Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 147; Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John 1:1-18
So here we are. The first Sunday after Christmas. A new king is born, but what now? Where did this new king come from? What is his heritage? What is this new King here to do?
I consider our Gospel reading from John today, usually referred to as the “prologue to John”, to be the Rosetta Stone for understanding the person of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, and for telling us how we came to be the children of God as well.
Don’t get me wrong, I love all four Gospel accounts of the Good News of Jesus Christ, and each have their own unique way of teaching us about who this Jesus of Nazareth was and why we should care about him.
The important thing to remember about the Gospels is that each represented a different faith community. Each faith community included their special take on who Jesus was, what he did that was important and why, and what that meant for the larger world.
The Gospel according to Mark, thought by most biblical scholars to be the first written account of Jesus’ life and ministry, is the shortest Gospel. Mark jumps right in with John the Baptist – no manger, no angels and shepherds, no Zachariah and Elizabeth, no Joseph and his pregnant fiancé Mary. The original ending of Mark is jarring, leaving us at the tomb with terrified women who run off at the sight of the angel and telling no one what they had seen. But Mark leaves the reader with some important unanswered questions. Where did Jesus come from? Where was he born? What about his parents? How did the disciples find out about the resurrection? What happened when they met the resurrected Jesus?”
Next we have the Gospels according to Matthew and Luke. Matthew and Luke take the Jesus story from Mark and another unknown gospel, share some insights with each other, and offer some singular insights of their own into the where, who, how, and why of Jesus of Nazareth.
Scholars place Matthew next in line historically as the second oldest written Gospel in the canon. Matthew uses the Hebrew bible, what we call the Old Testament, and sprinkles his Gospel with quotations from the ancient prophets that point to the coming of the Jewish Messiah, especially the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. Matthew is famous for his well-used comment, “all this was to fulfill what the scripture said.” Matthew traces the genealogy of Jesus back to the patriarch Abraham and tells us just how Jewish Jesus was. Matthew features the male perspective on the conception of Jesus. Matthew features the three “kings” or “wise men” or “astrologers” who follow the star, and thwart King Herod’s attempts to kill Jesus as an infant.
Scholars place Luke next in line historically as the third oldest written Gospel in the canon. Luke features the female perspective on the conception of Jesus, complete with the verses we revere and call the Magnificat, the Song of Mary. Luke has the census that brings Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, no room at the inn, Jesus born in a stable, and shepherds visited by angels.
But there are questions not solidly answered by Matthew and Luke as well. If Jesus was the son of God, if Jesus was God… is God, where was the divinity of Jesus before he was made flesh? If Jesus is divine, eternal, where was his divinity before he was born of a woman?
Here John’s Gospel becomes the Rosetta Stone of the Word of God made flesh, the key to understanding the divinity of Jesus. Reading from John’s faith community:
“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.”
Jesus is not a created being as we are. The divinity of Jesus existed before he took on human flesh. Before he took on human flesh Jesus was the Word of God, the Word spoken by God in Genesis that creates all things in the creation story in Genesis. God speaks, the Word God speaks and therefore creates. Jesus the Word of God separates the primordial waters of creation, separates the dark from the light, and creates all living creatures. The Word of God shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overpower it.
“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.”
Jesus, the Word of God, came into his own creation in the flesh, and his coming brought salvation to creation. Jesus came to his own house, the house of Judah, the house of Israel, to save his people and his faith tradition. But his own people did not recognize his divinity, his faith tradition could not accept his message, his own heritage did not see the God in him and they rejected 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.”
Jesus the Word of God changed the rules of birth. Family and clan and heritage no longer mattered. Accepting Jesus as Lord removed the stain of Adam and Eve on humanity, restored all of creation… redeemed all of creation. Those of us born of Adam, born of this earth and of our flawed humanity, are now reconciled with God and made children of God through adoption. We are no longer children of flesh and blood but children of light. God has accepted us as his own beloved children, just like Jesus is God’s beloved child.
“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. From this fullness we have received, grace upon grace.”
Salvation is of God alone. There is nothing we can do that makes God love us, and there is no “more” or “less” that God can love us. God loves us unconditionally because of the Word made Flesh, Jesus Christ. No matter how much or how hard we may reach upward to impress God, salvation comes down from God alone through his Word made flesh.
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.”
It is the grace of God alone that saves. The Law of Moses still lives, is still important, but salvation comes through our Resurrected Lord, not through the Torah. The Grace of God brings salvation, not adherence to the Law. And we have seen God, because we’ve seen God’s Son, the Word made flesh. Jesus has shown God to us in his life and his death and his resurrection, and we in our baptism now share in Jesus’ knowledge of God, Jesus’ vision of God, Jesus’ understanding of God.
This prologue to John is our Rosetta Stone for understanding Jesus’ relationship to the Father, and for understanding our relationship to God the Father also. Jesus is not a created being. We are not worshiping a creature. The Word of God is co-eternal with God the Father, and this Word took on human flesh and for a time walked among us as Jesus of Nazareth. This Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried. This Jesus rose again from the dead, was resurrected in his spiritual body, and remains eternally the Word of God.
The Good News today is that, although God only had one son, Jesus Christ, because of that one son we are now and forever will remain the children of God. Because of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, God has adopted us and made us his children, and God makes no distinction between his birth child and his adopted children – we will forever be family in a bond that can never and will never be broken. Jesus the Word of God, the Word made flesh, Emmanuel, God with us, gave up his human life to bring us this salvation. Alleluia!