[The following posts are a series converted from sermon manuscripts I've used over the last couple weeks. The theme for the series is hope- in Gentilly, in New Orleans, and across the 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 were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
(John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
-John 1:1-18, ESV
A couple weeks ago someone asked me what the biggest problem in New Orleans was. I started listing all the issues we have- we’re corrupt, we’re broke, and we’re depressed. All these are symptoms of the problem. When I really think about it, there’s only one problem at the root of it all: hopelessness. New Orleans, and I’d say the world, are lost without hope. We’re wandering through time just trying to get by- to survive, to merely exist, and maybe live better than our predecessors. But the one overwhelming issue is that we, as a city, seem to have lost our hope. The Apostle John tells us where we find our hope.
I’ve been searching my heart for a proper introduction to the Gospel of John over the last few weeks; I haven’t found in myself the appropriate words to describe the beauty of this passage. Luckily, N. T. Wright, the Bishop of Durham and a New Testament scholar, however, more than made up for my inadequacies in his book, Following Jesus. Let me offer his introduction to the prologue.
John, by contrast, takes us up the mountain, and says quietly: ‘Look—from here, on a clear day, you can see for ever.’ We beheld his glory, glory as of the Father’s only Son. John does not describe the transfiguration, as the other Gospels do; in a sense, John’s whole story is about the transfiguration. He invites us to be still and know; to look again into the human face of Jesus of Nazareth, until the awesome knowledge comes over us, wave upon terrifying wave, that we are looking into the human face of the living God. And he leads us on, with our awe and bewilderment reaching its height, to the point where we realize that the face is most recognizable when it wears the crown of thorns. When John says, ‘We beheld his glory’, he is thinking supremely of the cross. And those who see this glory in this cross are, very shortly afterwards, commissioned to follow the one who has made this glory visible. -NT Wright, Following Jesus
This is a broad introduction to John’s prologue. We’re going to go up on the mountain to see Jesus: the Word who became flesh and brought hope to the world. The Word became flesh in the form of Christ Jesus so that a hopeless world could have hope. Because the Word became flesh, hope is available to all who receive him as their own. This passage could be preached for months, and we’ll look at the passage in light of the whole of scripture over the next few weeks. But for today we’re going to look quickly at the person of Christ, the world’s response to him, and hope that dwells among us even today. As God entered our world through Jesus, so we must engage the world as the voice of hope.