So That Our Joy May Be Complete

St. John the Evangelist

December 27, 2020

1 John 1:1—2:2

Beloved, the best way to honor St. John, whose feast we celebrate this day, is to listen to him tell us about Jesus. John wrote all three of today’s readings. This morning we will pay special attention to the second, for it tells us the meaning of this season of Christmas.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands” - it would be better to render this as who instead of which, for John is telling us about Jesus. “The One Who was from the beginning” – John is echoing the start of his gospel, which we heard on Christmas Day: “In the beginning was the Word…” This in turn is the companion of the Bible’s opening words: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” John is telling us that the Second Person of the Trinity, the Word of God, is eternal. He was the creative Word who spoke the world into being. Can you comprehend the marvel of John’s testimony? The eternal God took on flesh, and John is telling us, “We heard Him, we saw Him with our own eyes, we touched Him.”

This is no abstract word, a concept or an idea. The Word is God, and He became flesh. And in that Word, in that Jesus, is life! John testifies “concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you” – Some people say that Christianity is a way to control the masses, or it is a tool of oppression, the story of a teacher that spun into a fairytale. But the language of the apostolic writings won’t let you think that. John banks everything on his and the other apostles’ eyewitness testimony. “This Jesus,” John is saying, “we saw Him, we heard Him, we touched Him, and we are giving you our solemn testimony that He was crucified and is risen from the dead. We stake our lives on it.” And while John was the only apostle not martyred, he was sent into exile on the isle of Patmos for his testimony about Jesus.

What is John’s purpose of writing? Not just to tell us who Jesus is, but to invite us into the company of Jesus’ disciples. “We give you this testimony,” John says, “so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” That beautiful word fellowship is more than friendship or sharing an experience. This is that Greek word κοινωνία which you have heard me teach you before. The best English translation for it is communion. John is writing, he tells us, “so that you too may have communion with us; and indeed our communion is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

Communion is used for the Lord’s Supper, and it’s also used for the relationship between a husband and wife, and ultimately for the union of Christ with His whole Church. 

What is the effect of this communion? John says it produces joy.

All the stuff we buy ends up eventually discarded. There’s no joy there. Our own bodies return to the dust. The things we think will make us happy are only temporary. But to be joined to the communion of Jesus and His Church – there is life, and light, and joy. Which is why John wants us to join not his church, but Christ’s Church. Being part of that one, holy, catholic and apostolic church is to enter into communion with the One who is Life. That’s our only path to joy. That’s why John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes his Gospel and letters: “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”

This path of being fellow disciples with John, this path of communion with Jesus, means turning away from the darkness enshrouding this world. “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” For the third time in this short reading the word fellowship or communion repeats. How can light and darkness be in communion with each other? Being a disciple of Jesus, John is telling us, is not simply a matter of what we say, but how we walk, what we practice.

The New Testament is replete with examples of where what a person says is at odds with what he does. You can’t say you love your neighbor but turn away someone in need. You can’t say you love your wife but have an attachment to someone else, or visit a prostitute, or be involved in porneia. You can’t praise God with your lips but then turn and gossip about your neighbor, tell lies, or hurt his reputation. All of this, St. John says, is to make your confession a lie; you aren’t practicing the truth.

Communion with Christ involves also communion with our neighbor; notice how the two are joined together in what John writes: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Communion is both vertical and horizontal. It is vertical: between Christ and the Christian; and it is horizontal: between the brothers and sisters joined to Christ. When we come to the altar, we come with fellow sinners, praying for the blood of Jesus to cleanse us and confessing that that same blood absolves our neighbor.

We come as a body confessing we are sinners in need of a Savior. And here is the beauty of the Christian liturgy: from beginning to end it is steeped in the Scriptures. That’s why you already know what comes next: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

But see how John expects us to fight against sin, to work at leaving it behind? “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” “Stop sinning!” he tells us. But as long as we are in the flesh, there will be a constant struggle with the Old Adam, the sinful nature: “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Advocate here means a legal advisor, a helper in a court of law. If you have to go to court, you want someone who can help you get justice. Unless, of course, you’re the one in the wrong! That’s the scenario here: We are sinners, and can only expect judgment from God. But we have an attorney who can get us a verdict of “not guilty.”

How? John tells us what it means that Jesus was crucified: “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” Propitiation means payment; Jesus stands before the Father and says, “Yes, these little ones are guilty, but I have paid for them in full.”

It’s John’s Gospel that gives us the words, “It is finished.” That’s what they mean: the propitiation, the expiation, the payment for sins is accomplished. Life is restored to you. The darkness is stripped of its power over you. Walk in that light. +INJ+