Sometimes I wonder whether the churches at Christmas put too much emphasis on the stories of Matthew and Luke, and not enough on the gospel of John.

In the broad scheme of things that’s not surprising. It’s those stories that glow with the human colour and homely detail we can readily relate to, whereas John has no account of Jesus’ birth at all – no Mary, no Joseph, no angels, no shepherds, no wise men, no star, no Bethlehem, no inn and no manger. Where would our Christmas pageants, tableaux, paintings and greeting cards be without them?

Yet if we dig deep enough, we find John’s gospel is actually all about the meaning of Christmas: Godness experienced in human life, inspiring our human lives to be expressions of God.

Where Matthew and Luke focus on the narrative and its symbolism, John’s approach is more philosophical – brilliantly and imaginatively so. Jesus comes to us with a purpose, and his vision of the “kingdom of God” is at the heart of his teaching. John uses the phrase in only one passage early in his gospel, but that doesn’t mean it is absent from his thinking. For him the equivalent is “eternal life” – which doesn’t mean everlasting endlessness after we die but life of ultimate quality, lived in the here and now.

That is reflected in the recurring “I am” statements in which he spells out the deeper purposes of what Jesus was born to be:

• I am the bread of life.
• I am the gate for the sheep.
• I am the good shepherd.
• I am the true vine.
• I am the resurrection and the life.
• I am the way, the truth and the life.
• I am the light of the world.

Each of those sayings grows out of some significant incident or conversation Jesus had engaged in. So “I am the bread of life” comes after Jesus feeds the crowd with five loaves and two fishes. “I am the gate for the sheep” and “I am the good shepherd follow Jesus’ stern words about false gatekeepers who do not protect the sheep. “I am the resurrection and the life” is set within the story of Lazarus.

In these passages John is drawing on scenes from daily life to make a strong statement about how Jesus points the way towards living the kingdom into reality. His everyday images of bread, a gate, a vine, a light are metaphors for the imagination to play with. Enter fully into them and they become profoundly significant for the way we lead our lives.

Did Jesus actually speak those words? Many scholars think not, but they would also say that in them John beautifully distilled the heart of the good news Jesus lived and taught. There’s a mysticism in them, but it’s a grounded mysticism, a mysticism enfleshed in the human – which is what Christmas is all about.

When contemplating the I ams, it is worth asking: “Who exactly is the “I”? Several possibilities come to mind, each adding its own nuance. So is it Jesus of Nazareth? Is it the Christ as archetype of love, grace and transformation? Is it the Son of God? Is it God, the great “I am”? Is it the teaching of Jesus personified? Is it all of these?

Or is it us, his followers? In the world around us, for whom, and how, can we be the bread of life, the gate for the sheep, the good shepherd, the true vine, the way, the truth and the life, the light of the world, the resurrection and the life? Some will think that far too presumptuous to contemplate but how much richer the message of Christmas becomes if we do.

As the gospels put it, in the beginning was the logos, the Word, the visionary dream of God; and the visionary dream of God became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth … And Mary gave birth to her first-born son, and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn … And to all who received him he gave power to become children of God. Wow!

The miracle of Christmas is that we who share Jesus’ humanity can also share his vision and purpose, a vision of the kingdom of God, a vision of eternal life experienced here on earth.

That’s worth celebrating. Happy Christmas according to John!