February 8, 2015 – John 1:1-10
Download discussion questions: John 1_1-10 prologue A
Taking a fresh look at a familiar passage in the Bible can be a challenge. It is tempting to read verses we may even know by heart (“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God…”) and keep going. We may not say out loud, “I already know what that means,” but that can be what is in our heart. “Read that, know that.” That can make the Bible boring.
The Bible is never boring. “And the Word was with God. And the Word was God.” How can that be? How can something be WITH something else and at the same time BE that something else? Can you fit any other thing you know into that formula? “And X was with Y. And X was Y.” If we set aside (as best we can) our presupposed “Sunday School answers,” we face John’s amazing statement. The gospel writer is doing the best he can (inspired by the Holy Spirit) to express something we have no categories for. And that is in the first two lines of his gospel! What else are we in for in the next 20 chapters or so?
One of the comments made during the class was, “I know what this means but I don’t know why it means that?” Those of us who have been around churches for a while know (or assume we know) that the Word is the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, that He is eternal, divine, and that He created all things. That is the “Sunday School answer” that pops into our head when we read John 1:1. But why does it mean that? Can we really get that meaning out of those perplexing words? We spent considerable time on that topic, and at one point there was genuine emotion, at least a hint of joy, as the clarity of that meaning began to shine through John’s words.
In those first ten verses, the writer uses two major metaphors – the Word, and Light. Our discussion explored why two images and how they were related. John starts with a very brief description of “the Word.” In fact, he jumps from before creation (when the Word was already with God, and was God) all the way to the recent history of his first readers. He skipped everything else about the Old Testament, Abraham, God’s covenants, the prophets, and Israel’s history. From eternity past to John the Baptist in five verses already crowded with theology. Why would he do that? (We talked about lots more questions than answers – often a sign of a good Bible study that is digging for answers below the superficial ones.) John started with the vague, mysterious, philosophical idea of “the Word” to communicate that he was dealing with profound truths. But he soon moved to the image of the Light – the clarity and visibility of a much more familiar image. In the first ten verses, John shows us the depth of what he will be describing as well as the joyful truth that this mystery is not hidden or obscure, but is revealed in illuminating brilliance.
In the introduction to this study we considered the reason John gave for writing his Gospel: “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). Our first dialog together in the first ten verses laid some interesting groundwork for seeing how John develops that aim in the rest of the book.