Day 1 - John Chapter 1

The prologue speaks of the Word, the eternal creative manifestation of God. Through the Word the Lord created and creates all reality. This Word became flesh in the person of Jesus. The creative and redemptive person of God filled with grace and truth (v.14). There is a categorical difference between the law of Moses and the grace and truth of the Word made flesh (v.17). The law is in language, a system of propositions that functions as a framework within which to understand life. The Word is of grace and truth and does not seek to understand but rather create life. For "what has come into being in him was life , and life was the light of all people (v.4)." Life is connected to light. The light "shines in the darkness(v.5)," it is a revelation of reality. Christ as the light reveals the heart of the father, he "makes him known (v.18)." So then, the reality of God is made known to us through the light of the Word. This Word is a creative and active force in the world, not a static sign of language. The truth of the Word then must be something very different than the truth of humans, the truth in language. The truth of the Word is an ultimately creative and redemptive vision of the heart of God. It is the light into the darkness.
Enter John the Baptizer. The voice in the wilderness, the chaos, the "Babelian" confusion that is before the coming of the Word, sent to prepare the way of the Lord. John is the whisper of the kingdom, the faintest of breaths in the chaos of life saying: "after me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me (v.30)." The spirit "descends and remains(v.33)" with Jesus. The relation to God has been opened in this moment. Jesus is in full communion with the father. No mitigating language is necessary, it is life with God, a restoration of the Garden.
Finally Jesus speaks. To those that wish to follow him he says first: "What are you looking for? (v.38)" and second: "Come and See. (v.39)" A question and an answer. An invitation to see the kingdom, to see where the light of life will shine, to"see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (v.51)." The Christ presents us with an invitation to a spiritual reality, to a spiritual vision for we are baptized not of water but of the Spirit. What are you looking for? ........... Come and See!