The Word became flesh...

I have to admit that most of my life I have struggled with the first chapter of the Gospel of John. I am not a big one for poetry - though I LOVE music - and so the whole first chapter of John did not make much sense to me. I never really understood what point John was bringing us to. I mean I understand that John was connecting Jesus as the son of God and that He was the light bringing us out of darkness. I have always been able to wrap my mind around that...but I never got all the references to "the Word" - that is until I read this lovely book "Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers" by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.

Don't you just love light-bulb moments? Well I had a big spotlight of a light bulb moment when I read the following:

"The history of God's people all leads up to the life of
this one Jew, Jesus Christ.

Matthew goes on to make his point by emphasizing the
similarities between Jesus' life and the history of Israel. Just like the
Hebrew children were killed by Pharaoh, the children in Bethlehem are killed by
Herod when Jesus is born. And just as Joseph and all Israel with him had
to flee into Egypt to survive, so too does Jesus go to Egypt to wait out the
reign of Herod. Like Israel, Jesus passes through the waters in baptism
and wanders in the wilderness (in his case, only forty days). He emerges
to call twelve disciples, like the twelve tribes of Israel. And when Jesus
begins to teach the law in Matthew 5, he goes up on a mountain. Anyone
remember a story about the law coming down from a mountain?

So Jesus came into the world as a Jew, retelling the story of God's people in his own body."

Now it makes sense!!! And the Easter Story has so much more impact. When Jesus was crucified on the cross, His body represented the entire people - it had literally lived their history. The connection between the Old and New Testaments is captured through this wondrous connection and the Cross and what it represents has deeper meaning for me. The foreshadowing of the Old Testament prophets, the stories of Jesus ministry and the words of the Apostles all take on new meaning with this deeper understanding of what Jesus represented in sacrifice.

I love reading the Word through this new lens...