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 Jesus in
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” 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 more than 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 this is Jesus at his
most divine as well, at least I like to think so. Now that would be magic.
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