March 4: John 1–5

By Rebecca Cooke

The first five chapters of John have always presented such a quandry. How can Jesus be fully divine and yet fully human? The very beginning of John tells us that "the Word was with God, and the Word was God...all things were made through him" (verses 1-3). We believe in Jesus as God's Son, as one-third of the trinity, as the Word. He was fully eternal and divine, immortal.

Further into the chapter we hear/ read that the "Word became flesh and dwelt among us." So now this fully divine being has come/was sent to earth as fully human—fully flesh. Then to complete the confusion, John's author records chapter after chapter of the miracles and teachings of Jesus demonstrating a power uncharacteristic of human.

I have heard many Sunday school lessons and sermons on these chapters. Ordinarily, however, they are split up into shorter passages for managability, for understanding, to make it easy for mere mortals. We are taught one day that Jesus was God's Son, an immortal being who had authority even over the angels. One week later we learn that Jesus suffered and bled and died with real flesh, in 3-D. By putting the two together and hearing all five chapters in one sitting, we are thrown out of our comfort zone. To hear/read the five chapters together our faith is questioned again as to what Jesus was and is to us: fully human and yet fully divine.