The Word Became Flesh; The Word Became Text

2 Easter B April 7, 2024
Acts 4:32-35 Psalm 133
1 John 1:1-2:2 John 20:19-31

Lectionary Link

The Gospel of John includes in it some interesting meanings regarding word and language.

John Gospel states that Word is the beginning of life as we humanly know it.  All things have existence because of Word.  Word as the beginning of life is also equal or co-extensive with God.  John's Gospel bluntly states, "The Word was God."

But according to John's Gospel, that Word which was God, became flesh.  That is, Word that was God became total body language in the person of Jesus.  Total body language of God, Jesus lived with us as God with us, and what did this Jesus, the total body language of God with us do?

He did signs.  The Gospel of John includes a book of signs, and each of those signs are messages about when Christ is with us; in the trivial, like needing extra wedding wine, in the sickness of a child, in the loss of not being able to walk, in the loss of sight, in the storms of nature, the need for food for the masses, and the loss of life of a family member.  These signs in the Gospel of John were meant to teach us to read the spiritual meaning in a natural human event.

The Gospel of John is also about how to read the very writings of the Gospel of John.  The words of Jesus in the Gospel of John mock literal meanings, like an old man getting back into his mother's womb, like the disciples thinking it was good of Lazarus to be asleep, like a blind mind being able to see and the seeing Pharisees actually being blind.  Like the offense that some take about being cannibals eating the flesh of Jesus.  The writer of John's Gospel asks the readers to understand spiritually with the natural carrying those spiritual meanings.

The Gospel of John has Jesus equating spirit and spoken word.  What is spirit?  It is a metaphor of a word meaning wind or breath to refer to some hidden reality.  What did Jesus say?  "My words are spirit and they are life."  The words of anyone's life are one's spirit or the hidden code which guides one's life.  One is constituted in and out through one's words, and the effects of those words are known in one's spoken words, written words, but most importantly in the body language deeds of how we behave.  Everyone can say, "My worded life inside and out, is my spirit or the mystery of who I am."

What might be the hidden question within the community of the Gospel of John?  Can we trust our experiences of the Risen Christ which are not like the eye-witnesses of the people who actually walked and talked with Jesus?

I would argue that perhaps the main punchline of the Gospel of John is found in our doubting Thomas Story.  And this punchline is a plug for the validity of the written words about Jesus being themselves post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus able to inspire faith and belief in Jesus as Son of God and Messiah.  The writer's punchline is this: "But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name."

The Gospel of John is not really an eyewitness account of Jesus written while Jesus walked the earth; it is an apology for the validity of the many post-resurrection appearances of the Risen Christ within the lives of people who were living in the year 90 and later.

Christ is the eternal Word, who became with us in specific body language person of Jesus, whose worded life was spirit and abundant life for us and was a Sign of God being with us in all manner of life situations.

And now in the year 90, should we fear that the memory of Jesus will die and be lost because all the eyewitnesses are dead and gone?  No, just like the Hebrew Scriptures became a technology of memory to retain the long history of salvation, so too the writing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ would carry with it the Spirit of the Risen Christ and inspire continuously the belief in Jesus as the unique Child of God, and one who was anointed by God for a most important message of God for everyone.

John's Gospel: The Word was in the Beginning.  The Word was with God.  The Word was God.  The Word creates the differentiation of everything.  The Word became a Body Language Person, in Jesus.  The word of Jesus was spirit and life.  The Spirit and Life of Christ is Risen and Alive and present with us.  John's Gospel retells in a narrative parable style, the life of Jesus and this parable encodes the faith reality of the Risen Christ being the sign of God with us within every life circumstance.

The doubting Thomas story is a story that concludes with the writer of John writing, "And the Word became my text about Jesus so that you can believe that he is the Son of God and Messiah."

You and I pray today,"May the Eternal Word, become flesh in us today, so that we might live and speak the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God, who has embraced us all as children of God."  Amen.