Thoughts for the Day

* Painting of the Word becoming flesh in our world.

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. What has come into being, in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. .....

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

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.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

John's Gospel was probably written later than the other three Gospels as the message of the good news of Jesus Christ spreads around the Middle East. The writer of this Gospel realises that for many gentiles imbued with Greek ideas the idea of a Messiah for Jewish people means little to them. But in a stroke of genius he marries the idea of names meaning something active in Hebrew thought, with the understanding of 'logos' in Greek thought, that is, the reasoning mind that lies behind everything in the world. He says the name 'Word' (logos) was God, and that the Word became flesh, and lived among us!

Secondly, for all who accept that Jesus was born as the Word; to all those people who believe in him, He gives to them the possibility of becoming God's children. This power is given through the Holy Spirit to all who are open to the message that Jesus gives to us.

By the end of the 1st century there were hundreds of thousands of gentile Christians around the world, and those who read the Gospel of John must have felt that same shiver of excitement that most of us do when they hear the opening words of this Gospel.

Christ, the Word,
born as a child into our world,
may we seek to understand You,
and draw closer to You.
At this season of Christmas
and the New Year,
may we also commit
to worshipping You more regularly
and studying your words as
revealed in Your gospels.
Amen.