The Word
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The Word. It’s a common phrase today, but depending on who you’re talking to, it can mean vastly different things. Its use could be as general as, “The word on the street is…”, or “What’s the word?” which are both just ways of talking about the latest news or information. But in religious circles, this phrase has a more specific meaning. In the religious world, “the word” usually refers to what is thought to be a divine word—"the word of God”. It denotes the sacred scriptures of a particular religion; revered writings that have been set apart by that religion as divinely inspired.
Now, there are literally thousands of recognized religions in the world today, but based on World Population Review data, there are three—Judaism, Islam, and Christianity—that collectively represent over half of the world’s population. Each of these three religions claim their own unique collections of divinely-inspired writings, but they also claim a common foundation; a common set of writings within their larger collections that they mutually revere as “the word of God”. This collection is known as the Torah—the five Books of Moses—we know them as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The astounding thing is, Christianity alone, makes the claim that these common writings are not only “the word of God”, but that they also, all point forward to a person; that the “word of God” actually became human and lived among us. Only Christianity claims that Jesus of Nazareth, the promised Hebrew Messiah, was also God incarnate; that he was The Word of God in the flesh.
The Apostle John, the self-proclaimed “disciple who Jesus loved”, had this to say about Jesus in the opening verses of his gospel account:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it… 9The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him. 11He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him. 12But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: 13who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14The Word became flesh and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-5, 9-14 WEB)
Let that sink in… The Word was with God in the beginning and the Word was God. Then the Word became flesh and lived among us. Isn’t that a mind-blowing thought? The Word of God, who was God, became human!
As we said earlier, it’s common today to hear Christians refer to our Bible as the “word of God”, and rightly so. Just as the Jewish listeners in Jesus’ day believed their Scriptures were God’s word given to them through Moses, the prophets, and others; we also, if we call ourselves Christians, believe the Hebrew Bible—our Old Testament—speaks a word from God to us today as well. Over the generations, biblical scholars have researched, studied, and pondered this amazing collection of ancient literature, and they have given us great insight into how and when these books were written, collected, edited, transcribed, and translated to give us the Old Testament we have today. Christians call it “the word of God” because we believe the ancient biblical authors were inspired by the Spirit of God to pen the stories, the poems, the prose, the prophecies, and the historical narratives we find in this collection of books, even as we acknowledge that they were written by human authors, writing for a variety of audiences, within their own time periods and cultural and historical contexts. That said, I think we sometimes forget the difference between us and the Old Testament authors… we stand on the other side of The Word becoming flesh.
As followers of Jesus, that fact should give us pause. Truth is revealed in Scripture, no doubt, but we believe The Way, The Truth, and The Life walked in the flesh among us. Scripture contains the words of God to be sure, but we believe The Word dwelled in our midst. Whatever we think we know from our reading of Scripture; whatever expectations we hold about how things were or how things are supposed to be; whatever we think “truth” is; as followers of Jesus, we are called to hold all of it with open hands and offer it up to him—The Word Made Flesh. We are called to acknowledge his claim that he is the new revelation of Truth.
The Old Testament prophets and psalmists pointed forward to this new revelation—to this new word of God. The psalmist said, “He sent out his word and healed them…” (Psalm 107:20), and the prophet Isaiah said, “The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3), and the people “shall wait expectantly for his law” (Isaiah 42:4) through which God will bring his “justice for a light for the peoples” (Isaiah 51:4). Isaiah isn’t talking about the words of God, the Law, given to Moses on Mt. Sinai here. He said a new word from God was still to come; a word that would come out of Jerusalem and would bring his justice and light.
Fast forward to the New Testament and we hear Jesus say that the words he speaks are not his, but his Father’s (John 14:10, 17:8), that his words bring cleansing and healing (John 15:3, Matthew 13:15), that he is the Light (John 8:12), and that his words are “full of the Spirit and life” (John 6:63). Jesus does not nullify what came before, he makes the claim that all of it was pointing to him; he is the new law that goes out from Zion, the word of the Lord that goes forth from Jerusalem, as Isaiah foresaw. If we want to move past simply believing in Jesus and actually believe him, then we are called to hear his new word, and allow him to help us understand what has come before. In fact, if we are to follow Jesus, he must be the one to interpret all of Scripture for us along the way.
His first disciples had to learn this as well. Throughout the gospel accounts we see Jesus reinterpreting Scripture for his disciples, but we see it beautifully illustrated in a story recorded in the Gospel of Luke. In Luke’s telling of the story, it had been three days since Jesus, the one the disciples believed to be their promised Messiah, had been arrested, tried, crucified, and buried. On the morning of that third day, some of the women who followed Jesus had gone to the tomb to prepare his body, but when they got there, the tomb was empty. Two angels spoke to them and told them Jesus had risen from the dead and they were to go report this news to the men, but the men did not believe them. Later that same day, two of the disciples were walking home on the road to Emmaus, a village a few miles outside of Jerusalem, talking about all the things that had happened in the last few days. Then, Luke tells us, Jesus appeared and began walking with them on the road, but the disciples were “kept from recognizing him”. Jesus asked the disciples what they were talking about, and in their confusion and sadness, thinking he was just another traveler, they related the whole story to him. When they had finished, Jesus admonished their lack of belief and proceeded from the beginning, to reinterpret for them, all of their Scriptures that had been pointing to him all along. When they reached their destination, they asked Jesus to stay and eat with them. Then, during the breaking of bread, they finally recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Of course, the two disciples were amazed, remembering that their hearts had been burning as Jesus had “opened the Scriptures” to them on the road and so, that same night, they returned to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples about what had happened. While they were all there discussing these events, Jesus again appeared to them, and he “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:13-48).
An amazing story, right? But it has an important message for those of us who follow Jesus today. The disciples thought they knew how things were supposed to happen based on their interpretation and understanding of their Scriptures, their Bible. Their expectations, their truth, came from the interpretations they had been taught. They had hoped Jesus was the Messiah they were expecting, but those hopes had been nailed to a cross and crucified. It’s no wonder they were confused and sad. Things had not happened the way they believed they were supposed to. They couldn’t make sense of it all. I can’t help but wonder if it was the disciples’ own misconceptions and mistaken expectations that kept them from recognizing Jesus at first. I wonder sometimes, whether our own misconceptions keep us from recognizing him today as well. But as Jesus reinterpreted the Scriptures for the disciples on that road, they began to understand and to think differently about what they thought they knew. Perhaps, Jesus calls us, more than two thousand years later, to think differently as well.
For instance, it’s interesting to note that throughout the gospel accounts, Jesus was constantly announcing, “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Now I know, “repent” is one of those words that can carry a lot of baggage for people based on their previous church experience. In fact, I’d wager that for some, the word can trigger a rather negative reaction. Here’s the thing, in Greek, the language of the New Testament, the word “repent” means “to think differently after being with”, “to turn”, or “to change your mind”. Now, think about that meaning in the context of the disciples’ experiences and Jesus’ announcement to his listeners. What was he asking of his listeners? What is he asking of us today? Does that reinterpretation cause you to think about Jesus’ message in a different way? If so, you’re in good company. The disciples learned first-hand, that thinking differently is par for the course if you want to follow Jesus.
Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we who choose to follow Jesus today, need him to show us how to think differently as well. If we want our hearts to burn within us also, Jesus must be the one to interpret and open the Scriptures for us; he must be the one to show us how from the beginning, the Law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms, and indeed all of Scripture, has been woven together to form a cohesive message—to tell a unified story—that points to him. If we want to follow Jesus and understand his new word, we need to move past being “slow of heart to believe”; we must allow Jesus to strengthen our faith—our trust in him; we must allow him to expand our hope—our confident expectation of his goodness and love; and we must acknowledge his claim, that he is the Living Word, that he is The Word of God to us above all other words.
I know this may be a new way of thinking for some, especially if you have been taught that the Bible should be viewed (in the words of Bible scholar Dr. Tim Mackie), as “golden tablets dropped from the sky” and never questioned. But I wonder, if Peter or Matthew or John or any of the other disciples, had held that view of their Scriptures—their Torah—if they had not been able to ask questions and think differently about “the word of God”, would they have continued to follow Jesus? Would they have gone on to spread his message throughout the world? Would we, as Christians, even be having this conversation today? If we call ourselves followers of Jesus, then we stand in the company of his first disciples. Thinking differently is what we’re called to do. We follow the new “law” that went “out from Zion”, the new “word of the Lord from Jerusalem”. We follow Jesus—The Word of God who lived among us—and he calls us to think differently and believe his good news.