Stroll through Scripture for December 21, 2025

Based on John 1:1-18

“In the beginning…” is how John starts his Gospel proclamation.  It draws the reader back to Genesis 1 and the story of creation.  John seems to be expanding on that creation story.  In Genesis 1, creation happens by way of God speaking creation into existence with God’s word.  And here in John, “the Word” was with God and was God.  John is saying that the Word, the Logos, was present at creation and is what caused creation to come into being.  

One of the key points to understand the Gospel of John is this – John is concerned with people being “enlightened” to Jesus’ divine identity as the Son of God.  We’ll see this later in John with Jesus’ numerous “I am” statements, which again draw the reader back to God speaking to Moses in the burning bush.  In that episode, we hear Moses ask for a name for God and God tells him to tell the people “I am” sent him.  

Something I learned about the Gospel of John in seminary was that the gospel is unique in its proclamation because the Gospel is a two-level narrative meaning where there are the literal events and there is the deeper meaning of those events.  It’s like hearing the stories in the Gospel on the ground floor and then going up to the second level in order to look out and see a bigger picture of what is going on.  

We see this right at the beginning of John’s Gospel with the author’s use of the “Word,” the description of John the Baptist as one who testifies to the light, and the world not knowing him (meaning Jesus).  

In verse 14 we hear about “the Word became flesh and lived among us…”. A better translation is that “the Word became flesh and pitched a tent/encamped among us.”  The deeper meaning points to Jesus’ poverty and identification with the poor, but also the closeness of Jesus to us.  Here is the “Word” getting his hands dirty, being among the poor.  Tents aren’t big structures.  They require close proximity.  

In addition, the notion of God taking on flesh and pitching a tent to reside with God’s people is another reminder back to the Exodus story where the people construct a Tabernacle in the wilderness for God to reside in – a portable, tent-like structure.   

For further reflection:

• At the beginning of John’s Gospel, the author draws readers back to essential elements of the Hebrew scriptures – the creation and Exodus stories.  What are the stories that we are drawn back to when we talk about Jesus?