Image of God

This morning the first Sunday after Christmas the Gospel reading designated for today is John 1:1-18.  It seems reasonable that this reading was chosen for today. I have read and heard this section of scripture many times. Like most selections from the Bible new understanding can be gained as we reread and ponder the meanings contained in them. I suppose it could be compared to mining for gold; new vanes can be discovered. This section is rich in insights available to us. I suppose a book or even books could be written about the wisdom in these eighteen verses.

Parts of four verses caught my attention this morning and they may have done so because they have often been read in the New Revised Standard Version and I was using the Contemporary English Version. The fifth verse reads, "The light keeps shining in the dark, and darkness has never put it out." There is a footnote for this verse that suggests another translation of the original language that says "...has never put it out." could be read, "understood it." Verse 14c says, "From him all the kindness and all the truth of God have come down to us." Verse 17, "The Law was given by Moses, but Jesus brought us undeserved kindness and truth." And verse 18 continues, "no one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is truly God and is close to the Father, has shown us what God is like."

So why these verses and sections of a verse? I think verse 18 ties together one of the many concepts that the author was attempting to communicate. He says there that Jesus shows us what God is like. Verse 5 says that God is light. Verses 14c and 17 use the word kindness. So if Jesus shows us the light (understanding) of what God is like we know that God exemplifies kindness, as does Jesus His reflection in human form. So, if we are Followers of the Way, as early Christians considered themselves, then a part of our task is to exemplify kindness in how we live our lives. Kindness can take many forms including compassion, understanding of others, and many more forms.

Back to the footnote associated with verse 5. It says that the darkness has never, "understood it (the light)." We can see examples of this in the world today in the way politicians speak about people who they label as "others, foreigners, or by using other phrases that demonize and separate people or even view them as somehow less than human. Those that do that do not "understand it (the light). It is our task to spread the light, the understanding of God as reflected in Jesus and to emulate Jesus as far as it is possible for us, as humans, to do so.