Shiloh Lutheran Church
State College, PA
In the summer of 1985, I took the Graduate Record Exams, the graduate school equivalent of the SAT’s. I was only taking the general exam, so I was there for half a day, but some people had subject exams in the afternoon also. I like studying and thinking about ideas, but taking the GRE’s was a thoroughly hateful experience. During the break, a guy standing next to me (who was also taking a test in the afternoon) said, “I can’t believe I paid so much money to be so miserable for the whole day.” I did reasonably well (except for the math), but I hated it and was glad to have it over with. I was glad to be able to put it behind me. I think some people feel that way about Christmas by this time. Especially if you don’t set some time aside to seek the Lord during Advent, the pressure of the season can be overwhelming. By now you may be sick of Christmas music and ready to pack everything in the attic until next year.
Really, though, on the Church calendar the Christmas season only began yesterday. In stores, the Christmas season starts after Thanksgiving (or maybe even Halloween), and it all leads up to Christmas day; after that, it’s over. In the Church, we’ve been observing Advent, a time of preparation for Christmas. Advent is not part of the Christmas season; it’s a time of preparation for the Christmas season in the same way that Lent is a preparation for the Easter season. The Christmas season goes from Christmas day until Epiphany, which is on January 6th. The point of this is that we have some time to celebrate the Incarnation. If Christmas day goes by in a blur, the season isn’t over. You may be sick and tired of “Jolly Old St. Nicholas,” and I don’t blame you if you’re ready to give him a rest. But don’t let your weariness with our cultural celebrations rob you of an opportunity to meditate on the Incarnation. That’s the thing John is writing about in this prologue to his gospel: Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; the promise of Immanuel, “God with us,” has been fulfilled. God has “raised up for us a mighty Savior.”
The first thing John wants us to know is that this Savior God has raised up for us is fully divine (vv. 1-5). Notice that He doesn’t start out, “in the beginning the Word came to be.” He says, “In the beginning was the Word;” the New English Bible translates it in this way: “When all things began, the Word already was.” He wants us to know that there has never been a time when the Word did not exist. He also wants us to know that the Word is a distinct Person: “the Word was with God.” In the beginning, when creation began, God and the Word were there together. And he wants us to know that the Word is fully divine: “The Word was God.” This Word of God, which he introduces in verse 1, is eternal and divine, and is a distinct person within the being of God.
Do you ever wonder why there’s so much bother about theology? Does it all really matter? Isn’t it enough to simply believe the gospel and seek to live in obedience to God? We need to know that theology hasn’t arisen in a vacuum. Theology didn’t come about because some people in the Church didn’t have enough to keep them busy (an accusation that I’ve heard, from time to time). It was developed in response to false teachings. Arius was an influential Church leader in the fourth century who argued, with great intellectual ability and persuasiveness, against the deity of Jesus Christ. He believed the Word was a created being, that there was a time when He did not exist. He rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, that there are three distinct persons within the One God. Only God the Father, in his view, has existed from eternity. He was committed to the unity of God, and the doctrine of the Trinity seemed inconsistent with that, so he rejected it. It didn’t make any sense to him.
The Church responded by gathering in councils which discussed the subject then formulated creeds, definitive statements to safeguard the teaching of Scripture. These creeds don’t explain how God can be One God and Three Persons at the same time. They don’t try to give us a philosophical justification for the teaching of Scripture. They give us parameters, or boundaries. They allow room for mystery, and they set forth, in an orderly way, what Scripture says. They leave room for mystery, since there’s much in Scripture that’s beyond our understanding, but they also protect us from error. They’ve grown out of much study, discussion and prayer; and they’re the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work in guiding His people into all truth. Here’s the beginning of the Nicene Creed: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, Begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten, not made, Being of one substance with the Father, By whom all things were made: Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man....” It doesn’t explain; it simply states in an ordered way the New Testament teaching about the unity and diversity in the nature of God.
That’s the first thing John makes clear in these verses: the Savior, whose birth we are celebrating right now, is God. He so carefully piles one idea on top of another that there’s no way we can miss it. The only way to miss the truth of these verses is to be indoctrinated in false teachings, like those of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the only way to sustain that kind of falsehood is to close our eyes to many of the things that are said in Scripture. The Jehovah’s Witnesses try to solve the problem by a faulty translation of verse 1. They translate it: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was a god.” We don’t need to go into a discussion of why this is a wrong translation. It is a faulty translation of the Greek text, but completely apart from any consideration of Greek grammar, this is an impossible understanding of what John is saying. How can the Word be a created being (which is what they’re trying to support by this translation) when John says that “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made”? He says it both positively and negatively to make sure there’s no misunderstanding. He can’t be a created being and the Creator of all things at the same time.
But, having established his first point, John also wants us to know that our Savior is fully human. He makes this clear in verses 10-18, especially verse 14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Good News Bible translates very simply and clearly: “The Word became a human being and lived among us.”
In the early centuries of the Church, there were teachers who went too far on one side or the other. There were those who taught that Jesus was God, but that He didn’t really become human in the fullest sense. That teaching was called Docetism, from the Greek word for “seem,“ meaning that Jesus only seemed to be human. There were all sorts of variations on this, but the basic teaching was to so emphasize Jesus divinity that they denied (or sometimes simply neglected) His humanity. This is the opposite extreme from Arianism, which saw Him as a created being and denied His full divinity.
Why is this important? Why do we need to hold both of these truths in tension? For one thing, we only know God as He reveals Himself, and this is what He has revealed. We need to humble ourselves before God’s self-revelation. It shouldn’t surprise us that there are things about God that are beyond our grasp. The fact that we can’t explain it all, that there are large areas of mystery, isn’t really a problem. Rather than saying, “I can’t understand all this; it must not be very important,” or “this doesn’t make sense; it must be false,” God calls us to bow before Him in wonder and awe, being humbled by the mysteries that confront us in the gospel. The proper response to mystery is worship. Here’s an example of awe-inspired worship before the wonder of God’s self-revelation:
God reveals His presence:
Let us now adore Him,
And with awe appear before Him.
God is in His temple:
All within keep silence,
Prostrate lie with deepest reverence.
Him alone
God we own,
Him our God and Saviour:
Praise His Name for ever!
(Gerhard Tersteegen, quoted by A.W. Tozer,
The Christian Book of Mystical Verse, p. 60).
The proper response to the mysteries revealed in this first chapter of John’s gospel is to fall on our faces in worship. There’s much here that we can’t grasp, that we’ll never fully grasp in this life. But we’re not called to unravel the mysteries of God. We’re called to humble ourselves and bow before Him in worship.
But it’s not all mystery. There’s much we can’t grasp, but the main function of the doctrine of the Incarnation is not to conceal things behind a shroud of mystery. In the Incarnation we see God revealed; we learn things about Him that we could never know otherwise. Verse 18 says: “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” The word translated “made him known,” is an interesting one to use here. It means “to explain.” When Cornelius received a vision telling him to send for Peter, he called some of his servants and “He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa” (Acts 10:8). The same word is in Acts 15. In the Council at Jerusalem, those assembled heard “Paul and Barnabas telling about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them” (Acts 15:12). A few chapters later, when Paul arrived in Jerusalem he “reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.” The word is exegeomai, which our word “exegesis” is taken from. What Jesus does, as the Incarnate Word of God, is show us what God is like. Exegesis is studying Scripture to understand what is there, trying to grasp its meaning (rather than putting our own ideas into it). Jesus exegetes the Eternal God for us. He explains Him for us. He gives us a picture of what God is like.
That’s the point the author of Hebrews is making in the first chapter of his letter: “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (1:1-3). Jesus, being fully divine and fully human, is able to make God known to us in ways we never could have grasped otherwise. John wants us to know that this person he’s describing is absolutely unique. There is no one else like Him, nor will there ever be. He’s not just an outstanding religious teacher. He’s the eternal Second Person of the Trinity, who of His own gracious will has become a man, so that we, who have never seen God, can know Him.
There’s been much controversy, over the centuries, about Christian art and whether it’s proper to use pictures as an aid to meditation and prayer. Those who argue against this kind of art appeal to the Old Testament prohibition against images: “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below” (Exodus 20:4). They argue that any devotional use of images violates this commandment. John of Damascus, who lived in the eighth century (when this topic was being hotly debated), agreed that this command forbids any attempt to create a visual image of the invisible God. For example, one of the most famous scenes from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, by Michelangelo, is the creation of Adam. God is painted as an old man with a grey beard, sitting on top of a cloud; He’s reaching down pointing his finger, and on the ground is the newly-created Adam. I suspect John of Damascus would have said that Michelangelo, who was a genuine believer, shouldn’t have done this, that portraying the invisible God in a visible form is a violation of the commandment.
But that’s not all he said. He also argued that the Incarnation has made a significant change in this area. It’s still wrong to try to draw or paint the invisible and infinite God, but since God has appeared in the flesh, some images are acceptable: “In former times God, who is without form or body, could never be depicted. But now when God is seen in the flesh conversing with men, I make an image of the God whom I see. I do not worship matter; I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, who willed to take his abode in matter; who worked out my salvation through matter” (quoted by Solrunn Nes, The Mystical Language of Icons, p. 15). Paintings from the earthly ministry of Jesus can be helpful to us in meditating on Scripture. We don’t worship these things; that would be idolatry. We use them to help us visualize what it might have been like to be in the presence of God Incarnate, and to remind ourselves that Jesus didn’t shed His humanity at the Ascension. The One who is seated at the right hand of God the Father, representing us as our Advocate, is still human. God has been revealed in human form. In the Incarnation we see things about God that we never would have seen otherwise. Christian art can help us grasp this more fully and can be a great help in focusing our minds for meditation and prayer.
Why does John begin his gospel in this way? Why does he begin with theology, rather than giving us something we can immediately apply to our lives? I’ve often heard people say, “I’m not interested in all that stuff; just tell me what I’m supposed to do.” But John’s primary concern is not to tell us how to live in this world. He’s not writing to help us get out of debt, or become better employees (or employers), and he’s also not writing to satisfy our curiosity about what kinds of things Jesus did as a young boy. John’s primary concern is with our relationship with God. Walking with God has implications for how we order our lives in this world, but the starting point is always with God Himself. We need to know Him and what He has done to provide for our salvation. And to know the truth about God’s salvation, there are certain things we need to know about Jesus, our Savior. We need to know that He is God, and that He is man at the same time. We need to know that when we look at Jesus, we see what God is like. God doesn’t seem to be interested in making respectable people out of us. We may flounder all our lives in many areas. What He wants to do is make godly people of us. John says many things in this book which will help us in this direction, but we need to know these things he says in the opening verses, otherwise we won’t possibly understand the things that Jesus says and does.
The point of this Christmas season is to remind us of the Incarnation. The Word has become flesh and has lived among us. But it’s not just a nice story that we think about for awhile and then put away until it comes around again next year. This isn’t one of the things that we store in the attic. It’s also not just a truth that we review this time of year to make sure we’ve got it all right. Jesus Christ, whose birth we are celebrating, is our life. The point of this season is to take a fresh look at Him so that we will continue cultivating His fellowship throughout the year. If we’ve grown lukewarm, this is a time to renew our commitment to seek Him. Listen to these words by John of the Cross: “We must then dig deeply in Christ. He is like a rich mine with many pockets containing treasures: however deep we dig we will never find their end or their limit. Indeed, in every pocket new seams of fresh riches are discovered on all sides. For this reason the apostle Paul said of Christ: In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge of God” (quoted in The Liturgy of the Hours, vol. 1, p. 1246). The point of this Christmas season is to remember, and give thanks for, the Incarnation. And then, having seen what an unspeakable gift God has given us, we begin anew to “dig deeply in Christ,” for “in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge of God.”
