In the Beginning Was the Word: A Meditation on John 1 for Christmas Sunday

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him;

and without him was not anything made that was made.

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

And the light shineth in darkness;

and the darkness comprehended it not.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light,

that all men through him might believe.

He was not that Light,

but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

That was the true Light,

which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made by him,

and the world knew him not.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become

 the sons of God, to them that believe on his name:

Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,

nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,

and we beheld his glory, the glory as of

the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

These opening words from the beginning of the Gospel according to St. John are among my favorite in all of Scripture.  The last surviving of the Apostles whom Jesus personally taught as a Disciple, commissioned on Easter Sunday after His Resurrection, and breathed out His Holy Spirit upon so that He might have power to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His Name, is also the Apostle to whom Jesus gave the care of His blessed Virgin Mother, Mary.  The early histories and traditions of the Church tell us that St. John eventually took Mary with him to Ephesus, cared for her until her natural death, suffered numerous persecutions, and late in his life wrote this Gospel which bears his name.  He had lived to see the impact of the Pentecost and the tens of thousands converted to the faith in those first few months and years.  He saw the rise of persecution against the Apostles, and suffered together with Peter under their whips and threats.  He met with St. Paul, and discussed with him the gift of the Gospel to the people Paul met in his missionary journeys.  He lived long enough to see his fellow Apostles martyred for their witness to Jesus and His saving Gospel, and to see the devil sow seeds of error and division among the new Christian Church.  It is likely that John knew all the writings of the New Testament written by his peers before their death, including the other Gospels and the Epistles which bear their respective names.  He also lived long enough to watch people twist his fellow Apostles’ words after they were no longer around to clarify themselves, and by the power of the same Holy Spirit which inspired them, took up the pen to write further witness to the Truth of Jesus Christ.

Of course, even after St. John finally died, heretical attempts to twist the witness of Jesus, the Prophets, and the Apostles didn’t end.  As there is today, so there was then, countless people trying to turn Christianity into their own vision or tool, so that it fits their own proclivities and desires.  With the death of St. John as the last of the Apostles who walked and learned directly from Jesus, so also closed the canon of inspired and inerrant Holy Scripture—that Word of God which He gave to His specifically chosen messengers, that everyone in the world might know the truth about Him, themselves, and what He had done for their salvation from sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil.  As St. John and his pen went silent, so was completed the formal witness to Jesus which began with God speaking in the Garden to Adam and Eve, continued through the Patriarchs, Kings, and Prophets of the Old Testament, was Incarnate in Bethlehem, taught throughout Judea, was Crucified on Mt. Calvary, was resurrected after three days, and ascended  to the right hand of the Father until He shall come again on the Last Day.  What we have with the closure of the Prophetic and Apostolic canon of Holy Scripture, is the completion of God’s saving Word to all mankind:  the complete witness of Jesus Christ, which the Church is commissioned to preach and preserve until He comes again.

As Christmas now breaks once again upon the world, Jesus the Eternal Word of God, continues to call through the Word of His Holy Scriptures to each and every soul, that all may find rest, peace, and life in His Name.  From the dawn of time until our own, false witnesses and false teachers have tried to twist the witness of Jesus into many things it is not, so as to rob the people of the life and salvation Jesus offers so freely by His grace to all who will repent and believe in His Gospel.  In our day, as in every day that ever was, and ever shall be until the end, the confusion of lies, corruption, and deceit are pierced and scattered by the Eternal Word of God, so that all might hear, believe, and live in Jesus.  No matter what philosophy and theology scholastics and academics prefer, the political or bureaucratic constructs they present, or whatever false visions and prophecies they dream from their own sinful hearts to steal the money and allegiance of men, the Word of the Lord endures forever.  No heresy, no evil, no wickedness can abide in the Light of the Word, and no wicked or ignorant design of fallen men or demons can displace it.  Throughout the rise and fall of nations, the ebbs and flows of history, the Word of God remains.

If the shattered and disfigured face of modern Christianity leaves you confused and bewildered, you are in good company.  Many are they who promote their own traditions, their own politics, their own philosophies, their own visions, their own books, and in so doing rend into sects the visible Body of Christ on earth.  But regardless of the earthly fellowship in which you find yourself today, it is only and always the Word of the Lord which still calls to you from the expanse of eternity, that you might know the Savior of your soul.  There from that manger in Bethlehem shines the Light which will not go out and will never dim, which takes your sin upon Himself, and satisfies your debt before the only true and holy God.  There in the witness of the Prophets and the Apostles through whom He spoke, do you find the real Jesus calling to you today.  There in the waters of Holy Baptism which He hallowed for the giving of new life, the bread and the wine which He sanctified as His own life-giving Body and Blood, and the Word of Absolution and forgiveness which He gave to His Church for the reconciliation of all who would repent and believe, do you encounter the real Jesus who comes to seek and to save the lost.

If you have lost sight of Jesus this Christmas, look for Him where He promised always to be:  in His living and active Word.  You need not seek Him in the endless visions of self proclaimed prophets, new or old ecclesiastical bureaucracies, or even the beauty of His natural world.  Cutting through all the clutter and confusion and obfuscation, Jesus speaks through His Word to you this day, calling you once again to turn from darkness and rise up by faith to new life in His forgiveness and grace.  Hear Him by whose Word your life has been given to you, and by whose Word your life shall be secured forever.  Believe, and live.  Amen.