But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. My initial inclination at this point in John’s Gospel is to move immediately to the next verse, John...

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. John qualifies here briefly and importantly what it means to be a child of God by means of contrast. It...

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. And here is the turn. The turn from disobedience, lack of recognition, and rejection. The turn toward life, and light, and joy. For while many rejected the Word of light and life, not all did. And...

But to all who received him… In literature it’s called foreshadowing. The anticipation of something to come. More than that, it’s the anticipation of the swing from bad news to good, from conflict to resolution. Narrative revolves around conflict. Stories – pretty much all stories –...

He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. John adds this sentence and the verse to the one that preceded it, I think, to make sure we know just how personal is the advent and coming of the Word. It’s one thing to say that the world created by the Word did not...

  He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. Can you hear the heartbreak in this verse? Or maybe it’s less about hearing and more about feeling. Imagine coming home after a long journey and finding no one there. No lights in the...