El Verbo Among Us
Scripture – John 1:1-3 (NRSV)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.
Focus
Every translation is an interpretation. Every word carries a world. My whole life of reading my Bible in my heart’s native language, which is Spanish, I heard a different nuance to these verses. I don’t understand the particulars of Bible translation scholars and the reasoning behind their choice of this one word. However, I love what it does to my relationship with Jesus. You see, in Spanish, John 1:1 has been translated In the beginning was the Verb, and the Verb was with God, and the Verb was God. I love how this word “Verbo” adds to the world behind “Word” and depicts Jesus with movement.
Devotion
Every translation is an interpretation. Every word carries a world. My whole life of reading my Bible in my heart’s native language, which is Spanish, I heard a different nuance to these verses. I don’t understand the particulars of Bible translation scholars and the reasoning behind their choice of this one word. However, I love what it does to my relationship with Jesus. You see, in Spanish, John 1:1 has been translated in the RVR 1995: In the beginning was the Verb, and the Verb was with God, and the Verb was God. I love how this word “Verbo” adds to the world behind “Word” and depicts Jesus with movement: the Word as a noun, as a spoken word, a lived word, and yet a living verb. I love that it allows me to see a Jesus that speaks, and moves, and breathes, and dances.
Seeing Jesus as a Verbo grants us a different angle to look at Jesus because one word can not capture the majesty of the One that was in the beginning, before all things and above all things. The author of Hebrews echoes another beginning in Hebrews 1:1-3a: “In the past God spoke through the prophets and our ancestral father in various forms and ways, and yet now God speaks through God’s own son. The son who is the exact representation of God’s very being who sustains all things, including your life, through his powerful word.”
The eternal word has living seeds that are verbs. It is through the living verbs of Jesus in any gospel that we see the God who moves near and draws close—in this time of Lent, a Jesus who has chosen to step into our suffering to identify with our humanity. He has been faithful from the beginning and there is no reason to believe God will stop being faithful now. The seeds of the gospel are in the verbs of the gospels. God sustains. God comforts. God heals. God cleanses. God rejoices over with singing. God provides. God cares. God forgives. God rescues. God delivers. God redeems. God reorients. God weeps. God holds. God upholds.
Take heart that the very God that was there in the beginning, through whom you came into being, is the very God that is sustaining your life by God’s powerful word. Find Jesus in those verbs.
Reflect
How would it change your view of Jesus to get to know him through his verbs/actions in the gospels? What is the verb that you need Jesus to embody for you in this season?
Act
If you read any accounts of Jesus in the gospels during Lent, highlight the verbs related to Jesus. Sit with the verbs as an invitation to intimacy.
Pray
God who was in the beginning, before all things, above all things and above every power and principality, you are the God who spoke the world into being and our lives into being. You know every inch of our hearts, minds, bodies and souls. Draw us near to the Jesus who became flesh and came to dwell among us. Let us be acquainted with the Jesus who put on our flesh, knowing we can draw near to a high priest not unfamiliar and not removed from our lives, but one who feels, sees, hears, senses, touches our very existence. Let your Word and your living Verb come to life that we may see you, hear you, sense you, touch and understand you. Amen.
P.S.
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Inés Velásquez-McBryde
Chaplain at Fuller Theological Seminary & Pastor, Preacher, Speaker
Inés is an ordained pastor, preacher, reconciler, writer, and speaker. We are pleased to feature Inés as a regular Life for Leaders writer. On June 15, 2019, Inés received her Master of Divinity degree from the School of Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary where she now serves as...