John 1: 'A rich and beautiful tapestry of the Triune God'

I’m a professional writer (believe it or not) but was one of the few in my school year who did not choose English to study at A-Level.

Back then, reading fiction felt like hard work to me. For my GCSE, I had to read Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. It’s a classic. But it’s long, sad and contains an awful lot of dense and wistful description of the Dorset and Somerset countryside. I now live on the border of Somerset and Dorset – in the heart of Hardy’s Wessex. I love Wessex. It’s where I live. I enjoy seeing the hedgerows, oak trees and starling formations. I am still not hungry for lengthy verbal descriptions of all of the above.

Ducking out of English at 16 meant I dodged Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot. I remember my friends calling Measure for Measure "a problem play" because it is not a comedy, a tragedy or a history play. But the real problem is the enormous coincidence at the end to resolve the plot. It would simply not pass muster in any movie these days, let alone a classic story. Why did Shakespeare put it in? The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot was originally published in 1922. It is not doing the poem a great disservice by calling it "wilfully obscure". Did even T.S. Eliot know what this strange collection of words he assembled actually meant? My fellow schoolmates felt that they did not and would never understand the poem.

John's Gospel

We can approach the first chapter of John this way. It is a strange and intriguing chapter of Scripture, like an incomprehensible and uncategorisable Measure for Measure. The prologue (John1v1-18) is as mysterious and seemingly as opaque as The Waste Land.

I used to be frightened of these verses myself. In fact, I steered clear of John’s entire Gospel where possible for decades. I always chose the safety of the Synoptic Gospels [Matthew, Mark, Luke] which at least sound like they are overlapping copies of the same hymn sheet. I studied these Gospels for an academic theology degree at the University of Durham. John, however, remained a mystery to me. I always thought John was like that kid in Sesame Street who was "doing his own thing" while the other three did something else.

John is doing his own thing. Much of his Gospel is different from the others. He has the scoop on Jesus turning water into wine. His is the only Gospel to omit an account of the Transfiguration, which is odd given that John was actually there. John does not have Jesus driving out demons or unclean spirits, or even telling parables, preferring statements beginning with "I am".

But John’s Gospel is not an unsolvable theological theorem using bizarre terminology and advanced algebra. Like all the best poetry, John’s prologue does not contain any difficult words or strange names. Look again at John’s opening verses. Are there any words in that prologue that you don’t understand? It is a symphony of simple words like "word", "light", "dwell", "flesh", "grace" and "truth". We know what all of these words mean, don’t we?

The meaning of John 1, then, feels tantalisingly within reach. Perhaps that is its enduring appeal and why it is read aloud in carol services all over the world. John has not written something cryptic, impenetrable or obscure. He has crafted something beautifully simple and comprehensible. We just need to slow down, stop and savour it.

'Stand and stare'

One of my daughters loves tapestries. She recently introduced me to a tapestry from around 1500 AD which hangs in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The unknown creator is probably Flemish. In the centre of a huge square of flowers stands a unicorn. She sent me a picture and I just couldn’t stop looking at it. I was captivated and plan to go and see it in person and stand and stare.

As we follow numerous threads woven through John 1, we will see a rich and beautiful tapestry of the Triune God, being all the more enthralled and enchanted by Him. Let us stand and stare. That’s what we’re going to do over this series of studies. We’re going to camp out in these verses.

As we do that, we will not just understand the mind of John, but the character and nature of God Himself. In some non-Christian popular religions, God is unknowable. John is showing us that God is not just knowable but wishes to be known.

He uses words we can understand. And He takes on flesh to dwell with us. He sent His Son to live among us. We shall see how this is not just a moment in history, but an eternal reality. It is not John’s prologue but this cosmic truth, this divine self-denying love, that is the great unfathomable mystery.

This Christmas, let us put down our phones, turn off notifications and set aside some time to dwell on this simple symphony of words about the Word made flesh.

You can read the next instalment of Word Made Flesh – Twelve Christmas Devotions – at Cary’s Almanac: https://jamescary.substack.com/p/back-to-the-very-start-of-the-beginning