Pondering His Holy Word

Introduction: 

In relationship to the audiences, each Gospel appealed to a different audience. Matthew wrote to the religious Jewish; Mark wrote to the Romans; Luke wrote to the Greek. Finally, John wrote the Gospel for a universal audience which is evident in how he explains the Jewish cultural aspects in the Gospel. The Gospel of John is a good start for those who have never heard the Gospel or need wisdom about Jesus. The Gospel of John wrote to a universal audience. 

Much of John’s audiences were very aware of the other Gospels (as he wrote his account decades after the Gospel According to Luke, the third Gospel, was written). Moreover, John included details that Matthew, Mark, and Luke either glossed over or didn’t cover at all. Whereas the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) focused on Jesus’s Galilean ministry, John focused on Jesus’s ministry in Judea.  

John 1:1-18

In his Gospel, John describes Jesus as the Word. He writes, “In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Now John uses the Greek word “Logos,” which the English bibles translate to “the Word.” 

Several years before Christ’s birth, many Greek philosophers discussed the Logos. In the 6th BC, Heraclitus describes the Logos “Cosmic process” as comparable to the reasoning power in man. Moreover, the Stoics describe Logos as “an active rational and spiritual principle” that permeates all reality. They believe this logos was nature, God, and the soul of the universe (Britannica). As an apostle, John would be aware of this thinking as he spread the Gospel throughout the Greek-speaking Roman Empire. So his audience would be well aware of this type of thinking. So when John explains that “Word was with God, and the Word was God,” he tells his audience that Jesus is the rational and spiritual reason for all of reality. 

Also, his beginning would strike a chord with Jewish readers. John’s opening verse parallels the opening of Genesis. “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.” If we compare this with John’s opening, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John is telling the Jews that Jesus was with God in the beginning. Then the fullness of the Divine reason became human. So the Word came to a people who were alienated from God, as the Light is truth and knowledge.

Moreover, He came to a world filled with darkness, ignorance, and evil. Despite this darkness, this wickedness did not overcome Him. In fact, He defeated the darkness at Golgotha.

Although Jesus created the world for himself, the people of the world fleed from him. Jesus was born Jewish, the covenant people, but the Priest and religious people did not claim him. They rejected him. But, now, anyone who claims him as their own is given the right to be called children of God. Not because of their deeds but for the grace of God. 

Likewise, we are born alienated from God. We are born with a natural inclination towards evil. God said that “the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). Yet even though we are alienated from God from our childhood, Jesus died for us. He made a way so that those who accepted Him may be saved. In the Epistle to the Romans, Paul says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (5:10). So while we were firmly planted in evil, Jesus, being obedient to death, called His sheep back to him so that the darkness would not prevail. 

Indeed, Jesus is God. Jesus is the divine reason for everything and Lord of the Universe. As Paul says, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). Jesus is the reason. He is the Word.