Dear Members and Friends,

           You have likely heard it said, “Jesus is fully human and fully God.” This is the great mystery of the incarnation, of God becoming one of us. Different gospel writers understood the incarnation in very different ways. In Mark’s gospel, we find a Jesus that feels very human, yet the reader is left wondering, “was this the son of God?” Matthew and Luke mark Jesus’ divine origins within the birth narrative yet still balance his life with stories that feel very human. When we get to John’s gospel, the author is clear from beginning to end; Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, all the time and in every way.

           The divinity of Jesus is marked by the first line of the gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1). Another key way that the fourth gospel explicitly marks Jesus as God is in the use of a divine title: I am. At least seven times Jesus identifies himself with the title I Am and at least seven more times Jesus gives a metaphoric identity such as I am the bread of life. Each of these draws the reader back to the divine name of God, given to Moses at the burning bush, roughly translated I am who I am or I will be who I will be.

           One additional way that John’s gospel places Jesus’ divinity before the reader is connected to the number of places that Jesus reminds the disciples and others that the father and I are one.  This statement does not claim that Jesus and the Father are the same person, but it does imply that they are in perfect union of will and purpose. When we see Jesus, we are seeing the Father. 

Grace and Peace,

Daren Hofmann