John 1:3a
All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.
Each of the four Evangelists has a symbol – Mark is a lion, Luke a bull, Matthew a man – that represents something of the character of the Gospel associated with that author. John’s symbol is the eagle, which the tradition says was assigned to him by St. Augustine, who commented that John’s theology soared above the rest of the Gospels.
In reading even this brief half-verse from John’s opening, it’s easy to sense why Augustine made this observation. John, as we’ll continue to discover, has a deeply philosophical and theological bent. Rather than start with stories of Jesus’ birth, as Matthew and Luke do, John goes to the dawn of history to talk about what is sometimes called the “pre-existence” of the Word. And, indeed, John wants to make sure that we, his readers, understand the divine Word and Reason of the universe was present for all time, even from – and before! – the first moments of creation. And that matters, as centuries later Christians would confess that only if Jesus really was God can we count on the promises Jesus makes.
All of this is heady stuff, hard to wrap our minds around, and can feel rather above us all. (Again, Augustine’s description of John as an eagle comes to mind.) But there’s another way to look at it, too.
Perhaps John wasn’t only interested in making philosophical or theological claims about the Word, but was also interested in making a relational claim. That is, perhaps John wants us to know that this Word of God that was with God and is God and became flesh is intimately and deeply connected to God…always…even and especially through all that will happen across the pages of the story John tells. As we’ll see, one of the themes of John’s Gospel is precisely how intimately connected Jesus is to the One who sends him.
And this matters, too. Because it would not have been enough, John wants to say, that God in Jesus sent one more messenger. Rather, God – God’s very own self! – came among us fully and completely in Jesus that we might know that whatever we see in Jesus is just exactly what we can expect in and from God. In this way we can then imagine having a relationship with the One who created the cosmos and then, at just the right time, took on our lot and our life in the enfleshed Word, Jesus the Christ.
Prayer: Dear God, it’s easy to get lost in theology, yet you reach out to find us again and again in the real person of Jesus. May we also reach out to people who have questions about you but really need to be connected to you through us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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