Being Actively Faithful — John 1:1-18

The Gospels introduce Jesus in different ways. In Matthew’s Gospel, the Magi follow a star to the infant Jesus in Bethlehem and worship him (Mt 2:1-12). In Luke’s Gospel, angels announce Jesus’s birth to shepherds who “went with haste” to Bethlehem (Lk 2:8-16). Both stories have outsiders discovering that Jesus is born and who respond as a group to be with him.

In John’s Gospel Jesus’s coming is not expressed as a birth. John says that the Word became “flesh (sarx) and lived among us” — literally “pitched a tent in us” (Jn 1:14). Jesus’s becoming is neither as a male person (aner) or a human person (anthropos). “Flesh” recalls the Old Testament (OT) view of the human person as an undivided whole. In biblical as well as other ancient writings, “flesh” has a range of meanings which link human persons with other living creatures.

Ancient Understandings

While “In the beginning” (En arché) evokes Genesis 1, at the time when John’s Gospel was written, this Greek expression had cosmological and philosophical meanings. It was about what was there before anything else. It was a causal explanation for the world and its wonders that did not have to be explained.

Jesus is “the Word” (logos, Jn 1:1, 14). This recalls the dynamic energy and power of the “word of God” in the OT as well as in Hellenistic (Greek) understandings. The extent of logos is illustrated by Plato who, according to French philosopher Remi Brague, “uncovered the principle of creation and gave it a Greek name that evokes a thousand resonances: logos.” The Greek word pánta, translated as “all things” (Jn 1:3), was one of the names of the universe and its totality.

The Prologue introduces the tone, the language, the time and characters and vital clues for the unfolding of the gospel story. “The Word became flesh” (Jn 1:1-5, 9-14) and is plunged into what we understand is God’s unfinished, evolving universe where people choose either to “receive him” or “not accept him” (Jn 1:11-12). The Prologue read in the liturgical seasons of Advent and Christmas offers disciples today the same choice.

The Verb “to Believe”

Although faith and belief permeate John’s Gospel, neither noun is used in the Gospel text. John uses dynamic verbs — doing words and action. The verb “to believe” (pisteuein) occurs 98 times which contrasts with 11 times in Matthew, 14 times in Mark and 9 times in Luke. In John, 74 of the 98 uses of pisteuein occur in the first part of the Gospel in the Book of Signs (Jn 1-12) where Jesus is giving  people the option of believing. Later, in the Book of Glory (Jn 13-21), Jesus is speaking to those who believe.

For us, “believe in” may suggest an intellectual faith or belief. In the ancient Middle Eastern world, these words along with fidelity and faithfulness, bound one person to another. They are sentiments that come from the heart, the centre of a person’s being, which give expression to the social and emotionally rooted values of solidarity, commitment and loyalty. All this underpins “believing into.”

“Believe into”

John 1:12 tells us: “But to all who received him, who believed into (pisteuein eis) his name, [Jesus] gave power to become children of God.” “In” and “into” in this context have distinct meanings. Sometimes bible translations use “believed in” which is correct, however, ‘in” does not accurately translate “into” (eis) when it is written in one of John’s favourite phrases. He uses it 36 times — to “believe into” God twice; to “believe into” Jesus 31 times; and to “believe into” the name of Jesus four times.

There is a dynamic quality to faith in John’s Gospel — faith is not a past event but a continuing attitude that unfolds throughout life. “Believing into” denotes this active commitment.

The expression pisteuein eis is found only in the New Testament. Raymond Brown says it is “an active commitment to a person and in particular to Jesus … it involves much more than trust in Jesus or confidence in him; it is an acceptance of Jesus and of what he claims to be and a dedication of one’s life to him.” It describes a willingness to respond to God’s invitations as they are presented in and by Jesus.

We can see how “believing into” the mystery of Jesus unfolds in the Gospel story. For example, after Jesus fed the 5,000 (Jn 6:1-14), many of the crowd went looking for him and asked: “What must we do to work the works of God?” (literal translation). Jesus answered them: “This is the work of God, that you believe into him whom [God] has sent” (Jn 6:28-29).

“The Work of God”

This “work of God” continues in time all over the world. We participate by “believing into” Christ and doing God’s unfinished work in the world — the work of creating community,  seeking truth, reconciling, making peace in our complex, evolving, beautiful, suffering world.

Palestinian theologian Mitri Raheb writes that “God had done [God’s] part. The ball was now in the court of humankind … The transformed faithful were to engage the world … and to live the life of an already liberated people … belief in Jesus as the yearned for Messiah replaced the idea of divine intervention with the direct intervention of the faithful.”

Believing into in Aotearoa

John’s preference for action words (verbs) resonates with the Māori concept of whakawhanaungatanga (making right relationship happen) in our context. Pā Henare Tate explained that the concept comprises a noun (whanaungatanga) and a causative prefix (whaka) which turns the noun into action. Making right relationships is threefold: i te tanga (with the people), i te Atua (with God) and i te whenua (with the land). The three are interrelated systematically and dynamically — always connected but always changing. If we enhance or diminish our relationship with God, our relationship with the people and with the land is also either enhanced or diminished.

One way to prepare for this Christmas could be to reflect on “believing into” Christ as a constant but ever-changing action: believing into as a doing word. We can listen and respond to “both the cry of Earth and the cry of the poor” (LS par 49) — in whakawhanaungatanga by promoting Te Tiriti relationships, in reconciliation with survivors of abuse by Church and State and in just peacemaking in our families, country and world — which is participating in the work of God.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 299 December 2024: 24-25