Week 39 John
Right away you get the sense that John’s gospel is different.
He doesn’t start with the story of the Lord’s birth like Matthew and Luke did; doesn’t accelerate like Mark and have the Lord suddenly appear as a grown man.
John goes back a lot farther, as far back as far back can get and says that: in the beginning the Word already existed.
John’s The Word is a bit of a mystery. I wish he hadn’t started there. But he did, and even though he didn’t spell it out in big block letters he isn’t giving me an unsolvable riddle either. A dozen verses down the page he says that: the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father.
That helps quite a bit. I’ve just finished reading the first three gospels and it sounds like John’s description of The-Word-who-became-human pretty much fits with the Jesus of Matthew-Mark-Luke. John doesn’t say the actual words: Jesus Christ is The Word. But before he’s finished his introduction he’s said everything else but.
John says one other thing about The Word: no one has ever seen God. But his only Son, who is himself God…he has told us about him.
Why did The Word materialize? To visible-ize the invisible God.
Note: quotes from John 1:1, 14, 18 (NLT)