-John 1:1-
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος, καὶ ὁ Λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν Θεόν, καὶ Θεὸς ἦν ὁ Λόγος.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.”
With an opening phrase like, “In the beginning...” John is clearly making a parallel to the creation story in Genesis 1. What isn’t so obvious is that the parallels don’t end there. By way of his Gospel, John is communicating a profound message: that Jesus, the Word, is God. And just as God brought forth the world in Genesis, Jesus came to bring forth a world to come, a spiritual world, a world into which He invites even the chief of sinners. Therefore, the story of Jesus is no less significant than the story of creation itself. To refresh our memory, let’s look briefly at the story of creation.
“In the beginning...” it begins. The central element introduced on Day 1 is light. God declares, “Let there be light!” And there is light, which He separates from the darkness. On the second day, God separates the waters above from the waters below by creating a firmament in between called sky. On the third day, “seed” is the key word. It is repeated 6 times when describing this day: there is seed seeding seed. Seed goes forth to spout up new life across the dry land: all sorts of seed-bearing plants and trees with seed-bearing fruit crop up across the land. On the fourth day, God creates the sun, moon, and stars; He says let these heavenly bodies serve as signs, and for appointed times. On day five and six, He creates an abundance of animals. Thereafter He creates man, and then woman. On the seventh day, it is the Sabbath day, and God rests.
I was shown that the first five chapters of John follow the same format! It’s very subtle, but John drops just enough hints for his readers to sense the parallels. Let’s go through John’s account and connect the dots.
Beginning in John 1, we encounter a light shining into the darkness, but the darkness does not comprehend it. We’re given a revelation about this light––that Jesus is the true light that gives light to all men.
Following this description of Jesus being the light, we’re introduced to a man named John. What does John do? He baptizes in water––the waters below. When he baptizes Jesus, we encounter a dove that crosses the firmament, coming down from above to land on Jesus in the waters below.
We come to the next part of the story: Jesus turns around and sees two of John’s disciples following Him. Andrew is one of them. Andrew goes and gets his brother Simon Peter. They both become Jesus’ disciples. Then Jesus calls Phillip. Phillip goes and finds Nathaniel. What do we see here? We see the seed going forth; the word is getting out. Life is beginning to spread, and spread, and spread. We encounter the first mention of the word tree in this section, a nod to Day 3 of creation.
The next portion of John’s Gospel describes a wedding at Cana in Galilee. Here we encounter the first mention of the word sign, a nod to Day 4 of creation when the sun and moon were created to be signs marking appointed times. Jesus says, “My appointed time has not yet come.” Also interesting to note: in Jewish thought, the sun is viewed as the masculine and the moon is viewed as the feminine. (The sun initiates the light; the moon receives and reflects the light.) Here we have a wedding celebration which brings a masculine and a feminine together. But note, it’s a fallen wedding because there is no wine. In other words, the joy has run out. So Jesus brings correction. The master of the wedding tastes what Jesus has done, and he declares it good.
After the wedding, we then follow Jesus to Jerusalem where we encounter animals. We see cattle, sheep, and doves being sold in the temple courts. Jesus drives the animals and the money-changers out of His Father’s House. It’s like the animals that God had created for man to look after were being brought into the very temple of God where man was exploiting them to make a profit. Again we see Jesus bringing correction.
In the story of creation, what comes after the animals? Man, and then woman. So after this event with the animals, we next encounter Jesus having a conversation with a man . . . and then a woman. He speaks with “a man named Nicodemus” in chapter 3; He speaks with the woman at the well in chapter 4.
Of course, after creating man and woman, God rested on the Sabbath Day. After Jesus speaks with the man named Nicodemus and the woman at the well, we segue into chapter 5 where John tells of Jesus restoring the wellness of a man at the pool of Bethesda. We read in verse 9: “The day on which this took place was a Sabbath.” John 5 occurs on the Sabbath Day! What a beautiful thing! It aligns with the pattern set down by God in Genesis 1. And even more beautiful––it’s at this point that Jesus says, “Truly truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
John senses the big picture; he sees that it’s come full circle. Genesis describes the creation of a flawless and sinless world. But man sinned, and thereby departed from God’s Presence. So here is John describing how God brings correction: God embodies His Word––the very words of creation––and as a flawless and sinless man, He opens a pathway for us to enter into a new world.
God’s first statement to sinful man is, “Where are you?”
In John, His first words to man (through Jesus) are when Jesus notices some people following Him. He turns around and says, “What are you looking for?”
You see, in Genesis, God is seeking man. But now after this long passage of time since man’s departure from the Garden, in light of all the suffering that sin has caused, the tables have turned, and now man is seeking God.
Notice how they respond to Jesus. They ask, “Where do you live?”
God’s first statement to sinful man is, “Where are you?”
In John, His first words to man (through Jesus) are when Jesus notices some people following Him. He turns around and says, “What are you looking for?”
You see, in Genesis, God is seeking man. But now after this long passage of time since man’s departure from the Garden, in light of all the suffering that sin has caused, the tables have turned, and now man is seeking God.
Notice how they respond to Jesus. They ask, “Where do you live?”
“Come,” He says, “and you will see.”
