The Gray Monk

The Incarnation according to John

In his opening sentences in the Gospel known throughout Chruistianity as the Gospel according to St John, the author draws upon sources from the Jewish extra-canonical writings and from the Greek traditions in which he then lived and worked. He uses the Greek word "logos" to describe the relationship between God and the Christ. Our translations have this as simply the "Word", but the Greek meaning is much deeper. It is in the original more akin to "spirit of the idea" or the "embodiment of an idea". But John is not creating a new vision of God and the Christ in this; he is, in fact, adapting a passage from 2 Enoch in which we find the first "scientific" explanation of the creation.

By using this description John is saying to his readers that the Word (Logos) shares God's own nature, that He was God's "executive" in the Creation and that when God spoke , it was the Word that brought life itself into existence. Thus, in his opening prologue John is saying categorically that this person, whom we know as Jesus, was no ordinary man, that he "lived among us" and that "we have seen His glory, the the Glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Of course, we have not, in our time, had this privilege, and even those who lived and worked with Him seem to have had occassions when they were so blinded by proximity that they frequently had to seek reassurance.

Sometimes when we stand to close to a fire, we are so focused on the heat that we fail to see the flames! I suspect that this is so of Jesus; those who stood close were often dazzled by the Man and failed to see God.

Saint Athanasius, one of the most influential "Fathers of the Church" argued very persuasively that it was in the Incarnation that our salvation was given. In the coming among us of "The Word made Flesh", the Babe in the manger at Christmas came the promise of a life beyond this one, a life fulfilled in union with God.

Having told us that God was among us in the incarnation of Our Lord, the "Logos" of God, the actual birth and the story around it are irrelevant to John. He moves straight on to the start of His Ministry - and again goes straight to the ministry of John the Baptist. Who, having heard the the musical setting by Gibbons of this passage from the Gospel, can fail to have understood the import of that announcement of the coming into the world of the Christ. As the "Authorised Version" puts it so poetically; "This is the record of John ..."

Clearly the author of the Gospel is drawing the attention of the reader to the stupendous nature of the events he is about to record. As a Jew, this would have been a truly profound and earth shaking revelation. Yahweh Himself has sent His Word into the World as a Man, Jesus, to be its salvation by His very presence. Equally interesting is the fact that John uses, in Greek, the Word "Logos" which has an equivalent in Hebrew, "dahbar", which can mean either "Word" or "Event" - and either is appropriate in the context of the Incarnation.

It is in the Incarnation that Christianity is set apart. Christ was no mere Prophet, He was the Son of God, and as Athanasius wrote in the Creed which bears his name, the Christian Faith believes in God the Father of all, God the Son, Incarnate and made man, who dwelt among us, and God the Holy Spirit who lives and works among us even now, yet not three Gods but One, united in Trinity, three persons in one God.

The wonder of Christmas is the Incarnation, the most priceless gift of all time, the gift of life to all mankind in the Babe lying in the manger. Yet, as with all gifts, it is one we can choose to receive, to open, to cherish and value, or - like some ill-conceived gift from a distant relative - we can choose to be polite about - and consign it to the back of a cupboard or a drawer and forget it.

In the flush of feasting and excess of gifts this Christmas, pause and consider the gift we have all received from God - His one and only Son, made flesh to dwell among us, so that we might become like Him.

Gloria in excelsis Deo!