This is John’s Christmas story, minus the manger, Mary and Joseph, angels singing, shepherds adoring, magi gifting or even the baby Jesus for that matter. You can tell from the very first verse that John’s Jesus is painted with bigger brushstrokes than the one on the canvas of Matthew, Mark & Luke. It’s called a “Christology from above” which means a word about Jesus that is focused more on his divinity than his humanity. (Calvary member Dr. Bob Machos calls it the magic Jesus.) That’s true throughout John, even at the end when he lays his life down and picks it up again with no help from anyone thank you very much. In some ways this picture of Jesus as the in the beginning forever Word who brings everything that is into being is far removed from the Christ whose cry of dereliction from the cross is proof the divine has fully entered the human condition and therefore is able to sympathize with our weakness. (Hebrews 4:15) John’s Jesus is always one step ahead of the opposition and clearly in control except for one brief moment midway through the Gospel when his friend Lazarus dies. Then the true light that banishes darkness, the Word made flesh full of grace and truth and the unchanging glory of the great I AM steps out from behind the smoke and mirrors and in two words the In the Beginning Forever Word becomes very human. “Jesus wept.” It might be that is Jesus at his most divine as well, at least I like to think so. Now that would be magic.
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