John 1:1-18
The following sermon is an excerpt from the full-length sermon.
The story of the coming of Jesus Christ is told by four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. An evangelist is someone who has a good news story to share. Matthew, Mark, Luke were not historians or anthropologists, and their shared purpose was not to relay the facts like a scientist, but to tell a story that would move the hearts of people everywhere. That’s why we keep remembering their stories, year after year, because they have such power to move our hearts.
John’s story is the most unexpected of the four evangelists. He says nothing about Mary and Joseph, and the baby in the manger. He says nothing about Bethlehem, angels, shepherds, wise men or a star in the sky. But John is in awe of what God has done with Christ coming into the world. Rather than a birth story he tells about the appearance of a single thought in the mind of God. That single thought, what John calls “the Word”, begins like a spark of light in pitch darkness. From that first thought God’s word is now fully in the world that surrounds us. This word changes everything; it is the very heart of the Good News of Jesus Christ: God with us, not apart from us, God with us, not far away, God with us on sunny days, God with us in the dark, God not just with some perfect people somewhere else, God with us who struggle to get through a single day, God with our friends, God with our enemies, God with everyone everywhere. So the other three evangelists begin the story of Jesus Christ in a particular place with particular people, but John uses a much broader canvas to draw an amazing picture that is as big as the darkness of the entire universe, and as small as a spark of light that is coming your way.
The word was in the world, and John pictured that as a tiny spark of light in total darkness. That Christmas is celebrated with lights is a reflection of John’s story of Good News. In a way there are too many lights in this season, everywhere you turn, so many that it is hard to appreciate the power of a single candle in world of darkness. In John’s testimony, you don’t need to know all of the details of the story of Jesus’ birth. All you have to do is see that small spark of light coming into the world, and trust that God’s word is not just out there somewhere, but coming your way to touch your life.
“The word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.”
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