And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
John 1:14 speaks, first of all, of the Word. This title, unique to the Fourth Gospel, only appears here in the prologue (and possibly in John 10:42) but it speaks volumes for John’s understanding of Jesus.
“The Word” as a title is so evocative. We are taken back to the creative word of God in Genesis; the judging word of God through his prophets. We remember Psalm 119‘s magnificent and sustained meditation on the word and its ability to give joy and life— and so many other things. We recall the words of Isaiah 55:11 that the word of God goes out and will not return empty, and catch a brief glimpse of the plot of John’s gospel as well as the barest hint of the incarnation itself.
The title speaks of communication, of revelation. ln the context of John 1:1-18, we understand that the Word as a title refers to someone who is distinct from God—and yet who shares his identity: one, through whom everything was made. As the title “Light” is brought into play alongside the word, we read of a struggle between the light and darkness—and eventually, between the Word and the world. The Light/Word comes to the world … is not understood … is rejected, but eventually triumphs, by enabling the coming into being of the children of God.
At Christmas we celebrate the Word. We rejoice that we have not been left alone; not been left in the dark; not been left unspoken to. If we receive this Word we are on the inside of the greatest questions ever asked by men and women through the ages: does God exist? what is he like? what does he think? what does he feel? what does he think of us? No-one has ever seen God, but in the Word we see, hear and can begin to understand and know. The Word moves towards us; the Word addresses us; the Word is sent to us.
The very title “Word” speaks of God’s stooping to communicate. It is often noted that the Greek word logos appears to have been chosen for its resonance amongst both Jews and Greeks; its resonance with Greek philosophical concepts provides a contextualisation—an incarnation of sorts—of the Gospel message that spills out beyond the more obvious Jewish roots of the title in God’s revelation to his people Israel.
The word, “Word” takes us to the fact of revelation as a function of the Christmas story. It signals a climactic revelation—for of course long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.
We thank God for the Word, for his words.
The War on Words
But we also acknowledge that we live in a world where words are under attack. They are under attack in the linguistic and humanities departments of our universities, where extreme doubt is raised about the possibility of meaning and communication. In those faculties, words have little or no meaning—our words simply refer to one another in ever-changing and ever-playful patterns of meaning. There is no final meaning—just endlessly protracted discussions about what a text might mean; or why it doesn’t say what we think it says. Some, like Humpty Dumpty in Alice in Wonderland, imagine themselves to be the masters of meaning—they can make a word whatever they want it to mean.
We live in a world of spin and manipulation of and by words. Words are powerful, the theory goes, but power is by definition evil and manipulative. We are best not to trust the words spoken around us or the words spoken to us.
What are words for when no one listens any more?
The World of Words
Ironically this happens in a world that is full of words. They are everywhere around us: in books, magazines, on walls, television, internet and in our incessant chat on the phone, mobile and otherwise. Never has so much been said by so many. We screen out as much of the white-noise as possible; but there are too many words, and, most of the time, they say very little. There was a study of some hundreds of thousands of phone conversations in the USA, hundreds and hundreds of hours of conversation, and the analysis revealed that most of these conversations consisted of a vocabulary of only about 400 or so words.
Never has so much been said to so many with so little effect.
In the midst of this, we give thanks at Christmas that God has spoken—has spoken clearly; that he has spoken meaningfully; that he has chosen graciously to reveal himself, and has done so “in the flesh.”
Photos: (Header) Staci Flick, flickr; (Body) Melanie Cook, flickr
