John 1:1-8, 14 (The Message)
The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word.
The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one.
Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!—came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.
There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.
The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.
Matthew 3:13-17 (The Message)
Jesus then appeared, arriving at the Jordan River from Galilee. He wanted John to baptize him. John objected, “I’m the one who needs to be baptized, not you!”
But Jesus insisted. “Do it. God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism.” So John did it.
The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God’s Spirit—it looked like a dove—descending and landing on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: “This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.”
”The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” The first reading we just heard was one of the two choices for the gospel reading last Sunday. I chose instead, if you recall, to use the story of the manifestation of the Christ-child to the Gentile world in the persons of the three Magi from Persia.
But I still very much wanted to discuss this reading, the prologue, as it is known, from John’s gospel, so I chose to move it to this week, where it fits so very well beside Matthew’s brief story of Jesus’ baptism.
I’ve chosen to use The Message version for our readings today, but John’s Prologue may be more familiar to us from the NRSV: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This has long been considered one of the most beautiful passages to be found in the traditional writings of the New Testament but what the Message lacks in literary beauty it more than makes up for with the vivid life in its words: “The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one.”
The Gospel according to John has always been the “odd-man-out,” the odd ball among the gospel stories. Matthew, Mark and Luke are even called the Synoptic gospels, meaning “seen with one eye.” Meaning they present a more or less cohesive story as to who and what the Jesus who lived among them was. Jesus was the Messiah, God’s Chosen One. He was the Son of God, but never quite God the Son. There is a difference.
For John, however, Jesus was unquestionably God the Son – the 2nd person of the Trinity. Not created by God but one facet of Godself, that Word that was there from the beginning, and John makes this absolutely clear in the opening words of the Prologue: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” You really cannot get much clearer than that. John is not leading us gently up to his view of Jesus – he just starts right at the top. And that is what makes John’s introduction of John the Baptist so interesting in this first chapter.
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.” This is John the Gospel writer’s description. John the Baptist himself described his role by quoting from the prophet Isaiah: “I am ‘the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’” It was his job to prepare the people for what is coming, and then, to point out the One who has come.
Poet/theologian John Shea calls him first a map, and then a lamp, explaining that “a lamp is a torch through the darkness to find the Light of the World.” When the lamp and the Light of the World come together finally, the lamp is diminished and ultimately, extinguished – no longer needed in the brilliance cast by the One we have found. His job was only to point the way – when Jesus arrived at the Jordan where John was baptizing and teaching, John the lamp’s job was finished.*
And now we move to Matthew’s gospel for the rest of today’s story. John was, as we just said, baptizing and teaching, calling people to repentance and a new beginning in the waters of the Jordan River, when Jesus appeared, asking baptism for himself.
John knew exactly who this person was, the one he’d been pointing toward, the one who's coming he had been preparing others for, his own true North, suddenly standing before him. Not only there with him but demanding that John baptize him – a cleansing in the waters that represented an act of repentance and metanoia. How could this one, this God the Son, this Light John had seen coming for so long – how could he possibly require repentance – and from John, a mere human who was only there to point the way?
But Jesus, this one whose sandal John was not fit to loosen, insisted that it must be done this way – and so it was. Jesus went into the water and rose up into the light of Heaven and a father’s voice calling him “the delight of my life.”
All those others who came out into the desert to be baptized by John came to repent, to turn a new way, to willingly cleanse themselves so they could serve in the new realm of God that John told them was coming. That new thing arrived with Jesus, and still we keep coming to the water, not to experience something magical that zaps us into a new creation, but to express our willingness to cleanse ourselves and be of service in God’s kingdom. To show our willingness to work for and be part of the reign of God’s light. To carry on, like John, being maps, being lamps, being pointers of the way for others to follow.
Light and water, repentance and willingness, eager hope and trust – all of these bring each one of us to the river again and again to be made new – to become the ones God created us to be. The delight of God’s life.
May it always be so.
But I still very much wanted to discuss this reading, the prologue, as it is known, from John’s gospel, so I chose to move it to this week, where it fits so very well beside Matthew’s brief story of Jesus’ baptism.
I’ve chosen to use The Message version for our readings today, but John’s Prologue may be more familiar to us from the NRSV: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This has long been considered one of the most beautiful passages to be found in the traditional writings of the New Testament but what the Message lacks in literary beauty it more than makes up for with the vivid life in its words: “The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one.”
The Gospel according to John has always been the “odd-man-out,” the odd ball among the gospel stories. Matthew, Mark and Luke are even called the Synoptic gospels, meaning “seen with one eye.” Meaning they present a more or less cohesive story as to who and what the Jesus who lived among them was. Jesus was the Messiah, God’s Chosen One. He was the Son of God, but never quite God the Son. There is a difference.
For John, however, Jesus was unquestionably God the Son – the 2nd person of the Trinity. Not created by God but one facet of Godself, that Word that was there from the beginning, and John makes this absolutely clear in the opening words of the Prologue: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” You really cannot get much clearer than that. John is not leading us gently up to his view of Jesus – he just starts right at the top. And that is what makes John’s introduction of John the Baptist so interesting in this first chapter.
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.” This is John the Gospel writer’s description. John the Baptist himself described his role by quoting from the prophet Isaiah: “I am ‘the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’” It was his job to prepare the people for what is coming, and then, to point out the One who has come.
Poet/theologian John Shea calls him first a map, and then a lamp, explaining that “a lamp is a torch through the darkness to find the Light of the World.” When the lamp and the Light of the World come together finally, the lamp is diminished and ultimately, extinguished – no longer needed in the brilliance cast by the One we have found. His job was only to point the way – when Jesus arrived at the Jordan where John was baptizing and teaching, John the lamp’s job was finished.*
And now we move to Matthew’s gospel for the rest of today’s story. John was, as we just said, baptizing and teaching, calling people to repentance and a new beginning in the waters of the Jordan River, when Jesus appeared, asking baptism for himself.
John knew exactly who this person was, the one he’d been pointing toward, the one who's coming he had been preparing others for, his own true North, suddenly standing before him. Not only there with him but demanding that John baptize him – a cleansing in the waters that represented an act of repentance and metanoia. How could this one, this God the Son, this Light John had seen coming for so long – how could he possibly require repentance – and from John, a mere human who was only there to point the way?
But Jesus, this one whose sandal John was not fit to loosen, insisted that it must be done this way – and so it was. Jesus went into the water and rose up into the light of Heaven and a father’s voice calling him “the delight of my life.”
All those others who came out into the desert to be baptized by John came to repent, to turn a new way, to willingly cleanse themselves so they could serve in the new realm of God that John told them was coming. That new thing arrived with Jesus, and still we keep coming to the water, not to experience something magical that zaps us into a new creation, but to express our willingness to cleanse ourselves and be of service in God’s kingdom. To show our willingness to work for and be part of the reign of God’s light. To carry on, like John, being maps, being lamps, being pointers of the way for others to follow.
Light and water, repentance and willingness, eager hope and trust – all of these bring each one of us to the river again and again to be made new – to become the ones God created us to be. The delight of God’s life.
May it always be so.
* John Shea - Starlight: Beholding the Christmas Miracle All Year Long; Crossroad, 1992
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