It’d be wonderful to go into this New Year thinking that there’d be a change, that where we’ve been can be left in the past, that the possibility of a fresh start is real. But that’s not the way it feels now. Strange things like drones in the sky while planes go down all the time. Wars continues to rip lives apart. Weather is just as dangerous. Not to mention our personal lives where people struggle to get along with each other. Every year we're burned with high hopes that this year we’d get past all the mess we’d been through. Now it looks like more of the same.

Look at it this way: life is not leaving the past but carrying it into the now and what-will-be. Forgetting what was or thinking it will never matter again isn’t healthy, let alone productive. It has shaped us thus far, yet transformation is still in process. Look forward to that kind of change and realize it’s by design.

OMG! Where do you get this stuff, like you’re some kind of voice that gets to comment from above about what we live through, stretched and strained, on hideous highways and rotten roads just to make it through our days? Aren’t you supposed to tell us who you think God is, and what your Jesus is supposed to be? So far, you’re not delivering the goods. Like that part that leaves out the Baby. What’s this thing about the Word (proper noun you make it) and being with God? A Baby we can sort of get. Word is like hallucinatory.

Fair enough. Not your usual introduction to the topic. Think of it like another layer. The Babe in the Manger got your attention because it’s familiar, like how we all got here. But this voice is greater than the familiar. Pull it from the past, a voice like a Chorus that spoke commentary and deeper meaning on the drama in Greek theater. By covering what we see with a significance beyond our mere experience, there’s a chance to understand and move forward to what may come next.

The Prologue

Here’s what we’re given: A Prologue to everything that comes next in the person we call Jesus. Beware though, for this introduction sets the pattern for the trouble surrounding him.

“In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God.” (John 1:1) This is no mere baby boy who rose to a small level of prominence as an itinerant rabbi. The Chorus states in no uncertain terms: Jesus is God. As God, this Jesus existed “in the beginning,” and, by implication, even before the beginning because he is a co-creator with God who formed the universe. Jesus’ infancy is elevated to the Infinite. For those who would keep God at a distance, separate and safe from interfering with personal choices in life, there will be trouble. God is with us now, and it’s not an infantile story.

Why “Word”?

It sounds weird to call our protagonist that. We live in an age where we are bombarded with words. More words may only add to the dissonance we feel. Notice though, this isn’t a word, or words even, but The Word, that which we need most. We scream for direction, comfort, assistance though this thing we call Life. The Word gives answer to that cry.

But it’s nothing like what else is out there. It’s primal, rich, with a logic and reason beyond our knowledge. The Word speaks in broad visionary terms that draw us in and permits struggle with itself. The Prologue therefore sets the stage for this necessary conflict.

Light and Love

Called The Word, Jesus not only speaks for God even as he is God, but he comes as light and love, essential elements to life. To be apart from light is to be in darkness, that place where evil battles whatever is good, where grief hangs heavy smothering any kind of joy, where war rages, and relationships dissolve. Jesus’ life crosses swords with that darkness. When the worst happened though, he came back to the life and light which shines through darkness by giving hope that seasons do pass, and new days are ahead. The New Year hangs on that light of hope.

Jesus embodies Love from God. However, to love and experience God’s love, even in the condition of one’s creation, one must become one with the Lover. (John 1:4 and 14b)  The trouble with Jesus is he comes as a God whose love will change and consume one’s soul to the point of being reborn, a new person that is foreign to that which natural and intellectual inclinations would lead. The prospect is not totally welcome for, “although the world was made through him, the world didn’t recognize him when he came. Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted.” (John 1:10-11) Push back erupts at the start. The Chorus sets the stage for conflict.

Grace and Truth

Thus, our ancient Chorus chants, “So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us.” (John1:14) The entrance of God in human form threatens the human reach for control of one’s life and destiny. Autonomy is challenged, for self-determination is confronted by a God who would interrupt human design. Yet, whoever accepts this plan finds God’s yearning for being known through the essentials of Grace and Truth.

Grace never lets go, pursues, follows, goes to any lengths to be known. Whatever is the worst of us and even beyond the best of us, its reach is mercy that forgives while not excusing, binds yet is liberating, affirms as it recreates. Jesus as Word brings grace, simple and complex.

Whereas Grace is bestowed, Truth is revealed. Search, study, seek for a lifetime, and one can never fully know Truth. It lies beyond human comprehension. Yet this lacking also reveals that God not only exists but wants to be known by the highest point of Creation, all of humanity. The touchpoint happens through this Word, Word become flesh in a Baby, Word which lived and died and lived again here on earth among us.  

“In the beginning…” Every time a heart and soul starts with the Grace and Truth, Light and Love known in Jesus-God who became human, there is another beginning, not dependent on a calendar date but on fulfilment of divine purpose that has no ending. Begin Again.

John 1:1-18

The Trouble with Jesus: Considerations Before You Walk Away by Constance Hastings

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