1 Jesus: the Word
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. John 1: 1 [NIV]
John begins his gospel not with a story about the birth of Jesus, but with a statement which takes us back right to the beginning of the Old Testament. Genesis 1 begins with the words ‘In the beginning God...’ – so John is drawing a deliberate parallel between God and the Word, Jesus.
Jesus was there with God in the beginning, and Jesus was God. And this, as we shall see during the week, is only the first of a number of startling statements that John makes.
It is worth exploring what John means by the Word. In the Greek it is Logos, a term that meant different and complementary things to John’s audience.
To the Jews, it reminded them of the voice of God at creation bringing about change. The passages that begin ‘God said...’ as in ‘God said, “Let there be light”’ are about God’s creative word. Jews would also have been reminded about the teaching of the prophets where an oracle often begins with the words ‘And the word of the Lord...’ [Isaiah 37: 22, for example]
But to his Greek audience, the word Logos meant the divine reason which shapes, directs and orders the created world.
John is telling us, then, that in Jesus, God speaks; and that Jesus is behind the order of the Universe.
The Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees is an atheist. He writes,
The pre-eminent mystery is why anything exists at all. What breathes life into the equations of physics, and actualised them in a real cosmos?
John believes that in Jesus Christ we have an answer.
Lord, thank you that you speak to us through your written word and through your living word. Help me to listen. Amen.
David Long
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