An Eyewitness to the Beginning - May 27, 2010

Good Thursday morning! John 1:2 states: He existed in the beginning with God. A single verse can be at times difficult to understand. Who was in the beginning? Who is He? We have a lot of questions about the beginning. The story of the Creation in Genesis is hard to understand with our present knowledge. We naturally perk up to listen when we find out in John 1:2 that someone was there. An eyewitness watched as God created the heavens and the earth? Tell us more!

An eyewitness has often been our next best source for news, evidence, and word of events. The best source is to be there ourselves, but we can't see every event or exist in every time and place. Having an eyewitness to the beginning fills us with a longing to know more, but also a hope that we cannot quite define. He was there at the beginning with God... what a statement of depth of knowledge and experience! We want to meet the "He" and talk with him; we have lots of questions about the beginning. However, as far as I can tell, Jesus didn't answer questions about the Creation and the disciples didn't ask any. Why do we seem to have so many questions about the beginning now?

One reason is that the story of Creation was already set down in Genesis. The Word had already been given to us. When the rich man in Hell asked Abraham to send a messenger from the dead to his brothers, Abraham informed him that those men had Moses and the prophets already. Another testimonial was not provided until Jesus rose from the dead. Of course we know from the Bible account that many still did not believe; just as Abraham said they wouldn't in Jesus' parable.

Another reason may be that Jesus had more important subjects to discuss with the disciples. All of humanity needed salvation, and few or none realized their need for it at the start of Christ's ministry. That's a mission big enough for most anyone, but Jesus did much more as well. We will get to the stories of those deeds soon.

Taken alone this verse has an interesting other meaning as well - John was there at the beginning of Christ's ministry. In other words, he was there at the beginning with God in the flesh as a new story began. John was the eyewitness to Christ that we want to hear as he tells his story.

Praise the Lord for the word of the witness!

Bucky