John Message 1

For those of you who want a first or second look at this past weekend’s message … here it is:

[show clip from the original Star Wars movie of opening prologue (episode 4)] It’s arguably the most famous movie prologue of my generation.  Many movies I’ve watched over the years have been very much forgettable.  But not so the first Star Wars installment (episode 4) which I saw as in Madison as a college student (some of you didn’t know the movie was that old!).  Star Wars had a level of special effects visuals that we’d never seen before, all tied to an epic story that has captured the American imagination for now three decades.

The scrolling text does all the things that a good story prologue should.  It orients the viewers to the basic storyline of the Rebels versus the Galactic Empire … of the underdog forces of good against the dominant forces of evil, of light versus darkness.  It foreshadows what is to come … a desperate attack against the imperial Death Star.  The very way it was filmed against the background of space, it conveys the impression of a galactic journey, of a daring adventure.  And finally, the solid text gives us the impression of gravitas … that we are being introduced to a story that matters.

Perhaps mere ancient text with no visuals or soundtrack seems to lack the excitement of Star Wars.  But I believe that the prologue to John’s Gospel is equally as artistic and possesses even greater drama.  If you haven’t done so already, make your way to John 1.  “In the beginning was the Word …” John pens … suggesting a story that is eternal and cosmic in scope.  Any Jewish readers would have immediately recognized its connection with Genesis 1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” You are given the sense that John is pointing to nothing less than a cosmic re-creation made possible by the one he calls “the Word” … Jesus Christ.   If this new creation is true, if it’s real, there isn’t a story that matters more than one John will tell us of Jesus.

John’s prologue uses dramatic language letting us know that his story is also about good versus evil, of light versus darkness.  I’m not sure that at the level of personal power you could ever call Jesus an “underdog.”  And yet he was the “Nazareth nobody” (as a guy named Nathanael asked, “What good can come from there?”)  Jesus would be up against the establishment in the form of Jewish and Roman authorities … with only a small number of dedicated followers and no weapons (OK … one of the disciples, Peter, had a sword … so they had one weapon.).  No political or military power, and yet this underdog would turn world history upside down and on a more personal level, change our lives by bringing us from spiritual death to life.

Most central to today’s message, John in this prologue anticipates some of his major themes of his Gospel … light, life, grace, truth … enormous theological terms that we will attempt to unpack as we carry on through the series.  For a novice Bible reader, all of this theology can seem intimidating … somewhat like what I experienced in Zion canyon in Utah at the base of massive sandstone cliffs.  It seems like terrain left to expert climbers … but thanks to some trails blasted out of the cliffs decades ago, ordinary hikers like me can make the climb.  So all of you, with a little help from the preaching team, can make a climb to the heights of this Gospel and enjoy an amazing spiritual vista on the wonders of God’s love given in Jesus Christ.

Opening verses: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.   Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” [John 1:1-3 (NIV)]  Ancient Roman dramas would often begin with a hymn sung to the emperor.  The opening act of John’s drama begins with hymn-like words to Jesus, the one John will hail in the book of Revelation as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Here he calls Jesus … the Logos … most often translated as “the Word.”  This sounds like a rather weak designation to modern ears.  Talk is cheap, words seem weak.  Preachers use too many words in long, boring sermons.  Politicians seem to do a lot of talking but deliver too few results.

Why then call Jesus “the Word”?  Many scholars have noted that just about everything John says about “The Word,” ancient Jewish writers were saying about divine Wisdom.  Already in Proverbs 8, wisdom is described as a person seeking to bring divine truth to human beings.  In Jewish literature written in the centuries before Jesus, Wisdom is described as being with God from eternity; it was through Wisdom that God created and governs the world.  Though Wisdom is sometimes understood as only practical guidance for living, more broadly, Wisdom is God’s entire design for life.  Jesus is Wisdom in that he came to restore this divine design.  Why then “the Logos” instead of the Greek word for wisdom, “Sophia”?  Perhaps it’s because sophia a feminine noun and that didn’t seem appropriate for Jesus the man.  More likely, John directed by the Holy Spirit didn’t want to give the impression that Jesus was primarily a sage … a wise teacher who tried to show us the way.

So John instead calls Jesus “the Word” because he is the Way.   The Apostle Paul writes, “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” [1 Cor. 1:22-24 (NIV)]  God’s design for human life is that we live in relationship with him and Jesus is the way into that relationship.  Any attempt to reduce Jesus down to being a very wise teacher misses the point of the Gospel.  Jesus just doesn’t point us to God, he is God and it is only through a relationship with him that we can come to experience God in the fullness of his love and goodness.

Jesus is God’s Word of Wisdom because he is the Way to God.  Secondly, Jesus is the Word because he is the ultimate communication of God’s mind and heart to humanity.  The author of Hebrews writes, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son …” [Hebrews 1:1-2 (NIV)]  Through Jesus, we hear God say “I love you so much that I would become human and live with you.”  Through Jesus, we hear God speak, “I am willing to sacrifice myself by dying for you on the cross.”  Through Jesus, we hear God’s invitation:  “Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”   In Jesus, God speaks loud and clear that he is not a distant deity who remains separated from his creation.  He is a God who wants a relationship with us.

Jesus, God’s Word of Wisdom, communicates God’s heart and as he does so, he creates and offers divine life.  John tells us that through Jesus, all things were made … and we know that Genesis teaches that God simply said the word and the universe came into being.  Communication, especially divine communication, has creative force … physically, relationally, spiritually.

Most of us understand this when it comes to relationships.  We ask couples who are getting married to take the Prepare questionnaire which looks at the following aspects of their relationship.  (show list on screen):
Role Relationships
Spiritual Beliefs
Realistic Expectations
Communication
Conflict Resolution
Personality Issues
Financial management
Leisure Activities
Sexual Relationship
Children and Parenting
Family and Friends

Now when I ask couples in our meeting, what they think is the greatest strength of their relationship and the area in which they need the most work, which topic do you think they name most frequently as either a strength or a weakness (or both)?  Communication!  (by the way, nobody has ever been honest enough with me to say that their sexual relationship was their strength, even when I suspected it was the basic reason the guy wanted to get married).  Most couples recognize the central importance of communication in creating, developing, deepening their relationship.  Some of this communication is by way touch and other non-verbals, but much of it is in words as couple open up their minds and hearts to one another.  You could say that their communication has the power to create (and sadly, sometimes to dismantle) their relationship.

Jesus as divine Word of Wisdom has that kind of power to create a divine-human relationship.  The word spoken at the cross, “Father, forgive them,” is also received by us as through Jesus’ death we are freed from sins’ shackles and receive forgiveness and life with God.   He invites us to receive and participate in divine life by trusting in him as our Savior.   This theme of new creation, new birth, and new life saturates John’s Gospel.  Jump ahead a little to verse 12:  “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God– children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” [John 1:12-13 (NIV)]  Jesus speaks a spiritually creating, life-giving word in our lives so that we can become his children.

In John chapter 3, Jesus tells the Pharisee Nichodemus:  “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” [John 3:3 (NIV)]  Often times, people will use the language of “born again Christian” to describe someone had can point to a particularly dramatic experience in which he or she came to faith in Jesus.  Not all of us can have that kind of experience, but every Christian is “born again” if by that we mean that they have received the spiritual rebirth that comes from Jesus.  Whether beginning at our baptism as a infant, or as child hearing stories of Jesus, or as a young adult wrestling with whether or not to believe in God, or as an older adult finally recognizing our need for God, Jesus brings about a fundamental change in us as we receive life with him.

Finally, in dramatic terms, Jesus describes his work of new creation in John chapter 5:  “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” [John 5:24 (NIV)]   The Biblical reality is that not that we are doing pretty well on our own and then God just has to help us a little to reach him.  Jesus says that we are spiritually dead apart from him.  We need a revival … spiritual CPR … the life-giving power of Jesus in our lives.

One of our members Dori Pulse commented on this on the John in Depth website:  “I use NLT translation. Vs 13: “They are reborn–not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.” As a woman and mother, I naturally think of the birth of my two sons. In the womb, it is dark, sounds are muted, space is cramped. Physical birth releases us from that. I had a very defining moment in my spiritual birth….and I felt the same release. I was living a dark life, the sounds of God were muted, my lifestyle was cramped. A baby is born from inside out. I was reborn as well from the inside out. I then knew the true Light, the sounds of God’s mercy and forgiveness, and an incredible freedom.”

Jesus the Word of Wisdom is the Way, he is ultimate divine Communication, he is a creative force bringing new life, and he is the light that opens our eyes to God’s truth.   The prologue continues:  “In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.  There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” [John 1:4-9 (NIV)]  The light is Jesus … the one testifying about the light … John the Baptist.  Jesus is light because in his holiness, we see more clearly our own sins and major deficiencies in loving God and others.  Jesus is light because in his grace, we see more clearly the amazing love of God for us and receive forgiveness.

Many of us who live in the city rarely experience deep darkness because there is always the ambient illumination coming from street light, night lights in our homes, etc.  But if you get away from town into the wilder areas of Wisconsin on a moonless night, you experience more of what the ancients had as an everyday experience:  “the forecast for tonight is dark.”  Have any of you ever been on a cave tour in which the lights got shut off?  The total darkness is oppressive, suffocating, fearsome.  It’s what ancients felt physically at night in a world lit only by fire … and it’s what people throughout the ages have felt spiritually given life’s confusions, uncertainties, tragedies, and prospects of death.  Darkness is scary.

We need the Word of Wisdom to enlighten us.  And this is an important theme and metaphor throughout John’s Gospel.  Generally, when things happen at night, there is also spiritual darkness, confusion, and unbelief (example … Nichodemus in John 3).  We need Jesus the Light of the World … we need his wisdom regarding God’s love and truth to shine upon our lives.

 

So much more could be said on the prologue, but let me conclude with final observation regarding Jesus, the living Word of Wisdom.  It is typical to speak about Jesus being “wise,” but I don’t remember anyone ever mentioning that Jesus was “smart.”  Then I heard philosophy professor Dallas Willard make the observation that Jesus was the smartest person who has ever lived.  For certainly if Jesus was the creator of the world (John 1:3 ), then he has fully mastered the marvels and complexities of the universe.  He knows all about black holes and dark matter and paradoxes of the quantum world.  Now to what degree he set aside this divine knowledge during his time on earth, we can’t be sure.  To what degree he limited himself to the level of intellectual attainments of his world, the Gospels don’t tell us.   What we know is that people were amazed at his knowledge and teaching (Matthew 7:28, Mark 1:22).  The Jewish leaders asked, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?” (John 7:15)

All of which suggests that if you and I want to be really smart, we need to learn of Jesus.  We can and should value his teaching far and above that which poses as “truly intellectual” in society.  Further, we don’t have to commit intellectual suicide in order to be a follower of Jesus.  We can and should engage our minds to the greatest degree in pursuing Jesus’ wisdom, knowledge of the Scriptures, and truth wherever we find it in scholarship (recognizing that all truth is God’s truth no matter the source).  Yes, we follow Jesus with our minds as well as hearts, for he is God’s Word of Wisdom.

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