John 1:10-11

One of my favorite reality TV shows is Undercover Boss. I love seeing the CEO of a large company face the consequences of his choices and corporate strategies. I love how he interacts with his employees and discovers that their jobs are more difficult than he imagined. But most of all, I love it when employees throw shade at upper management with him right there in the room. That's good TV, my friends.

In this passage, Jesus is the ultimate Undercover Boss:

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own [or own things, possessions, domain], and those who were His own did not receive Him. (John 1:10-11, NASB)

The Beginning: All is nothingness, an unformed chaos. A mysterious breath hovers over the surface of dark waters.

A disembodied Voice speaks. Light illumines the darkness. The light is constrained to a pattern of behavior: Day; Night; goto Day;

The Voice speaks again. The shapeless void is distinguished into wet water, grainy sand, loamy earth. The sky is divided from the earth and the sea from the land. The world begins to take form, to be distinct from the universe around it.

And so goes creation: The Voice speaks, bringing order and beauty from the void, and it is very good.

John's claim is that Jesus, housed in a frail meatflesh body that defecates and stubs its toes and sometimes has a bad cough, is the very embodiment of the Voice that wove the world into its beautiful being.

More than that, Jesus is the same eternal God who made a deal with Abraham: Follow me, and I will make you a great nation. Your wife may be barren, but that won't stop me from giving her descendants numbering like the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore. (See Genesis 12-17.)

So here comes this Jesus into the land of Israel, to the very descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. As he walks, his feet grow dusty with the dirt he formed in the beginning. He is walking among people who are the very grains of sand, the skystars he promised to Abraham.

And yet, like the hapless CEO of Burger Behemoth, failing to keep up with the fry timers in the back of the restaurant, Jesus is not seen for who he is. Many reject him, especially those who have a lot to lose from any disruption to the status quo.

But, as we'll see in our next installment, there's a great reward for those employees who respond well to this Undercover Boss.

John 1:9

 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

-John 1:9 (NASB)

If you've ever been in a cave, you know how a tiny bit of light makes an enormous difference in the darkness. Here, the evangelist compares Jesus to light. He makes the remarkable claim that, through His coming into the world, Jesus brings light to each person. 

The unspoken assumption here is that the world was enveloped in darkness before Christ came into it. Perhaps it was not an utter darkness, but it was dark enough that there was room for each of us to be "enlightened." 

In the light that Christ exudes, we begin to see the truth about the Life, the Universe, and Everything. We see God's love, our own self-focused disobedience, and the way that our behavior has corrupted God's good world. We see human pain, loneliness, and need, and we see the solution that God has provided for these problems. 

When the light shines in a dark place, we suddenly see everything: The beauty that was hidden only moments before, and the ugliness that lurked out of sight. It is necessary, this enlightenment. Without it, the beauty would go unappreciated, and the ugliness would linger on, festering and growing ever uglier.

We need the light if we care about knowing the truth.

Commentary on John 1:6-8

 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

-John 1:6-8 (NASB)

Here, we meet one of the central characters of John's gospel: John the Baptist. The evangelist's introduction of him is stripped-down, simple, and straightforward -- surprisingly so, in fact. 

If it had been up to me to introduce the baptizer, I would have been tempted to give a list of his qualifications: 

1. He was the founder and lead minister of a large and exciting ministry on the banks of the Jordan, baptizing folks and calling them to repentance. Jews of every background and theological bent flocked to hear him preach, and even Roman soldiers attended to get his advice on godly living. 

2. He led a simple, holy life in the desert, devoting himself to God's service and the preaching of the truth.

3. Like Jesus, he had made some very powerful political and religious enemies.

4. As a pre-born baby, he leapt at the very (also pre-born) presence of Jesus, who, by the way, was also his cousin. 

5. He was born miraculously to aged parents who, like Abram and Sarai, had long ago resigned themselves to being barren. His birth, like that of Jesus, was foretold by an angel. Also like Jesus, John's very name came straight from God's messenger.

But John the Evangelist mentions none of these things. For him, the baptizer's primary importance was as a witness sent from God to testify about Jesus. His purpose, like the evangelist's, was to bring people to belief in Christ. 

The spareness of John the Baptist's introduction holds a vital reminder: In God's economy, human ideas about importance, accomplishment, and renown are of little use. What matters to God is that whether we are faithful in what He has called us to do. Though John was a remarkable man for all the reasons listed above, his most important function was to testify concerning the divine Light, the everlasting Word. 

And testify he did! As we'll see later on, John testified without fear or regard for men's reactions. He was so committed to his calling that he preached himself right into a prison cell... and then into the ground. 

One other noteworthy thing about these verses: The evangelist makes it very clear that John himself is not the light. In other words, he is not the protagonist in this story. Rather, he's merely a supporting character. Perhaps the evangelist feels a need to mention this because the baptizer is a larger-than-life figure. After all, he's very recognizable, iconic, and clearly filled with God's power. Another possible reason for mentioning this could be simple narrative clarity. Perhaps the evangelist is simply avoiding any possibility of confusion for his readers.

Regardless of why the evangelist mentions this, though, we now have a new character on the stage: John, the first of many witnesses to the truth and the power of the Word made flesh.