“DID YOU PASS THE TEST?” Is Now “BY GRACE YOU ARE WONDERFUL”
John 1:10-18
Second Sunday of Christmas
Analysis by Timothy Hoyer
10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”)
16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
From Wikimedia Commons
“We are more than small people having to earn even a crumb of worth. Jesus makes us wonderful.”
DIAGNOSIS: Pass the Test
Step 1: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem) – We Don’t Recognize Who God Is
Grounding: We don’t know God. We don’t know who created us. Tens of millions of people in the United States have given up believing in Jesus. We have “exchanged the glory of the immortal God” (Rom 1.23) for the glitter of selfie pictures and selfie anger. Is there a god? If there is a god, what does that god want of us? What is the basis for our relationship with God? Is it a relationship based on obedience to laws?
Tracking: Most people are strangers to us. When we meet someone, we may be polite, but we are on alert, not trusting the person because we don’t know them and don’t trust them. We have not met God, so God is not even a concern of ours as we deal with daily life.
Step 2: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem) – We Require Everyone To Earn Our Help
Grounding: Jesus is not accepted. His own people did not accept him as anything worth considering as God. They did not love or fear him or trust him. Moses and his laws were the preferred way of knowing God.
Tracking: People have to earn our trust. People have to pass the test of our acceptance. People have to keep the laws of politeness and helpfulness and hard work before we care for them. God has to earn our trust. As God does not seem to be a part of our daily life, there is nothing to trust.
Step 3: Final Diagnosis (Ultimate Problem) – As We Make Requirements, We Have to Meet God’s Requirements
Grounding: Preferring the laws of Moses, we get evaluated by God. We feel evaluated. We feel we have to earn our worth. We feel all we do is judged. Death makes us judge ourselves. Death itself is God’s judgment on those who use the law, for the law itself warns us that if we use the law, the law will kill us.
Tracking: As we do not know God, we expect anyone who claims to be God to earn our trust, to do things to prove they are God, and to pass our tests of politeness and hardwork. We don’t even know what we want from a god. So, we put our time and energy into anything that makes us feel better and safe. But there is nothing that can stop our dying, because all the things that make us feel better and safe are a part of creation. They are not our Creator.
PROGNOSIS: Grace Upon Grace Is Given
Step 4: Initial Prognosis (Ultimate Solution) – Jesus Is Full of Grace
Grounding: The Word comes to us as Jesus. He comes to us full of grace, calling us wonderful. From that fullness we all receive grace upon grace. He dies on a cross, proof that we did not accept him. But God raised him from the dead (made Jesus wonderful), an act of grace for someone we evaluated and judged and condemned. And that grace that gives life is promised to all of us.
Crossing: We do not know of grace (the gift of being called wonderful), especially not this grace of Jesus rising from the dead, rising from all judgment and blame and shame and failure and losing. Jesus’ resurrection is where we see God acting in our lives. The risen Jesus comes to us with his gift (grace) of making us children of God. We are more than small people having to earn even a crumb of worth. Jesus makes us wonderful.
Step 5. Advanced Prognosis (External Solution) – Jesus Promises His Grace Is For Us
Grounding: Jesus brings us grace – God’s gift of life, given to us because Jesus died and rose for us. Jesus promises us that his grace, his gift of life, is for us. As we put our energy and time into things that make us feel better, here is Jesus who declares us wonderful to God without us having to do anything. It’s a gift. It is grace.
Crossing: The law we feel and experience in all we do is put in second place. Jesus, who came after him ranks ahead of him because Jesus, the Word, came before the law. By his death and rising, we see Jesus passes all our tests. He is someone we can trust to fill our lives with grace, something so much better than having to earn everything, especially having to earn our worth before God.
Step 6: Final Prognosis (External Solution) – We Live By Grace
Grounding: As children of God, God’s grace is ours. It replaces Moses and the law. Grace is how things are done in God’s family. So, we become people of grace.
Crossing: We live by grace – giving without demanding our gift be earned. We forgive the wrong, though forgiveness is not deserved. We care for strangers because we don’t require them to pass our tests in order to deserve our help. We are generous because we are free to give with joy. We grace our congregation by being there to hear God’s Word of Jesus, and to encourage others to trust Jesus who gives them the grace of life, mercy, forgiveness, and hope. We tell all we meet that they are wonderful, for no other reason than trust in Jesus’ grace.
