4 February 2020
Text: John 1:1-18
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
“In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. All things were made through Him… In Him was
life, and the and the life was the light of men…. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of
grace and truth.”
Thus
confesses the disciple whom Jesus loved, the youngest of the twelve, the last
of the apostles to die, the disciple who took the Blessed Virgin Mary into his
own home to live, the bishop who ordained St. Polycarp into the Office of the Holy
Ministry. Through St. John, the Holy Spirit
has revealed the truth of who our Lord Jesus Christ is: confounding both those
who would say that our Lord is only a man, as well as those who would scoff at His
incarnation. This passage is about the
sublime love and grace of God, and leaves no wiggle room about our Lord and His
ministry.
How
sad that people reduce Christianity to things that pale in comparison to the
lofty and glorious truth about God becoming a baby to rescue us from death and
hell! To most people – and even to many people
bearing the name “Christian” – Christianity is reduced to an ethical system, a
call to “be nice,” a political philosophy that just so happens to resemble Marxism.
But
what does the apostle and the evangelist teach us? Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus is eternal. Jesus is the Creator. And Jesus also humbled Himself to become a
one-celled zygote in the womb of Mary. Moreover,
Jesus came into our darkness – our world of sin and mortality, of discord and
self-centeredness, of hatred and self-righteousness, of unbelief and the
deification of idols – and He shines the uncreated light of His transfigured
face into this gaping darkness, and He reveals it to be nothing. The monster under the bed is really just a
slipper with a hole in it. The 800 pound
gorilla that stalks us is nothing more than a shadow on the wall. Satan is a defeated and defanged enemy – for darkness
cannot abide light. Our Lord is indeed “the
light of men,” and “darkness has not overcome it.”
St.
John the Evangelist begins his Gospel here: “In the beginning,” and he jumps to
the ministry of John the Baptist – who will point the entire world of every age
to the Word Made Flesh, saying: “Behold the Lamb of God that takest away the
sin of the world!” And we too sing this
confession in defiance of the unbelieving (but deceived) world and the
believing (but deceiving) devil every time we gaze upon the veiled forms of
bread and wine that are indeed the body and blood of the Word: the God made
flesh!
This
passage that comes to us by both the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the
inspired pen of St. John the Evangelist and Apostle and beloved friend of Jesus.
This passage leaves no room for the
reduction of Jesus to a mere teacher or philosopher. Rather, we rejoice in our Lord and our God who
heroically takes flesh and dwells in our midst, who is the Light of the World,
who dies on the cross for our redemption, and who rises again for our
justification.
“In
the beginning was the Word…. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” “Behold the Lamb of God that takest away the
sin of the world.” To Him, our God and Savior,
be glory, now and even unto eternity! Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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