God’s Word Shall Succeed in the Thing for Which God Sent It
Bible Passage: John 1:1-14
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life,[a] and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and 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 to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.[b]
10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own,[c] and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,[d] full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.”’) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son,[e] who is close to the Father’s heart,[f] who has made him known.
Message
We begin a new year, 2021, the 3rd year of Reiwa. For many it is the end of a difficult year, and so it brings with it the hope of something new. Thus, we can ask, Where do we begin?, as we begin this new year? Aristotle, among others, tells us, with the philosopher’s flair for stating the obvious, that it is good to begin at the beginning. And so the Evangelist does: “In the beginning was the Word.” Now John knew, as we know, that someone else, (he thought it was Moses) , had already used this phrase. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” John wants us to have these earlier words in our minds and hearts so that we hear their echo in his words. He wants us to question the similarities and differences between these two sentences. He wants us to ask the most naïve of questions. Who is right Moses or John? Was it God creating or the Word being in the beginning. And let me add something a little bold. John would not have written these words if he did not intend to rewrite what Moses had written, to correct it. For the account of the beginning of Genesis can lead to a misinterpretation that John will not allow.
So God created the heavens and the earth, and the Word was, the Word was with God creating and the Word was God. In the beginning with God. This tells us some important things that go beyond Genesis. In particular it tells us two related things. First, God created through the Word, or through the Logos in the Greek. The word Logos means more than Word, it means “reason” as well, a kind of logic. So John is making explicit that God created with reason, for a reason, for a purpose. The Word has meaning and through this meaning things came to be. I think that this is important because it goes against the very common misinterpretation I alluded to above. Because the Bible tells us a story, tells us that first God created the heavens and the earth that God found good, and then Adam and Eve sinned and were punished, and then the Bible tells us that after a long time Jesus was born and saved us from our sins, we tend to see these all as distinct events. First, there was creation and that got messed up, so then comes salvation. But John is telling us No, In the Beginning was creation and salvation. The beginning is the creative, salvific Word. The Logos of this World means not just creation, but also redemption, from the Beginning. God spoke a Word that brought everything – all the creative and all the redemptive acts of all times and places into being — all this glory and all this misery and their being saved.
Have you every wondered why Jesus deliberately healed on the Sabbath, thus contravening the Law of God. It was not because Jesus did not care about the Law, but it was to overturn a deep misunderstanding that we are prone to. Jesus was teaching us that to understand the story of Genesis as if God created the heavens and the earth and then rested because creation was done, is to misunderstand it. Look around at 2020, the world is mess. God is not such a shoddy Creator. The fact that it is a mess is because it is not yet finished. It is not that God made it good and we humans, with our sinfulness messed it up. That is not enough. We weak humans do not have the power to mess up God’s plan. Our sinfulness became part of the plan. Salvation is creative and it is creating a new reality.
In Genesis God speaks, “Let there be light!” and there is light. In John the Word is spoken and it is light. The Word itself enlightens the world. There is no separation between the Word and the reality. This is a new kind of language.
In Genesis Adam and Eve disobey. They are cast out from God’s presence into the darkness of sin and death. In John the light of God’s Word shines in that darkness and “the darkness could not overcome it.”
In the Old Testament there follows a very long story of fathers begetting sons and those sons begetting more sons, with an occasional woman thrown in, as a people is formed and their faith is tested, their repentance demanded. John sums up this whole long history in the one sentence: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.” John the Baptist is the representation and culmination of all the men sent by God at all times and in all places. He is Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Elisha. He is the prophets — all of them in one. He came to do definitively what all of them did partially — to testify to the light who is the Word, who was with God in the beginning. He came to testify “so that all might believe through him.”
The Word was in the world and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. I believe that John the Evangelist is echoing the words of the Prophet Isaiah from Chapter 55: For God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are our ways his ways. We do not know his Word. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways and his thoughts higher than our thoughts. And yet he comes to dwell among us. He came to what was his own and his own people did not accept him. They rejected him. We are his own and we too reject him. This did not happen just once 2000 years ago. But here is the thing, the beautiful thing. God’s uses our rejection — our rejection! — to bring about his plan. God’s Word is never in vain. Our rejection of the Word is not the last word. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall God’s word be that goes out from God’s mouth; it shall not return to God empty, but it shall accomplish that which God purposes, and succeed in the thing for which God sent it.”
The Word gives power to all who receive him, to all who believe in his name, to be children of born of God.
As the New Year begins, we look for life and light. This life and light have come into our world. We are encountering it everyday, every moment, but we are often blind, we cannot see that which gives us sight; we are deaf, we cannot hear the Word that gives us hearing. That is OK. God will come to you and speak to you. Prepare your heart, believe that he will come and he will come. If you cannot believe that he will come, then act like you believe, and that will suffice. He will give you grace and truth and make the Father known to you.
May 2021 be a blessed year for all you.
Let us pray:
Father in heaven, you sent your Son, full of grace and peace, to live among us. Help us to recognize him, to welcome him, to serve him, and to love him. Grant us your Holy Spirit in this New Year. Renew our hearts. Bring each of closer to you and to one another. We ask this through Christ the Lord. Amen.
