John 1:1–18 contains some of the most well-known words in the New Testament – but they may also be among the least understood. This winter may be the perfect time to make space to reflect more deeply on John’s words.
The Word Became Flesh
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.”’) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
These verses are from the New Revised Standard version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
In the beginning was the Word… These words are often read in church around Christmas, and for some they mean Christmas as surely as turkeys, holly wreaths and tinsel. That makes them some of the most well-known words in the New Testament.
After all, lots more people go to church at Christmastime than on a normal Sunday. But it also makes these words amongst the least understood in the Bible. The reason is simple: who’s really in the mood for theology at Christmas? Who’s ready to think through some of the deepest truths in the universe at 11:45pm on Christmas Eve or 10am on Christmas Day? Isn’t half your mind on whether your friend will like their gift and the other half on whether you’ve bought enough brandy butter for all your cousins? Christmas isn’t a good time to do theology.
Thinking about "The Word"
Except that’s what makes it the perfect time to do theology – especially the theology in these verses, the kind of theology we celebrate at Christmas. The verses are about someone or something called “the Word”, who has existed since before the beginning of time, who was with God, but who also is God. That’s hard for us to get our heads around, but in the time of the original writer, it was not so unusual; other thinkers had thought about “the Word” before.
What’s new and exciting in this passage is verse 14: “the Word became flesh and lived among us.” That verse says that the Word, who is God himself, became flesh. God himself became a human being, made out of bone, fat and muscle. The one who no-one can ever touch or see has suddenly become a human being, called Jesus, with ears and nose and arms and legs.
Becoming flesh
Why’s that important? To be honest, we spend the other 364 days of the church’s year answering that question. God becoming flesh affects everything else. It means that God cares about this physical world and everything in it. God has a fleshy body that people at the time could see and touch; therefore, God cares about things we see and touch. When we’re deeply enmeshed in the needs and concerns of this physical world, that’s sometimes when we’re closest to God.
For many of us, Christmas is a time when we spend our energy trying to serve our friends, our families and our communities, in very practical, material ways. We give gifts, we cook meals, we visit the people we love. It can be hard to find time for God and he can seem a long way away. But the message of these verses is that that’s when God is nearest: when we’re serving real, physical people in real, physical ways. Because that’s exactly what God did. Being busy serving others can make it harder to concentrate on these words, but perhaps easier to understand them. So let’s get busy serving others, like God did, all the year round.
Words: The Revd Michael Dormandy, New Testament lecturer, Ripon College, Cuddesdon, and Curate of St Mary’s Church, Wheatley
Jesus warned Martha that sometimes serving others gets in the way of listening to him (see Luke 10:38–42). How do you make decisions about what to focus on?