September 26 – The Word

September 26 – The Word
John 1:1-18

The Gospel of Mark doesn’t tell a story of Jesus’ birth. It begins with John the Baptist announcing the coming of the Messiah.

The Gospel of John tells the story of Jesus’ birth in a very different manner.  Rather than the personal story that is related by Joseph or Mary, John tells a much bigger story; one that begins with creation.  The first five verses of this Gospel introduce the main character of the entire Gospel using words that will come to mean something as the reader progresses through it.

John used ‘Logos’ (meaning Word) to describe Jesus. This idea is something Greek philosophers had been discussing for years. Some saw the Logos as wisdom that pervades everything, others saw it as the law of nature.  John develops the idea of the Logos as the manner in which God created everything. The Logos is the action of God in creation. It is also the connection between God and humanity.

John’s use of the initial words of his Gospel would have struck home for the Jews. Rather than knowing the book of Genesis by the title, they knew it by the first three words … “In the beginning …”  So, when they heard John’s first sentence, they knew what he wanted them to understand. In the beginning God spoke.

This man, Jesus (whom John doesn’t identify by that name until John 1:17), was the Word that God spoke at creation. He was (He is) God’s thoughts placed into action.  Psalm 33:6 says, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.”

Jesus is the Word … the active creative power of God … made flesh. He walks among us