Wednesday, 18th. June 2008
John 1: 9-13
|
In a Nutshell This is about truth coming into the world. Despite the world not knowing the truth when He was staring them in the face, God's purposes would still be fulfilled. A new generation would be born - they too would be recipients of God's promises. |
The new day was dawning, writes the Apostle. The morning star had looked forward to the end of the night. But the story John tells is not blind about the darkness. Somehow, the Word of God, the One who was in the beginning with God, the true light that every person needs, remained unknown for the world. John the Baptist did his work. He directed people to the Light. And yet, when the Light came, when He was standing there in his own house, in his own street, in his own village, face-to-face with the very people with whom He lived they simply didn't know Him. He, through whom the world was made, was there participating in the world, and yet they knew Him not.
The Apostle tells us that His family didn't know Him. His own village didn't recognise Him. And then, to reiterate this, John notes that it wasn't from Jesus' family ties that God begat a new generation of His very own children. It was not the outcome of a pre-arranged marriage. In fact the emergence of this child-of-God-status had nothing to do with human breeding or amazing parental organising expertise. Whatever is achieved by human will, it did not bring the new birth John is telling us about.
The truth of the matter was that His coming was no accident, as if the reception given to the Word somehow took the Almighty by surprise. Still, John is writing to assure us that His coming brought with it an amazing development of cosmic dimensions - the Light of the World, God Himself, grants the status of "child of God" to those who received Him as God's gift to them. They were the ones who believed. They are the ones "born of God" who, since the Day has dawned, can rightfully claim to be God's own children.