Sunday 31st December
Read John 1:15-18
“(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” (NIVUK)
Throughout the second half of John’s prologue, his introduction to his gospel, there are constant references to the Exodus. The law, Moses, seeing and knowing God, all draw from the experiences of Moses and the Exodus and giving of the law at Sinai – the formative experience for Israel, God’s people.
Why would John write in this way? What could Gentiles learn from any of this? It is actually an invitation. An invitation to fellowship with God and come home. The ‘home’ Moses offered was a rather limited one, limited mostly by birth and traditions that we are excluded from. Yet, in coming to earth and revealing God in all His grace and fulness, that offer of ‘home’ has been extended to all. An open invitation so to speak. That is at the heart of the prologue – hearing this invitation and coming ‘home’.
“Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honour than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honour than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 ‘Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,’ bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.” (Hebrews 3:1-6) (NIVUK)
