John 1 -- Putting Myself In The Writer's Shoes

In his introduction to this book, Max Lucado urges us to see John as he might have been while he was writing it – “sixty years or so since he’d last seen Jesus, with most all of the other apostles now dead.  Someone else is now teaching in the small church, and what a task he had, speaking of one he never knew .. Explaining words he never heard … but what will happen when John is gone? …. The old fisherman unfolds the scroll and begins to write …”

That certainly puts it in a different light!  This chapter might at first have seemed to be a philosophical mumbo-jumbo about “The Word Was…” but now we can see the words in it being indwelt in John and passing through his hand to the scroll so that we might know his Lord.

Certain phrases now pop out in a more understandable way – “We saw His glory…”  “There is One here with you that you don’t know about … Teacher, You are the Son of God!”

John had been there and done that, and for the rest of his life, he’d be able to remember the time he had with God On Earth.  There was no doubt in his mind as to who Jesus is.  He’d watched as Jesus lived among men, feeling everything we have ever felt.  This wasn’t some detached deity.  Jesus had lived among us and had known our struggles.  Therefore, He could uniquely die for our sins as well.  And this old man John, who remembered so very well being a young man following Jesus, wants us to know Him well, too.

Father, open my eyes as I read the book of John.  Show it to me from John’s perspective.  Help me to think as John might have thought.  Reveal even more of Your Son to me through John’s memories.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford