THE GOOD NEWS — FULLNESS OF HIS GRACE

John 1:1–2:11

DIMENSION ONE: WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

Answer these questions by reading John 1

1. What words of Genesis do the first three words of John's Gospel recall? (1:1; Genesis 1:1)

2. What words of John suggest Jesus' divine nature? (1:2-4)

3. What does John tell us about the relationship between life and light, light and darkness? (1:4-5)

4. Who is introduced into the Prologue of the Gospel in 1:6?

5. What is John's purpose? (1:7-8)

6. To whom did the true light come? (1:11)

7. What was given to those who believed and did receive him? (1:12-13)

8. What did the people ("we all") receive in the coming of the Son? (1:16-17)

9. How does John's Gospel describe John the Baptist? (1:23)

10. Where is John baptizing? (1:28)

11. How does John say that he recognized Jesus? (1:32)

12. Who are Jesus' first disciples, as listed by our writer? (1:40-51)

Answer these questions by reading John 2:1-11

13. Who attended the marriage feast at Cana in Galilee? (2:1-2)

14. What did Jesus say to the servants? (2:7-8)

15. What did the master of the banquet say about the wine? (2:10)

16. What did Jesus achieve by the first of his "signs"? (2:11)

DIMENSION TWO: WHAT DOES THE BIBLE MEAN?

* John's Gospel Confronts Us Today. Whatever our situation in life, whatever our perplexities and doubts, our anxieties and sufferings, our triumphs and joys, God confronts us today in the Fourth Gospel. John's Gospel is the story of the divine-human Redeemer. Consider some words from John's Gospel that are fixed in our memories, memories on which we may often dwell:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ... In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ... The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. ... No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known (1:1, 4, 14, 18).

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (3:16).

A new command I give you: Love one another (13:34).

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; trust also in me (14:1).

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you (14:27).

But take heart! I have overcome the world (16:33c).

I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die (11:25).

These verses and many others in the Gospel express what has happened and what is happening now. Jesus' words and John's words about him describe real events in human experience. When John writes, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you" (14:18), the Fourth Gospel writer is recording a promise that has already been realized.

Who wrote the Gospel? Traditionally the church has attributed the writing to John the son of Zebedee, but no one can be sure that the beloved disciple wrote the book. For generations scholars have researched this question and have developed many theories. The answer still eludes them. Most scholars would say the Gospel was written around AD 85–95. While speculations on authorship and place of writing are interesting and important, most of us are more concerned with asking: What is the meaning of the Fourth Gospel for us?

We are more certain about the people for whom the Gospel was written. These people included members of the church, persons who had come out of Judaism and were immersed in Jewish faith and practice. The Gospel was also written for Greek-speaking Christians of the Mediterranean world, people immersed in Greek thought and culture, and for other people whose cultural traditions were not very binding.

The author focused on the needs of these people of varying cultural backgrounds. He did this so profoundly that he spoke a universal message of God to all times, including our own. He leaves us with the challenge to believe — to receive the fullness of the Gospel in our lives and conduct. He tells us that God's unmerited favor (grace) is available to the human race.

* John 1:1-18. We may call this opening section of the Gospel a prologue, a poem, a preface, or an introduction. The section, written in theological language, unites the whole book. It is a poem with inserted prose comments. Scholars think these verses were a hymn sung by the early church, an adaptation of a Jewish hymn in praise of Wisdom.

More appropriately perhaps, we may see John 1:1-18 as corresponding to the overture or introduction to a great opera or symphony. This overture features themes of life and light and of glory and truth that pervade the Gospel. These themes recur repeatedly, celebrating the grand theme of the Word that exists through all eternity. The Word is preexistent and incarnate, the revelation of God and the giver of meaning and salvation to God's human children. The Word (Jesus) is offered and rejected but stands at last as triumphant over evil and death.

The words in the beginning take us to the opening words of Genesis and equate the Word with God. The Word is the eternal, creative, ordering principle that controls all things. "'The Word was with God, and the Word was God" (1:1).

John also introduces two other images that pervade the Gospel. These are light and life: "In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind" (1:4). To be sure, darkness is present, but darkness has never been able to overcome the light. To be sure, also, there have been many witnesses to the light. Evil (darkness) has never been able to overthrow the good (light). What about the light that persists in the Creation? John the Baptist came to bear witness to that light, but he was not himself the light.

Jesus, "the true light that gives light to everyone," was coming into the world. Though he was among us and made the world, the world did not know him. He came to his own people — the people chosen by God to achieve God's mission for humankind — and his own people rejected him. John uses the present tense (shines), a usage that is in harmony with 1 John 2:8: "The darkness is passing and the true light is already shining." For the Gospel writer the coming of God in the flesh was an event of the past and a gracious promise daily being fulfilled. The darkness represents an attitude in which humankind will not...