Why does John the Evangelist begin his gospel with a
description of the Word of God which began the creation of
the universe and humankind in the first book of
Genesis?
The “word of God” was a common expression among the
Jews. God’s word in the Old Testament is an active, creative,
and dynamic word. “By the word of the Lord the heavens
were made” (Psalm 33:6). “He sends forth his commands to
the earth; his word runs swiftly” (Psalm 147:15). “Is not my
word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer which breaks
the rock in pieces” (Jeremiah 23:29)? The writer of the Book
of Wisdom addresses God as the one who “made all things
by your word” (Wisdom 9:1). God’s word is also equated with
his wisdom. “The Lord by wisdom founded the
earth” (Proverbs 3:19).
The Book of Wisdom describes
“wisdom” as God’s eternal, creative, and illuminating power.
Both “word” and “wisdom” are seen as one and the same.
“For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its
swift course was now half gone, your all-powerful word
leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of
the land that was doomed, a stern warrior carrying the sharp
sword of your authentic command” (Book of Wisdom
18:14-16).
John describes Jesus as God’s creative, life-giving and light-
giving word that has come to earth in human form. “God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John
3:16). Jesus is the wisdom and power of God which created
the world and sustains it who assumed a human nature in
order to accomplish our salvation in it. Jesus became truly
man while remaining truly God. “What he was, he remained,
and what he was not he assumed” (from an early church
antiphon for morning prayer). Jesus Christ is truly the Son of
God who, without ceasing to be God and Lord, became a
man and our brother. From the time of the Apostles the
Christian faith has insisted on the incarnation of God’s Son
“who has come in the flesh” (1 John 4:2).
Gregory of Nyssa, one of the great early church fathers
(330-395 AD) wrote: Sick, our nature demanded to be
healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had
lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be
given back to us. Closed in darkness, it was necessary to
bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Savior; prisoners,
help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or
insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human
nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and
unhappy a state?
Christians never cease proclaiming anew the wonder of the
Incarnation. The Son of God assumed a human nature in
order to accomplish our salvation in it. The Son of
God ...worked with human hands; he thought with a human
mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart
he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made
one of us, like to us in all things except sin (Gaudium et
Spes).
If we are going to behold the glory of God we will do it
through Jesus Christ. Jesus became the partaker of our
humanity so we could be partakers of his divinity (2 Peter
1:4). God's purpose for us, even from the beginning of his
creation, is that we would be fully united with Him. When
Jesus comes God is made known as the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. By our being united in Jesus, God
becomes our Father and we become his sons and daughters.
Do you thank the Father for sending his only begotten Son to
redeem you and to share with you his glory?
"Almighty God and Father of light, your eternal Word leaped
down from heaven in the silent watches of the night. Open
our hearts to receive his life and increase our vision with the
rising of dawn, that our lives may be filled with his glory and
his peace.”