Friday after Ash Wednesday (February 20). Grace and truth

Prepare to Listen.  For it is the God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
 
Prayerfully Read John 1:16-18
16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.  17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  18No one has ever seen God.  It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
 
Prayerfully Wonder
Lent is the season in the church year when we’re asked to think about our mortality and to practice self-denial.  Sounds depressing but it isn’t.  As Butler Bass notes, thinking about death and our mortality “may plunge us in exactly the opposite direction in an affirmation of life and the fragility of our existence.”[1]  John’s prologue to the Light of the World plunges us in the direction of life.
 
It isn’t until v. 17 that John reveals the Word’s name—Jesus Christ/Messiah.  After profound words about the Word, we may be surprised to read that “grace and truth came through” him.  Not some spectacular work.  Grace and truth.  Two practices most needed in the world today.  Grace and truth have to do with freedom from all that enslaves and oppresses, all that cruelly denigrates and mocks, all that leads to death and defeat.  Jesus Christ came to help us see and live in grace and truth, in an over-abundance—grace upon grace, truth after truth.
 
Not only that, Jesus also came to make God known to the world that didn’t know God (v. 10).  The world couldn’t see God.  Jesus, who is “close to the Father’s heart,” came to make God known, and therefore seen.  Yes, we can see God; the Light of the World shines on God; we can now gaze on and experience God’s sacred presence, know God in an intimate relationship.  We’ll know we’re gazing on God when grace and truth are dominate what we experience.
 
How are grace and truth experienced in your life today?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord Jesus, you have made God known to us so that we can see God and see the world more clearly.  Keep helping me to see and experience grace and truth.
 
Live obediently.  Live with grace and truth.
[1] Butler Bass, Diana.  A Beautiful Year.  New York, NY: St. Marin’s Essentials.  2025, p. 113.