light to those bound in the darkness of sin, who became flesh (like all of us here), and who in the glory of his deity, hidden under his flesh, would establish the fullest amount of grace because he himself is the Truth that would never fail – in this statement John the Baptist makes it clear that this Jesus Christ would perform a specific work that would bring about the most needed benefit. I am going to quote John here but I will say it in a way that I think John would have said it. The first word would not have been said without some excitement and emotion, for he knew why this Jesus had become flesh. “Look!!! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The Word made flesh would be sacrificed and slaughtered to pay for all sins once and for all, to attain forgiveness of all sins once and for all.
There is a lot packed into the prologue of John 1. Again, the apostle John is saying to his readers, “Here’s what I want you readers to know up front, what I want you to keep in mind as you read through the next 20 ½ chapters.” And John also would have been thinking, “I don’t expect you readers to say yes to this right away, I don’t expect you automatically to believe all this, though I hope in time you do. I just want you to know what we apostles have seen and heard and touched and know is true.” He would be patient. But he wanted them to read his gospel.
This patience would have been very understandable to the apostle John because the apostles, chosen by Jesus himself, struggled with believing. They had doubts all the way up to and beyond Christ’s death and resurrection. Jesus had to go the extra mile to convince them. This is why John wrote his gospel: so people might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing they would have life in his name (20:31).
You also can give the Gospel of John to unbelievers and sceptics to read, and say to them, “Here, read this. Think about it. When you want, we can talk about it, or you can talk to our pastor.”
One more thing. This is still Christmas. It is the second and last Sunday of this Christmas season. In this prologue John does not talk about the birth of Christ as do Matthew and Luke. And yet the Christmas message is loud and clear here. In fact, some of our favorite Christmas hymns use parts of this chapter from John. “O Little Town of Bethlehem” is one of those. Darkness, everlasting Light, coming in the flesh (“born of Mary”), yet true God, receiving Christ, and us being born in Christ, are all mentioned.
1 O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie;
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.2 For Christ is born of Mary;
And, gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wond’ring love.
O morning stars, together
Proclaim the holy birth!
And praises sing to God the King,
And peace to all on earth.3 How silently, how silently,
The wondrous gift is giv’n!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heav’n.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still,
The dear Christ enters in.4 O holy Child of Bethlehem,
(ELH 137:1, 3, 4)
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel!
Amen.
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