John 1, verses 1 through 28

This is my blog. In it, I read and comment upon the four Gospels. I'm starting with John, because I find his style to be exciting, and a good place to start.

On with the show.

Chapter 1

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

² The same was in the beginning with God.

³ All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made.

⁴ In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

⁵ And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not.

This, o my brothers, is the work of a man who knows how to start a book. Matthew’s genealogies are all very well once you’ve already made the decision to read it, and now you want some proof that Jesus was descended from the Line of David, but John knew how to hook you. On the fence about reading this slim volume about this man Jesus? Bam! In the Beginning! Was the Word! This is exciting stuff, heavy ideas getting thrown around all over the place. First, there’s something at the very beginning, part of God, YHWH, Tetragrammaton, Hashem, He Is That He Is. And this thing that is the same thing as God is also something different, different enough to have its own name, the Word, Logos. This Word, God-and-with-God, all things were made through him. If it exists, He (He and not It) was the cause of it. And in this Word is life, and this life is light. Four verses in and we’re already just “Way” away from having a complete set of the Christian Magic Words. And this light which is life which is in the Word which was with and was God, this light shines in darkness. This is heavy, mystical stuff, and just the kind of thing that gets my juices going.

⁶ There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.

⁷ The same came for witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him.

⁸ He was not the light, but [came] that he might bear witness of the light.

No messing around here. John’s getting right at the point from the get-go, with no beating around the bush with lineages (however important they may be if you want to establish a claim to Messiahdom) or origin stories (however rife with signs and wonders they may be), he goes right for the throat: Word-God-Light-Life-Man named John. This John is not the light, but he does bear witness. He bears witness, but is not the light. This point is important, because it’d be a big mistake to confuse the herald with the one being announced. A feature film with Laurence Fishburne is probably going to make that point this very summer.

⁹ There was the true light, [even the light] which lighteth every man, coming into the world.

¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world knew him not.

¹¹ He came unto his own, and they that were his own received him not.

¹² But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, [even] to them that believe on his name:

¹³ who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.

The light, the Word, is coming into the world. And it is reiterated here that the world was made through Him. Even so, the world does not recognize Him. The world, let it be said, has forgotten the face of its father.

But there’s more. By this, some do recognize, and receive, and those that do, they get something very special. Children of God. We who are Christians have managed to make a cliché out of this, and though like most clichés its true, its status as such has robbed it of its power. This is a mighty thing. This is magic and lighting and fire on the earth. And mixing in with this fire, John hits us with some more of the heavy philosophy. Born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. What is that? What does this thing mean?

Something new.

And the Word, let him with ears hear it, became flesh, and dwelt among us full of grace and truth. And we beheld Him. And now, just fourteen verses in, we’ve come to the beating heart of things. God, or God’s begotten, begotten from the very beginning of things and shaper of worlds and realities, has been cast in meat and put on this planet’s dirt and we saw and recognized Him.

This is some heavy stuff.

⁵ John beareth witness of him, and crieth, saying, This was he of whom I said, He that cometh after me is become before me: for he was before me.

¹⁶ For of his fulness we all received, and grace for grace.

¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

And the man who is the light which is the life which is the Word which is with and is God, He has a name, and John Baptizer is calling it out. And, further, those who embraced Him became Sons of God.

Man, this deep into Matthew Jesus isn’t even born yet. This deep into Luke, He isn’t even Conceived yet.

¹⁸ No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared [him].

¹⁹ And this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent unto him from Jerusalem priests and Levites to ask him, Who art thou?

²⁰ And he confessed, and denied not; and he confessed, I am not the Christ.

²¹ And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elijah? And he saith, I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered, No.

²² They said therefore unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?

²³ He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet.

Like Jesus, down the line, John gets hit with the question “who are you?” It might be possible to craft a sermon out of speculation as to why they asked this, and not “what are you doing, and why?” but skip it.

He starts out by telling them who he isn’t. When they pin him down, he invokes Isaiah, and tells ‘em “God’s on His way.”

²⁴ And they had been sent from the Pharisees.

Another thing John gets in ahead of the competition is the foreshadowing. Matthew’s still on baby pictures, Mark, skipping all the heavy stuff and sticking to just the facts, has Jesus starting his ministry, and Luke is working on how John got conceived. John, meanwhile, has already begun to set up for dramatic big finish.

²⁵ And they asked him, and said unto him, Why then baptizest thou, if thou art not the Christ, neither Elijah, neither the prophet?

²⁶ John answered them, saying, I baptize in water: in the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not,

²⁷ [even] he that cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose.

²⁸ These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Pharisees: “Okay, screw that guy who was thinking about making a sermon about the questions we ask, why are you doing this?”

John: “Again, boys, stuff is about to go down.”

To be continued…