John's High Christology
John has a very high Christology. In the prologue to John's gospel, we read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being (1.1-3)." This Word "became flesh and lived among us" (1.14). At the end of the prologue, we are told, "It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known." Here we see Jesus depicted as God's divine Word, who is co-eternal with God and who became a human being. For John, Jesus is God; at the time in which it was made, this was an astounding claim, and it is a concept that we don't find in the Synoptic Gospels.
In the NRSV, the Greek word "logos" is translated as "Word." However, "Word" doesn't adequately convey what "logos" meant to the ancients. We might also translate this word as "reason" or "thought."
One place in which we may find some historical background for Jn's use of the logos is in ancient Stoic thought. Stoicism was a philosophy that antedated Christianity by about 300 years. In Stoic philosophy, the logos was the "'stuff" from which the universe was made; it was "the meaningful, purposeful, and providential order of the universe." They thought of it as the "creative fire that permeates all things. God is also the logos, who purposefully designed the order and beauty of the world." (Keoster, 144).
This concept may have played into Jn's understanding of the logos, but even more important was Jn's background of Jewish thought, especially with regard to Wisdom literature. The notion of the descent of the Word into the world and the eventual return of the Son to the Father (1.18) "lies in the OT picture of personified Wisdom…. who was in the beginning with God at the creation of the world and came to dwell with human beings when the Law was revealed to Moses" (Brown, 338). For example, Sirach 24.8-12 speaks in the voice of divine Wisdom, saying,
"Then the creator of all things gave me a command,
and my creator chose the place for my tent.
He said, 'Make your dwelling in Jacob,
and in Israel receive your inheritance.'
Before the ages in the beginning, he created me,
and for all the ages I shall not case to be.
In the holy tent I ministered before him,
and so I was established in Zion.
Thus in the beloved city he gave me a resting place,
and in Jerusalem was my domain.
I took root in an honored people,
in the portion of the Lord, his heritage."
Other such Wisdom passages can be seen in Prov. 8.22-31 and the Wisdom of Solomon 9.1-3.
What we have in John,then, is a portrayal of Jesus as the Word of God made flesh, who was sent down by God from heaven into the world, ministered on earth, and then went back up into heaven. In Jn 3.13-14 we read, "No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man."
Jesus' crucifixion is a very important aspect of this descent/ascent motif. In his crucifixion, Jesus is "lifted up," and this is the first step of Jesus' ascent back into heaven. Thus we read of Jesus' saying, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he…."
Jesus ministers on earth
Sources:
Brown, Raymond.
Introduction to the New Testament.
New York: Doubleday, 1997
Koester, Helmut.
Introduction to the New Testament,
vol. 1. 2nd ed. New York and Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 1995.
