A Word of Wisdom

Creation: Genesis

“In the beginning....”

When we hear these words, most of us know instinctively what comes next: “God created the heavens and the earth”. The Spirit of Yahweh, the God of Israel, hovers over the face of the water. The world is formless and void, and deep darkness covers the face of the water. Then, suddenly, the silence is broken by a word: “Let there be light”, and then there was light. And the light shown over the whole of creation, and the world wasn’t so dark anymore. And each day, as the light of day beat back the dark of night once more, this God would return to hover over his creation, and he would speak, and from the barren wastes, the formless void, the word of God brought forth life.

Creation: John

So, John is not making a redaction or correction to Genesis when he decides to write, “In the beginning was the Word… All things came into being through him…” It was by his Word that God created both light and life in the world. This much is certainly true to anyone reading Genesis. John, however, seems to go a bit farther than the author of Genesis. This Word, for John, is more than a mere speech-act. The Word is, in fact, a personified being. It is something other than God, and yet also one with God. This other was with God, next to him, in the beginning as light was brought forth to vanquish the darkness, and as life was brought out of the barren emptiness. Yet the other was also not other, but one with God. For centuries, the Church has attempted to put into words the very thing that John has so eloquently written here. The best we’ve come up with is “trinity”, but this word doesn’t quite seem to be able to hold onto the divine mystery of the Word which John so eloquently writes about here. That in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. At the very origins of the universe, as the light of the stars was birthed, as life first sprang into existence, most magnificent of all, even more glorious and mysterious than the light of the stars, was the God who created it all. And, as we know well from the book from which John was inspired, God saw all that he had made, and it was good. The light shone in the darkness, and the dark chaotic waters could not overcome it. At least, for a little while.

Word Become Flesh: The Redemptive Plan

John seems to skip over the fall in Genesis. He leaves us gazing into the beauty of the creation of life and light, and the mysterious God who made it. Then, skipping past the other 38 books of the Old Testament, this gospel brings us to a man named John. This man, John, has a truly wonderful task: he is to announce the return of the mysterious God of Light who created the world. This seems like a pretty easy job, to be honest. The Light of the World is coming to earth for a visit. Like a shooting star landing in your front lawn, you’d think something like this Light would be pretty hard to miss. And yet, as the God of Light who created the world returned to his creation, he found it in darkness. And worse than that, his creatures had become so accustomed to the darkness that they no longer recognized the God that created them anymore. In just a few sentences, John has eloquently summed up the history of humanity as presented in the story of scripture. God created the world, and then the world rejected the God who created it.

And now, here this mysterious God is, once again hovering over his creation. A creation which is, once again, covered in darkness. What would he do? Destroy? Burn? Tear it all down and start over? No, The Word began to do what he is best at: to create. To bring forth light from the darkness, and life from death. This Light, the true son of God, Jesus, had come into the world in order that the ones who accepted him would have the power to become sons and daughters of God, as he was the son of God. That they would no longer be born of flesh that dies, but of God, who lives. And, shockingly, he was going to allow us to be born of God by himself being born of flesh. Or, in the words of St. Athanasius, this God became human so that we might become gods.

Moses: Seeing God

In these few poetic verses, John has taken us through the entire story of the Bible: creation, rebellion, and new creation. Here the Word, who was both with God and also was God, hovered over the darkness, and began to bring forth life. But what kind of life? Certainly, it can’t be the same kind of life humanity had been living. So what does the life of a child of God look like?

In the Old Testament, life in God meant a life lived in accordance to God’s law. Having been freed from the bondage of Egypt, the Israelites are lead by Moses to Mount Sinai. There, Moses ascends the mountain to receive the Law, what the Jewish people would call Torah. This, for these people, was the very wisdom of God, written on stone tablets. It was God’s teaching and instruction, a manual for holiness. It was through Torah that the Israelite people were able to see the will and character of God, and thus to imitate the will and character of God, to be good children. So, Moses, having recieved this divine revelation, came down, with the skin of his face quite literally shining in glory. He had come into contact with the Word, the Light, and it showed on his very face. Having received the Wisdom of God, the Torah, the people built a tabernacle for this God to inhabit. And the very same God who created the world came down to live in the midst of his people in this tent. But not everything was going so well. The people were still separated from God. Only the priests could approach him, and then only after undergoing a series of purificatory rituals. The people had the written Torah, the written Word of God, but they still did not understand this God. And so, time and time again, when the written word was not enough, the Word of God would return to the people through the prophets, trying to get them back on track, trying to turn their attention back to God. Trying to get them to follow Torah, so that they could experience the transformative life God had to offer them, so that they could be remade into his image. But, time and time again, the people went astray. And time and time again, the written Word and the spoken Word proved to be insufficient to reveal God to the people. Moses had revealed a glimpse of God’s glory, a peak at the Light, but it was not enough to vanquish the darkness that had laid hold of the world.

Jesus: Seeing God Clearly

This is why, John’s Gospel tells us, the Word became flesh. The Word of God, which had been witnessed to by Moses and the written Torah, had now pitched a tent of flesh in the midst of the people. The Torah that Moses received on the Mountain had come down into the midst of the people as a living breathing human being: Jesus Christ. And now, for the first time in human history, the wisdom and teaching of God could be seen clearly. The words of Jesus might come to mind, “I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.” These opening verses of John make an even bolder claim: Christ not only fulfills the Law, i.e. the Torah, but Jesus is the very embodiment of Torah. He is the Word of God made flesh. The same Word by which God ordered and structured all of creation. The same Word Moses received on stone tablets at Mount Sinai. The Same Word of the Lord that came to Isaiah, to Jeremiah, to Ezekiel, to Abraham, to Amos, to Hosea, and to all of the prophets. Now this very same Word of God came once again, only this time not in writing or through the mouth of a prophet, but the Word came directly, in the flesh, as straightforward as you can get, so that God might be fully revealed to us, as he never had been before.

The New Revised Standard Version The Word Became Flesh

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.

No one has ever seen God, even Moses could only look at God’s back as he passed by. Yet now, according to John, God the Word, God the Son, had become human so that we might have a clear picture of who he is. And not only that we might see this God for who he is, but that we might know who he is, that we might become his children, and enter into the kind of intimate relationship with him that was intended for humanity since the beginning.

And as all good children are, we are called to obedience, not only to look at the light, but to walk in it. When the Israelites were set free form the darkness in Egypt, they witnessed the glory of God on Mount Sinai, and recieved the Torah to teach and instruct them in the ways of God. Likewise, we who were in darkness have seen a great light. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And having been set free from the bondage of sin, we have received Torah, the living Torah, the Word of God made flesh, to teach and instruct us in the ways of God.

For the Israelite people, to live with God, to be a child of God, was to live and breathe the Torah. The same is true for us. We have been given the power to become children of God, and that power is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, who shows us the heart of the Father, who shows us more clearly than anything else God’s character and will. As in the beginning, the Word of God, Jesus, has come to the darkened wastes of the world in order that he might bring forth life.

So often we mitigate God’s redeeming work to simply the forgiveness of sins, to nothing more than freedom from the bondage of darkness. This is, certainly a great thing God has done for us. But could you imagine if God had delivered Israel from Egypt, marched them out of the chains of slavery, and then simply left them there? A destitute people, wandering in the wilderness? That would hardly be a salvation worth celebrating. No, God not only delivered them from death in Egypt, but delivered them to glory on Mount Sinai, to teach them how to truly live.

Christ also, did not simply free us from bondage to leave us in the desert. The Word became flesh so that we might be made children of God. The Word became flesh, so that we might see with our own eyes what it looks like for a man to be holy as God is holy, to be filled with the life and Spirit of God, to walk in God’s wisdom, and to live in obedience to God’s teaching, the Torah. And what a glorious picture Christ has painted for us: healing the sick, feeding the hungry, caring for the poor, standing up for the truth, living as a love offering for the people around him.