In my work life, I was a secondary school English teacher. One of the key things I taught in the senior grades was how to write an essay. You need to know the main point you are trying to prove – the thesis. Then you explain why that statement is correct. Finally, you sum up your essay by restating your thesis in some way.
Ove the past month, we’ve read the account of the Last Supper, the Crucifixtion and the Resurrection – a major part of the Gospel of John (9 chapters out of 21). The account was completed with Jesus meeting with his disciples and followers to prove his resurrection, that he was God. Jesus was God! They could base their life on it. Is that the thesis at the beginning of John?
John 1: 1 – 5 (NLT)
“In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He existed in the beginning with God.
3 God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
Jesus is God! He came to earth to prove to us that he was God. We can believe there is an almighty God who will bring life and light to each one of us. What exactly do these opening verses tell us?
First, God has existed forever; before the world was created. “In the beginning” refers to the beginning or creation of this world, even this universe. God “already existed” before any beginning.
We also are told that Jesus (referred to as the “Word”) existed with God, so the facts about the trinity are presented. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God”. I think the idea of a being that has separate identities and is one identity at the same time is extremely hard for us to comprehend. I remember as a child, my Sunday School teachers comparing the trinity to an egg – the shell, the white, and the yolk. Another teacher compared the trinity to the 3 forms of water – liquid, solid and vapour. I’m not sure those are adequate comparisons, but they helped me as a child to sort of wrap my head around the concept of the trinity. In these verses only 2 members of the trinity are mentioned – God and Jesus. The Holy Spirit is talked about later in the book of John.
We discover that Jesus was the creator of our world. “God created everything through him.” This fact was also written about in Colossians as Paul states who Christ is and the amazing things He has done.
Colossians 1:15-17 (NLT)
“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
16 for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.
17 He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.
Then in verses 4 and 5 of John 1, we discover that Jesus not only created this world in the beginning, but also came to earth to bring life and light to each of us. We are told that this world is in darkness because the human race really doesn’t understand all the facts presented in the first verses, but Jesus brings the light that can shine in that situation. And we can never stop that light from shining.
So … you may ask, what do all these facts mean to me? I know I’ve found throughout my entire life – whether it was being a mom, a teacher, a widow that life has often felt overwhelming. There were just too many things that needed to be done, and it seemed like there was no time for myself or just peaceful down time. Often crises would happen that scared me to the core. I remember sitting in the emergency department in University Hospital in London in 2010 with my husband who could barely walk. We knew he had cancer, was very weak, and didn’t seem to be responding to the treatment. Would God step in and do something?
There have been so many times when I’ve cried out to my Heavenly Father in fear and anxiety or just plain frustration, and at the same time wondered deep down in my mind whether He really could do anything about it at all. When we realize and comprehend as much as our human brain is capable of, that we are a child of a God who has existed before time, and who created this entire universe, and who came to this earth personally to make sure we understood His love for us – then we can relax and trust Him with all the things that happen to us. He is certainly capable of helping us deal with all the issues that come up in our broken world.
4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
Our song for today is Our God by Christ Tomlin