Sometime, somewhere, someone told me that the universe could best be described by mathematics, that mathematics provides a precise and exact description. Yet for me, description has always been about words. Words with all their variations and possibilities and subtleties and derivations and almost infinite ways of being combined seem to me to allow for not only more, but also for more interesting descriptions of anything. I am therefore drawn to the idea that The Word is used as a name for Jesus.
There are only three places in the Bible where The Word is used to refer to Jesus. The most well know is John 1:1-18:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it…” (John 1:1-5).
A similar reference is seen in 1 John 1:1. “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life…”
And the final reference is Revelation 19:13. “He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood and his name is called The Word of God.” All of these references serve to emphasize that Jesus in part of God and yet separate in that he is made human. What speaks to me most is that God is equated with the term Word, as is Jesus. And they are one and at the same time they are separate so that Jesus could be with us in the flesh, incarnate. Here the Word truly has depth and breadth of meaning … and this is what I love about words and about The Word.
Marcia Prather
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