Jesus the Word is the Light of the world John 1 vs 1-5 (Maki Miço)

 John’s Gospel begins by insisting that we cannot reduce Jesus to a mere teacher, philosopher, or moral example; to know who Jesus truly is, we must grasp that he is fully God. Without hesitation, John opens his account with profound truths that portray Jesus as the eternal Creator, the source of all physical and spiritual life, inviting us into awe and worship. To help us understand this divine identity, John uses two central images, Jesus as the “Word” and as the “Light.” By calling Jesus the “Word,” John emphasizes that Jesus uniquely reveals God; if we want to know what God is like, we need only look at him. Yet because some aspects of God’s eternal nature are not immediately visible in Jesus’ human form, John highlights these attributes from the very beginning, showing that the Word who became flesh is the same God who existed from the start and through whom all things were created. Newbigin’s brilliant way of putting it is this: “How do you explain that which must, in the end, be accepted as the beginning of all explanation ? How do you use words to talk about the One who is himself the first Word that gave words their meaning ? That is the problem John solves in the first five verses of his Gospel.”