ADVENT
THE IDENTITY OF JESUS AS THE WORD
DR. JIM DIXON
DECEMBER 10, 2000
JOHN 1:1-14
In the year 1224, while watching shepherds tend their flock under moonlight, St. Francis of Assisi was inspired to ask a friend in Greccio, Italy, to help him build a nativity scene. It was the first of its kind, but the idea caught on. And by the 15th century, nativity scenes were proliferating throughout Europe in churches and monasteries. Today many people have nativity scenes. Many of you have nativity scenes at home. Your nativity scene may have shepherds, it may have wise men, it may have animals. All nativity scenes have Mary and Joseph and the baby. But who was that baby? Who was that baby born in Bethlehem? Who is this child we celebrate at Christmas? The prologue of the gospel of John gives us two answers, and these comprise our two teachings this morning
First of all, the baby born in Bethlehem was the Word. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Now, Muhammad was an Arabian man who in the seventh century AD and established the religion of Islam. Muhammad was born at Mecca. Medina was the city of his death, and it was at Medina that he called his first followers. And Muhammad really believed that Christians and Jews would choose to follow him. He told his followers to turn and face Jerusalem when praying. He thought this would appeal to Christians and Jews. But Christians and Jews rejected Muhammad and he became angry. And in his anger, he told his followers to turn away from Jerusalem and to face Mecca when praying.
In Muhammad’s life he grew to hate Christians and Christianity. But at the end of his life, he said he did not hate Jesus Christ. And it is said that he placed a picture of Jesus Christ in the Kaaba in Mecca, Islam’s most holy shrine. And it is said that that picture of Jesus Christ remains in the Kaaba today. Muhammad called Jesus Christ the word of God. The Koran calls Jesus Christ the word of God. But the truth is that Muslims have no idea what this title means, and the more tragic truth is that many Christians have no idea what this title means. What does it mean to say that Jesus Christ is the Word? Four times in the prologue of the Gospel of John, Jesus Christ is called the Word. Once in the prologue of the letter of 1 John, Jesus Christ is called the Word. And in the 19th chapter of the book of Revelation, Jesus Christ is called the Word of God. Many Christians, when they think of Jesus as the Word of God, simply think of Him as a spokesperson for God, someone who speaks for God.
But you see, this title the Word has a far deeper, far more important meaning than this. To understand the meaning of this title, I want us to examine the word in the three languages of the Bible. And this is going to require my concentration and this is going to require your concentration, but this is extremely important.
First of all, in Aramaic, what does “the word” mean In Aramaic? Aramaic was the language of Jesus. Part of the Old Testament was written in Aramaic. The Jews in the time of Jesus spoke Aramaic. They also knew Hebrew. They perhaps knew a little bit of Greeks since the world was largely Hellenized. But Aramaic was the daily language of the Jews at the time of Christ. And in Aramaic, “memrah” means “the word.”
Now, to understand how the people who spoke Aramaic used this title memrah, “the Word,” we need to go back to Exodus chapter three. In Exodus chapter three, God reveals Himself to Moses on Mount Sinai in the burning bush. And Moses says to God, “What is your name?” And God gives His divine name. He says His name is Yahveh, a word, which means “I am,” or perhaps, “I am that I am.” Yahveh. This is called the Tetragrammaton by theologians. “Tetragrammaton” means “four letters” or “four consonants.” And indeed, when the Hebrew word Yahveh is transliterated into the English, it has four consonants which are translated into English as either J-H-V-H or Y-H-V-H—Jahveh or Yahveh. The Tetragrammaton.
Now in the course of time, the Jewish people believed that they should not say the name of God because it is a sacred name, a holy name, Yahveh. So they were afraid that if they spoke the name of God, they would die, or if they spoke the name of God, God would curse them. So they developed circumlocutions for “God,” ways of referring to God without using the name of God. And the primary circumlocution for God in the Hebrew is Jehovah or Yehovah. The Jewish people took the four consonants of Yahweh, they added the four vows from Adonai, the Hebrew word for Lord, and they developed this hybrid word Jehovah. It’s not really a name at all, but they made it up—Jehovah or Jahovah. It’s a circumlocution, a way of referring to God without using the divine name, without saying Yahveh.
Now, the Aramaic speaking Jews also didn’t want to say the divine name. And so, they developed a circumlocution in their language. And what was that circumlocution? It was the Aramaic word memrah, “the Word.” When they wanted to refer to God without using the divine name, the Aramaic speaking Jews called Him memrah, the word. It was a way of referring to God without using His divine name.
So, the prologue of the gospel of John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Memrah—a divine title, a title of deity. So this fits what Jesus said of Himself. We come to John chapter eight in the Bible, and Jesus is talking to the scribes and the Pharisees and He told the scribes and the Pharisees that they were not children of Abraham, though they claimed to be. He told them they were children of the devil. He said to them, “If you are children of Abraham, you would believe in Me. For Abraham pointed to Me; he longed to see my day. He hath seen it and he is glad.”
The scribes and the Pharisees were incredulous. They said, “You’re not yet 50 years old. Abraham lived 2000 years ago. How do you know Abraham?” And Jesus gave His amazing response. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham ever was, I am.” “Ego emi,” the Greek equivalent of Yahveh. He took the divine name and He applied it to Himself. And the Jewish people understood this. So in John 8:58, you see that the Jewish people took up stones to kill Him because He made Himself equal with God. You come to John 14, and Jesus is talking to the disciples. He said, “In My Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would’ve told you. I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there you may be also. And you know the way where I’m going.”
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said, “I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me. If you had known Me, you would’ve known My Father. Also henceforth you do know Him and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father and we’ll be satisfied.” Jesus said, “Have I been with you so long and you do not know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me?”
What an incredible passage of scripture. Show us God and we will be satisfied. And Jesus said, have I been with you so long, Philip, and you do not know Me? He who has seen Me has seen God. And that’s why in Matthew chapter one we’re told the baby born in Bethlehem is called Emmanuel—God with us, God come into the world. He is “the Word,” memrah, a circumlocation for the divine name. He is God. And when you understand this, everything else begins to fall into place.
So we come to the Hebrew. What does this title “the word” mean in Hebrew? Now, in Hebrew, “dabar” means “the word.” When the Hebrew-speaking Jews spoke of “dabar,” when they spoke of “the word,” they were speaking of the creator. They were speaking of the creative power of God. We understand this when we move back to the book of Genesis, the first chapter, and in Genesis chapter one, verses three through 31… in those 28 verses, you see the six days of creation. And in that passage, 10 times it is written, “And God said, and God said, and God said, and God said.” “And God said, let there be light. And there was light.” The word of God was creating the cosmos.
So when you come to Hebrews chapter 11, a passage of scripture oftentimes called the faith chapter, we read, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. By faith, people of old received divine approval. By faith, we understand that the worlds were created by the word of God so that things which exist were made out of things which do not appear.”
That is Creation ex nihilo, out of nothing, by the power of the Word, “dabar”—the Word, the Creator, the creative power of God. So we are told that that baby born in Bethlehem is God become man, “memrah” being a circumlocution for the name of God. And we’re told that that baby born in Bethlehem is the Creator, come to the creation—dabar, “the Word.” It’s no wonder that so many people at Christmas time focus on Santa Claus and on Christmas trees and mistletoe. It’s all relatively safe. You see, a lot of people just can’t deal with the true wonder that is Christmas and who that baby really is.
Now today, most astronomers, scientists, and cosmologists believe that the universe literally began with a bang 15 to 20 billion years ago. They believe all the matter and energy of the cosmos was contracted into a ball and that this ball just exploded, sending the matter and energy out into the void, forming the galactic systems, creating the universe. They call it the big bang theory.
For many scientists, for many astronomers and cosmologists, that is an adequate explanation for the creation of the universe. But it’s not adequate. It’s just not adequate, not for any thinking person, because you have to ask the question, “Where did that that ball of condensed matter and energy come from? Did it just always exist? Was it eternally existing matter?” This stretches the very fabric of science because science deals with a time-space continuum. Everything has a beginning and an end. Did that ball of condensed matter and energy spontaneously generate? This would stretch the fabric of science because science deals with a a cause-and-effect world. And for every effect there must be a cause. You see, the Bible tells us the cause. The universe has been caused by the word, dabar, the creative power of God and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Now, some of you have heard of Charles William Elliot. Charles William Elliot for 40 years was the president of Harvard University. That was from 1869 to 1909. And when they built Emerson Hall at Harvard University as the new home of the philosophy department, Charles Elliot wrote William James, the famous psychologist and philosopher, and asked him to suggest an inscription for the lintel over the main doors of the new home of the philosophy department, Emerson Hall. He asked him to write back with an inscription. William James wrote back with a quote from Protagoras, the Greek philosopher: “Man is the major of all things.” And this is not a surprise, because William James was a secular humanist and an agnostic. “Man is the major of all things.”
William James never heard back from Charles Elliott, and he wondered what had happened. And so he traveled to Harvard. He wanted to see this new building, Emerson Hall, the new home of the philosophy department. He wanted to see what inscription was chosen. Did Charles Elliot choose his inscription? And when he came to the lintel above the doors and he saw the inscription, William James was stunned. Charles Elliot had chosen a quote from the Bible: “What is man that Thou art mindful of him?” That quote is taken from Psalms, chapter eight. “Oh Lord our Lord, how majestic is Thy name in all the earth, Thou whose glory is above the heavens is chanted by the mouths of babes and infants. When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou has established, what is man that Thou art mindful of him?” That is a 180 from what William James had suggested.
Of course, is it not true that when we look at the vastness of the creation—galactic systems spanning billions of light years—isn’t it a wonder that God would be mindful of a few billion people living on a third planet from their sun in a remote solar system? Just a speck in the vastness of space. And yet God is mindful. Christmas tells us that God sent His Son to us, the Creator coming to the creation—dabar, “the Word.”
There is a third language to examine this title in. Very briefly, in the Greek language, “logos” means “the word.” Of course, the prologue of John’s Gospel was written in Greek. No doubt the disciples thought primarily in Aramaic and Hebrew, but the prologue was written in Greek. And to understand the meaning of “logos,” or “the word” for the Greeks, we need to go back to Socrates and Plato and Aristotle.
I’ve said before that the Christian faith owes a great deal to Socrates and Plato and Aristotle and most Christian theologians and church historians through the years have acknowledged this. I mean, it was Socrates who said, “God and not man is the measure of all things.” And it was Plato who taught the immortality of the soul and the innate goodness of God. And it was Aristotle who taught that all philosophy begins with what he called the first philosophy, which he also called theology, which he also called metaphysics. And he said the purpose of the first philosophy and ultimately of all philosophy is this: to know God, to know the mind of God. And Plato agreed with this. In general, the Greek philosophers agreed with this. The quest of philosophy was to know the mind of God.
And what did they call the mind of God? The logos. The Word. And in fact, our word logic comes from “logikos,” a Greek word built on logos. And the Greek philosophers believed that pure logic, pure intelligence, pure wisdom, came only from God. And the quest was to know the wisdom of God and the mind of God, the logos, but they could not know the mind of God.
Then we have Christmas, the baby born in Bethlehem—the Logos, the mind of God made manifest. You want to know the wisdom of God? you want to know how God thinks? You want to know the mind of God? Look at that baby born in Bethlehem. Look at Jesus Christ. He is the mind of God manifest. So He is the Word, this baby born in Bethlehem. He is God become man—memrah, a circumlocution for the divine name; He is the Creator come to the creation; dabar, the creative power of God; and He is the mind of God made manifest. The Logos. The Word.
There’s a second title here and briefly we’ll deal with it. The second title given to the Christ child in the prologue of John is the light. Jesus Christ is called the light. “The true light which enlightens every person was coming into the world. “The light. Now, have you ever wondered why Christmas is celebrated on December 25th? I mean, nobody really knows when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. So why is it celebrated on December 25th? Well, it all has to do with the fact that Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
You see, in the early fourth century, December 25th was the celebrated birthday of Mithra, or Mithras, the Persian and Roman God of light called the sun God. But in the year 312, Constantine the First (known more as Constantine the Great) became at least a nominal Christian after his experience at the Milvian Bridge. And he began to see that Jesus Christ is the true light, the true light which enlightens every person, the light of the world. By the time of Constantine’s death and the year 337, December 25th was no longer celebrated as the birthday of Mithra, but rather the birthday of Jesus, the true light which enlightens every person. That’s why December 25th is celebrated as the birthday of Christ, the light of the world, replacing Mithra, a pagan deity.
Now, what does it mean when we say that Jesus Christ is the light of the world? What does it mean when we say that He is the true light come into the world? Now, in the Bible, oftentimes light is a metaphor for truth. Sometimes light is a metaphor for moral truth. And there’s no doubt that Jesus Christ is the truth. I mean, we find truth in Him and He is the source of moral truth. And there’s some of that thought in the prologue of 1 John and certainly that is important in a culture where Judeo-Christian values are eroding and truth seems up for grabs. But that’s not the primary focus of light. As we look at the prologue of 1 John, the metaphor in this prologue focuses on life. Jesus Christ is called the light because He is the life bringer or the life giver.
You see, even the ancients understood that without light there could be no life. And it was the sun’s light which enabled life to flourish on earth. And there is this metaphor of light that refers to life and the giving of life. And that is why in the prologue of the Gospel of John, it is said, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of man. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” So Jesus Christ is the light in that He gives life.
Now, just a month ago, the IAU, the International Astronomical Union, made a declaration. They declared that an asteroid, which they call 2000 SSG344, could collide with the earth in the year 2030. This asteroid weighs 25,000 tons. And obviously this caused some alarm. But just two days later, the IAU retracted their statement and said they had miscalculated. Now they’re saying that this asteroid, 2000 SSG344 is not an asteroid at all. They’re saying that in fact they believe it is a piece of the 1971 S-IVB Saturn satellite. That is an unbelievable mistake, not a small error. And the IAU is saying they’re going to be more careful in the future when they make public announcements.
Now, scientists are very concerned with asteroids. And just this last week in USA Today, there was a full page dealing with the problem of asteroids. And the title on the top says, “Doomsday May Be On The Way,” and it deals with various-sized asteroids and the consequences they would cause if they impacted the earth. Now, what is it that makes asteroids so dangerous? I mean, planets throughout the solar system (and really throughout the cosmos) receive asteroid hits on an interim basis. What makes asteroid hits so dangerous? Obviously the fact that those asteroid hits can take lives, but it’s not the moment of impact. I mean, relatively few lives are lost at the moment of impact. No, the real danger of an asteroid hit is it blocks the light of the sun.
That’s why scientists are so concerned. You see, when a large asteroid impacts the earth, it sends a dust canopy heavenward and the dust envelops the earth and it can envelop the earth for years, blocking off the light of the sun, stopping the process of photosynthesis, killing plant life—therefore killing herbivores, therefore killing carnivores. It causes a chain reaction because the light is blocked by a dust canopy enveloping the earth. In fact, that’s exactly what scientists believe happened 60 million years ago with the extinction of the dinosaurs. They call it the Cretaceous tertiary mass extinction theory. They believe between the Cretaceous and tertiary periods of history, an asteroid hit this planet, sent a dust cloud into the heavens, enveloped the earth, and blocked the light of the sun. The earth was in darkness. Plants began to die. Then herbivores began to die (particularly large herbivores) because there weren’t enough plants to eat. And then carnivores (particularly large carnivores) began to die because there weren’t enough herbivores to eat. The mass extinction theory.
But you see, the Bible says that your soul is in darkness and my soul is in darkness. Apart from Christ, our souls are in darkness, and they are enveloped by the dust of sin and the light just can’t get through. And the world experiences soul death, spiritual death. But you see, that’s why the baby was born in Bethlehem. That’s why Jesus Christ came into the world, that He might atone for sin, that He might pay the penalty for sin and substitutionary atonement by His blood. When someone comes to Christ and they receive Christ as Lord and Savior, when they receive Him as the Word and the Light, he forgives their sin and that dust of sin, that canopy that envelops the soul, is removed. And the light of God begins to shine once more on your soul, and you begin to experience life in that moment when you accept Christ. “The true light which enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world. The world was made by Him. The world knew Him not. He came into His own home, and His own people received Him not. But to as many as received Him who believed on His name, to them He gave power to become children of God—who were born not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So the Word became flesh and dwelled amongst us.
So He offers life by His light. And instead of just being a creature of God, when you come to Jesus Christ, you become a child of God—born into the family of God, born anew. You receive spiritual life and His light begins to shine on you and on your soul. Let’s close with a word of prayer.