Advent Week 1

Liturgy and repetition deeply form us around truth. Advent is a seasonal tradition that celebrates the arrival of the Christ. We build up the longing and anticipation of Christmas. We attempt to get into the shoes of the Jewish people that were waiting for the arrival of Messiah. 

1. It makes us celebrate the way we are supposed to. 

2. It causes us to look forward to our eschatology- the second coming of the King. 

John 1:1-2

John sets up the origin story. He backs up to before there was anything; before time. Our hero was there. 

“In the beginning” John isn’t just pointing back to the creation narrative. God spoke creation into being by His word and then he interacts with his creation by his word. 

Is 55 tells us that God’s word brings life. 

Jewish theology began to combine God’s word and God’s wisdom. The problem of transcendence is that if God is so completely different and other than his creation, how does he interact with his creation? By his word/wisdom. John grabs this idea and says, yes! Jesus is that Word/wisdom. In Greek thought Logos (word) was the rational out of which all creation and meaning comes from. The opening sentence grabs the Jewish reader and the Greek reader and connected their thoughts about how all things exist to Jesus. 

“And the Word was with God”

There was no moment when God existed that he wasn’t expressing himself/communicating. With here is not the common word for with, but it insinuates toward, facing. 

“And the Word was God”

This was mind bending to the hearer. They knew there would be a representation of God in the Messiah, but they didn’t know he WAS God. 

“He was in the beginning with God”

John doesn’t say “this” or “it”. He was “He.” Even though the self expression of God was personified that was a literary device. But John reveals that the expression of God is not a thing, but a person; not a what, but a who. 

This same God that challenged darkness with his Word in creation will destroy darkness through his coming and sacrifice. He is not just an idea. He is a person and He is God himself. This is the story of Yahweh.