Thoughts on life, leadership and the movement called the church by Brian C. Hughes, Senior Pastor

by Brian C. Hughes, Senior Pastor

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Easter Soul Prep

I decided to do some preparation spiritually for Easter by reading the book of John, 1 chapter each day. John spends the bulk of his book covering the final week of Jesus' life, and there are only 21 chapters, so it works out pretty well to begin today, and gives me a couple of days to miss as needed.

You can join the journey with me if you'd like.

Today was chapter 1. I was struck again by what we call the 'prelude to John', which encompasses the opening verses. John doesn't begin with Jesus' birth. There is no manger scene or wise men and shepherds. John begins earlier than that - all the way back to the beginning.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made. Without Him, nothing was made that has been made..."

The word 'Word' is the Greek word 'Logos'. It means the Cosmic Christ - the Messiah that existed since before the beginning of time. There is a lot there to unpack.

The other thing that really struck me was how John's (the baptizer) disciples left him standing there to go and follow Jesus. What a great example he sets for us. It wasn't about him...and he knew it.

If you read John 1 today, what struck you?

4 comments:

jf said...

Is this the first encounter between Peter and Jesus? Both John (the Baptist) and Peter's brother Andrew refer to Jesus as the son of God. Later in Peter's time with Jesus when Jesus asks him who he thinks he is, and Peter answers that he is the son of God. Jesus says that he had to have recieved that information from The Father. He couldn't have gotten that information from John the Baptist or his brother Andrew right here? I thought Jesus first met Peter when Peter was fishing? Remember, he dropped his net and followed? I'm confused....

Anonymous said...

Have you ever noticed what you havedn't noticed until you notice it? John's gospel is that for me. In the last verse of Chapter 1 (New Living Translation) Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man who is the stairway between heaven and earth. This is a great picture of him being "The Way" to eternal life in heaven. Does this also provide a reference back to Jacobs visition in Genesis 28? Tony T.

Brian C. Hughes said...

jf - No question about it, John's account of Jesus' first interaction with Peter and Andrew seems different from the one in Matthew 4:18-20. There are several ways to 'reconcile' this:

1) One can try to harmonize the 2. Maybe as Jesus passed by the shore in Matthew 4, he saw Andrew first, who then went and talked to Peter, like John says, and it all works out. There are folks who would argue that this is the only way to read the Bible. Respectfully, I disagree. It could have happened that way, of course, but then there is option 2.

2) If we all stood on 4 corners of an intersection and all witnessed the same accident happen, we would account for it from 4 different perspectives. They can all be true and right and accurate, but the angles will paint slightly different pictures. This is how I feel when I read the 4 Gospels. Each writer had a unique angle. They weren't meant to be harmonized.

As far as Jesus' declaration about Jesus being the Son of God later as if it was new information even though he has faith right now in Chapter 1, see my post from today (day 2) and see if that helps a little.

Glad you are journeying on this with me.

Brian

Brian C. Hughes said...

Tony T. - That may very well be a reference to Gen 28. Hadn't made that connection. And I do agree with you about the noticing/not noticing thing. It's one of the things that makes reading the Bible exciting to me as I ask, "God, what do you want to show me this time?"