Why Jesus Was BornNäide

Shines

The light shines in the darkness. (John 1:5)

We saw earlier how Mark introduced us to “The beginning of the gospel.” Today John takes us back to the ultimate beginning by opening with the identical words from Genesis: “In the beginning.” Although John doesn’t contain any narrative about Jesus’ birth, he gives us the ultimate context for that birth by widening out our perspective as vast as the cosmos.

John talks about the “Word” of God. In Greek this is the word Logos. Logos for the Greeks was the ultimate organizing principle. Here, John uses that idea, with a very important change. The true Logos is not some vague cosmic force. It is God’s Son who was later made flesh as Jesus of Nazareth.

When in Genesis 1 we read “Let there be light . . . Let the earth sprout vegetation . . . Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures . . .” this was the Son of God doing the talking. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all active in the creation of the universe, but the Logos—the Word—of God was the one issuing the commands.

He is the Life of the cosmos. And he is the Light that shines. In his commentary The Gospel of John, Frederick Dale Bruner emphasizes the present tense of that verb: the Light shines on. This is ongoing. It will never stop. And the darkness of evil will never put it out. Sometimes the darkness of this world seems overwhelming. But the gospel tells us it is no match for the Light!