John 1:18: Bring on the Stupid

(This is the latest on my series on The Gospel According to John. You can read the other entries in that series by clicking here, and then of course reading from the bottom post up.)

Today we're looking at John 1:18. (I know: at this rate, I'll meet John before I finish. Oh, well. Maybe God won't let me die until I finish. Cool! I'll see air cars!)

John 1:18 says, "No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known."

I think the meaning of this sentence is clear: God is a Siamese twin. And half of him is shy.

Well, there go plans for never dying. I'm officially lucky if God doesn't kill me right now.

Stupid sense of humor. I knew it'd be the end of me.

So, to hurry up: I think here John means the obvious, which is that the unknowable God made himself known and knowable by incarnating himself as Jesus.

If you read John 1:18 slowly, though, it becomes a serious brain-bender. Every time I try to parse my way through it I feel another portion of my brain shorting out. I try to read it about two more times, and my keyboard will short out from me drooling on it.

Thus, again, do we fall into the genius of John: Using nothing but one-dimensional print on a page, he blasts into oblivion what we think we know, and leaves in its place nothing but God.

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