John doesn't even mention it. He begins with John the Baptist preparing the way and then the temptation of Jesus. Matthew does, but not until he establishes the Jewishness of Jesus. Luke does, but he first tells the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth and the birth of John the Baptist. John, however, goes back to the very beginning--to the creation. He starts his books just like Genesis. "In the beginning..." I would encourage you to go right now and read John 1:1-18.
Once you have done that, notice several words with me. The first is WORD.
WORD--"In the beginning the Word..." The word in the original language is logos. To the ancient mystic it encompassed everything. It was life itself. It was everything under a rational structure. It was physics and math all combined into something that made sense. John uses the term to describe Jesus. Jesus is the reason. Jesus is everything. Even Paul tries to describe Jesus in Colossians 1 by saying, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." He goes on to say, "...in him all things hold together." My assumption is, outside of Him all things fall apart.
LIFE--John 1:4 says that in Word was life. Not physical life. Not the heart beating and the brain functioning. But the best that life has to offer. Even Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the fullest." John 10:10. It's the peace that passes understanding. It's the joy that comes when all else around us is falling apart.
LIGHT--There's nothing worse than trying to walk in darkness. Ask any parent who gets up in the middle of the night to check on his/her child. They are able to find the Lego with their foot every time. Light dispels darkness, not the other way around. Jesus is that light and He calls on us to let our lights shine. Paul says in Philippians 2:14, 15--"Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like starts in the universe."
FLESH--This is perhaps the most amazing term in this passage. The word became flesh. The Message paraphrases it this way, "The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood." When God wanted us to see what He was like, He sent Jesus to become flesh. The apostles pled with Jesus to see God. He told them if they had seen Him, they had seen God. The Hebrew writer calls Jesus the "exact representation of his being." All man, all God. Hard to fathom, isn't it?
But the sad thing about all this is that Jesus came and His own didn't see Him. Only a few smelly shepherds were witnesses. Some mystics came, but His birth was generally missed. John said, "He was in the world and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not recognize him." Another version said, "...but his own received him not."
May that never be said of us.
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