St. John 1:1-17 (4/27) CHRIST IS RISEN! Gospel for Great and Holy Pascha
Be Illumined: St. John 1:1-17, especially vs. 14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” “Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered! Today a sacred Pascha is revealed to us. Pascha new and Holy, Pascha mystical, Pascha all laudable, Pascha which is Christ the Redeemer.” What a blessing to celebrate this bright and beautiful Feast by beginning to read through St. John’s Gospel, for this mystical and profound work is a Feast to satisfy the insatiable hunger of our spirits, a luminous banquet of joy.
St. John’s Gospel opens with a magnificent Prologue that announces Pascha as light and life. It discloses the fulfillment of the Forerunner John’s testimony and identifies the nature of grace and truth as the Person of Jesus Christ. “Come let us drink from the fount of incorruption!”
Notice that the Prologue begins within eternity, exactly where the Word or Logos, the eternal Word of God, is and was and shall be forever (vss. 1,2), for in the Logos, in Him, lies the source of “light and life.” The Evangelist John declares that everything that can be called “light and life” wells up and flows out from Him: “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (vs. 3). It is clear - God the Word is no creature, nor a product of God’s fashioning. He is God, the One alone Who creates and fashions. And on this Day of Resurrection, when the world is renewed, we discover once again that He is Light and Life Who creates, illumines, and re-generates us in His image (vs. 4).
St. John the Forerunner was the last Prophet of the Old Covenant to bear witness to Light Himself (vss. 6-8). Also, he was herald of the New Covenant, introducing the themes of the “great symphony” that the Master Musician executes on behalf of all nations. The Lord Jesus developed His saving teaching from the Forerunner’s first statement: “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (compare Mt. 3:2 and 4:17). Pascha is the Kingdom that St. John declared to be “at hand,” and which the Lord of Life brought “upon” all mankind (Mt. 12:28).
Take note in the Prologue of the coming frenzy of denial and ignorance that would be raised against the Lord Jesus and culminate in His Crucifixion: “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (Jn. 1:10,11). However, there were, and still are, the humble and the meek who, by the grace of God, hear the great theme. These understand the life-giving message. These embrace Incarnate Life and Light. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God” (vs.12). Pascha holds an irony: for the People who were “His own” rejected their Passover from God. Beloved of God, receive your living Pascha!
Pascha, above all, “is Christ the Redeemer.” He is no mere ideal, nor metaphor, nor spiritual truth. Pascha is the Person of God in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. O ye Faithful, touch Him (1 Jn. 1:1), for “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14). This same Word has burst forth from the tomb. Death cannot hold “His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father” (vs. 14). The Apostles received His fullness, “grace for grace,” overflowing (vs. 16). Christ is risen! Like the Apostles, we are endowed with Life Himself. Love and serve Him Who first loved us, “for grace and truth” have come to us. Christ is risen!
It is the Day of Resurrection, be illumined for the Feast and embrace one another. Let us speak, brothers, even unto those who hate us, and forgive all for the sake of the Resurrection. And together let us cry out: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death; and, upon those in the tombs, bestowing life.
