“In the beginning was the Word” starts the book of John, the fourth and final gospel account. John says that the Word was with God and was God and was life that became the light. He introduces John, Jesus’s baptizing cousin, not to be confused with John the disciple and author of this book, as a witness of the true light. The true light here is Jesus.
John, the writer, strings together many concepts. First, the Word, that is also Jesus, had been with God and was a part of God since the beginning. Second, that the Word became a person. There is power in words, God, in the Genesis, made the earth just by saying it. Jesus healed in the earlier gospels by speaking too. Second, that Jesus is the source life by which creation itself occurred. You see this power when Jesus brings back to life several people including himself. Third, the Word is the guiding light to humanity; the Word made flesh to dwell among us. Fourth, the Word is truth and grace; not only the justice that condemns us, but also the mercy of God that saves and heals us. Truth that clears the path and forgiveness brings us back into relationship with God, the Earth and our fellow humans. John is mirroring the language of Genesis in order to show us the restoration of our lost paradise.
John the Baptist was approached by the Jewish religious leaders to account for himself. They asked if he was the Christ, he denied it, and they asked if he was Elijah or a prophet. He said no, but they the demanded an answer to take to their leaders. He quotes Isaiah 40:3 and says he is “a voice crying in the wilderness prepare a way for the Lord.”
Then they ask why he is baptizing, the ceremonial bath to demonstrate a person’s washing away of sin, John tells them that he is baptizing with water, but someone standing among them is even greater, whose sandal he is unworthy to untie. Servants in their day would untie and wash their master’s dirty feet, so Jesus is even higher still than a human master.
Finally Jesus shows up and John points him out as the one he was talking about. He baptizes him and witnesses the Holy Spirit coming upon him like a dove. The dove was also featured after the flood in Genesis when it returned to the ark with an olive branch demonstrating that the trees were sprouting and the Earth was ready for the people to disembark. Jesus is our olive branch from God, a symbol of redemption.
The first two disciples join Jesus were John’s followers, Andrew and his brother Simon, whom Jesus gives the name Peter meaning rock. Renaming in the Bible is pretty common when people went through significant changes. Naomi changed her name to Mara meaning bitter when she lost her husband and sons. Here Jesus is attributing strength and steadiness to him.
Jesus picks up Philip from the town of Bethesda. Philip goes to recruit his friend Nathaniel who makes a comment about the hometown of Jesus. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Jesus calls him an Israelite with no deceit and tells him he saw him earlier under a fig tree. Nathaniel calls him the Son of God and the King of Israel. Jesus is surprised he believes do easily and promises bigger miracles to come. The sign of prophecy here is knowing and understanding present, not just foretelling the future. Nathaniel speaks the truth and Jesus does that too, foretelling Nathaniel’s witness of his ascent to heaven.
