“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” John1:1-5
When I was in college I had a smart and entertaining friend, Z, who was dissatisfied with our school. It was a conservative Christian college, and it could be a little stifling. She and I used to talk a lot about theology and politics and all the other issues that people talk about in college. She was impatient with the sort of faith platitudes many of our classmates seemed to subsist on, and we had a lot of stimulating discussions.
But as I got to know her better, I became more and more frustrated. Z saw the world in categories and generalizations, and the more we talked, the more I felt that she put me in a box, and then spoke only to the box. I don’t think she ever learned to hear me and see me as I truly am, but only as the stereotype she applied to me.
As I have gotten older, I have learned to see these conversations with Z as a kind of gift; thanks to her, I learned early on that despite careful efforts to express myself clearly, many people will hear only what they want to hear. Whether they want someone to agree with them or someone to be their pantomime villain, they do not allow any actual conversation to challenge the assumptions about the speaker that they started with.
Jesus is called in John’s gospel the “Word of God,” a title with a rich and multi-faceted history. The Word of God is the instrument of creation in Genesis 1; God speaks, and the world is made. The Word of God is God’s revelation through the prophets. Jesus as the Word of God is God’s perfect self-expression, God’s ultimate disclosure of who he is. And like many conversations, the word was misunderstood. The light shone in the darkness, but the darkness did not understand it.
The tragic misunderstanding of that Word and the violent consequences in the Gospels are probably familiar to all of us, as is the redemptive purpose it had in the plan of God. Easter, after all, is the point of Christmas.
But misunderstanding the Word of God is not restricted to the first community Jesus came to. It has appeared again and again in church history. It appears again and again in each human soul. When confronted with Jesus Christ, the Word of God, we struggle to accept him as he really is, wanting instead to make him fit our assumptions. The frustration I felt with my college friend should serve to remind me how often I try to make God into what I want him to be, rather than who he really is.
Our own darkness cannot overcome the Light of the World. Our own misunderstanding cannot subdue the Word of God. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it. The God who resurrected the dead gives understanding, too.
This Christmas season may we seek to know Christ as he truly is. May we listen more than we speak, and hear rather than assume. May we honor each other in the same way.
Hi Veronica,
I’m back after a month away from the blogosphere, and just spent the last hour catching up with your blog. What a pleasure to read your thoughtful, sensitive words, and especially these Christmas posts. I look forward to the next six.
In lieu of commenting on each post: I sympathize completely with the tummy-sleeping dilemma. I did that with two of mine. And, if it’s not too late to weigh in on the baby name, I vote for Verity. The only reason it wasn’t on our baby name list is because we already have a Verity in the family.
Happy New Year!
Julie
I am so guilty of exactly what you say…but more than putting people in a box, I put God in one. I make assumptions about what He would or wouldn’t do, why He does what He does, and how it’s all going to affect me two and five and ten years down the road.
Your post reminds me of the importance and the necessity of surrender – not just to God, but to my own selfish ways and motives.
Thanks for another beautiful post.
Wow, Veronica. This post has left me nearly speechless. Just beautiful.
Ditto!
Your posts are a Christmas gift to all of us. Thank you.
So, so true. Really great post.
You speak the truth. My greatest fear when I hear God’s voice is that I’m hearing what I want to hear, not what He is really saying.
[...] The Word as a title for Jesus has a rich history, full of trinitarian implications of his relationship to God the Father. The Word of Life appeared in Bethlehem, able to be touched and held by the rough, hardworking hands of Mary and Joseph. Jesus burst into the world which had been made through him. He gave this world life the first time; he gave us life again when he came to die. [...]