The Logos became human

Christmas

God wants to speak with us. He wants to speak with us about Himself that we may know the true nature of God and God wants to speak with us about ourselves, about the meaning of our life and its purpose and destiny. 

The Letter to the Hebrews begins with the words, “In various times in the past and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets, but, in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son”.

In the Prologue to his Gospel St John described Jesus as the Logos. His was the last of the four Gospels to be written. It was written well after the other three. It is understood that St John lived on the island of Patmos, off the coast of modern Turkey. There, in his old age, he composed his Gospel. His Gospel is not just an account of the life of Christ, but more a meditation on the life of Christ.

The Prologue to his Gospel is more a meditation on the birth of Christ. It is mystical in nature. There he describes Jesus as the eternal Logos, the definitive Word of God to humanity, the fulness of revelation of God to us.

Logos is a Greek and not a Hebrew word. It carries particular meaning in Greek Philosophy. Logos was understood in the Greek philosophy of his day as the ordering principle of the entire universe.

When St John uses Logos he implies the transcendent essence of God. Thus, St John begins his Gospel with the profound statement, “In the beginning was the Logos”. He is speaking of Jesus, declaring that this Logos was God.

His prologue reaches its climax when St John declares that the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us.

St John the mystic, pondering the mystery of Jesus, sees Him as the full and final word spoken by God to humanity.

In a similar vein St John began his first letter with the words,

Something which has existed since the beginning

That we have heard

And we have seen with our own eyes;

That we have watched

And touched with our hands,

The Word who is life –

This is our subject.

St John declares that what he has heard, seen and touched is the eternal Word, the Logos. God himself can be encountered in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Word. He is the revelation. He is the message. He is, in fact, the ordering principle of the entire universe. And he has become man. He has entered the human condition.

And what does this Word say?

Perhaps the first thing that God has said in Jesus is related to his birth in Bethlehem. He, Son of God, has not come in power and majesty. He has not come to control, or coerce, or demand obedience. He has come in silence, vulnerability and humility.

God has come to reach out to humanity, offering himself. This, alone, is a profound revelation about the nature of God. God reaches out to us in the humility and vulnerability of love.

The second revelation that was indicated by the angels at Christmas is that God has come among us to save. They announce to the shepherds: “Today a Saviour has been born for you, he is Christ the Lord”. And we need saving. O how humanity needs saving!

In the willingness of Jesus to heal and restore health and wellbeing, we are shown the face of God as one of compassion for humanity in its frail and suffering state.

Then in the teaching ministry of Jesus we see that God has come to reveal how we should live. This is not just a list of moral rules to be obeyed, but rather a call to purify the inner workings of the human heart. We are being called upon to grow in personal virtue – to seek humility, to embrace mercy and forgiveness, to strive for truth, to give to others inspired by love.

Humanity has been definitively enlightened by the teachings of Jesus. Societies have the foundations for harmony and peace and the flourishing of its citizens in the teachings of Jesus.

In all of this Jesus invites us to enter a spiritual kingdom, to live in union with God. His Kingdom is not of this world. It is not found in the physical and material but in the ways of the spirit.

St John declares Jesus as the Logos. In him a final and definitive word has been spoken. Nothing more needs to be said. All we have to do is ponder and heed this word. In Jesus we now know who God is and who we are.

My brothers and sisters, on this holy night, let us embrace Jesus as the Word who is life (as St John said). Let us no longer live for this world alone. Let us lay aside our soulless pursuit of the material and pleasurable.

Jesus is the ordering principle of the entire universe, let us make him the ordering principle of our lives.

Archbishop Julian Porteous

Sunday, 24 December 2023