“GRACE UPON GRACE”
John 1: 10-18
Second Sunday of Christmas, Year C
Analysis by Chris Repp
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 God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
From Wikimedia Commons
“God’s Word comes unbidden – a breath, a Spirit that calls forth faith from the tombs of our death-bound souls, faith that now clings to the Word’s promise, against all odds and expectations.”
Author’s Note: The primary focus of this pericope (as hinted by the brackets) is intended to be verses 10-18, with verses 1-9 providing essential background. So will be the focus of this analysis.
DIAGNOSIS: Lost in the Dark
Step 1: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem): Not Knowing
At the heart of the Christian message (and certainly the message of Christmas) is the claim that Jesus of Nazareth is God-With-Us, the very Word of God – God’s very self – made flesh and blood. But it should come as no surprise that we find this message hard to accept, even when we allow for the possibility of God’s existence. If there is a God at all, an all-powerful being who created the universe, it surely makes no sense that such a being would do what Jesus did. A super-hero comic-book sort of god we can kind of imagine and run with. But a crucified God? Preposterous.
Step 2: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem): Not Receiving (Not Believing)
We’re not inclined to accept such an understanding of God because it runs so counter to our experience of the world. Power is what we understand. Power is what reflects our lived reality. If we were God, that’s how we’d roll, and rule; smite the wicked, reward the virtuous. And so, we righteously broadcast our refusal to accept an all-powerful God who would refrain from forcefully imposing justice on an unjust world, who allows evil and suffering to flourish. A God who does not rule that way is ruled out. For such a God cannot be both good and omnipotent.
Step 3: Final Diagnosis (Ultimate Problem): Doomed to Death
And so, we proceed to live our lives in the way that makes sense to us, at the point of a gun, both figuratively and literally (or the threat thereof), imposing our will upon others by hook or by crook, and trusting in the powers of this world that seem to succeed using this model. But the collateral damage is astronomical. Injustice continues unabated, suffering abounds, and death has the final word on all of it – and on all of us. Our indignation may be righteous, but we are not.
PROGNOSIS: Soaking Up the Light
Step 4: Initial Prognosis (Ultimate Solution): Reborn to Life
Word is, though, that death and judgment was not able after all to be the final word for that crucified Word we so recoil from. Word is, that true life is in him, shining its light into our darkness, and creating new life and new hope from those in death’s grip.
Step 5: Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution): Receiving (Believing)
That new life is ours as an act of pure, unmerited, prodigal grace. It makes no sense and doesn’t look anything like justice. God’s Word comes unbidden – a breath, a Spirit that calls forth faith from the tombs of our death-bound souls, faith that now clings to the Word’s promise, against all odds and expectations.
Step 6: Final Prognosis (External Solution): Knowing
So now we know Jesus for who he is: God of God, light from light, the Christ, the Word incarnate, crucified and risen for us and for our salvation. We also know the world for what it is, the object of God’s persistent grace. And, not least, we also know ourselves for who we are, for who Christ has declared us to be, beloved children of God and bearers and conduits of God’s grace in God’s beloved world.
