Hey everybody, it's Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Real question here on the front end Is there a name for the type of movies or TV shows or even books where you're kind of dumped into a reality where things seem a little bit off? Maybe it's a bit dystopian, or maybe it's just a little too good to be true. But then as the story unfolds, you start to see some things that don't look quite right through the perspective of the point of view character. And then gradually, the big shocking moment of the whole program is when you, through the point of view character, discover what reality actually is. You finally see past the lie and the deception. And even if it's pretty scary to discover what's really real, you discover it. I'm talking like the Truman show, The Matrix, Silo, Severance. There's probably a bajillion more. What do you call that genre? That eyes opening, discovering reality as it really is genre. I don't know. Maybe you do. Let me know. We do a discussion at patreon.com/slash the TmbH podcast. You do not have to pay money to be a part of it. And you can just sign up for free and be a part of the discussion. In those shows, there is this inevitable arc that always happens. The main character starts to see things, but they make choices to say, no, I like my reality that I have. Even if I live in darkness, even if I'm deceived, I'm a little more comfortable here. And in these shows, there's always a character who's seen the bigger picture. And they are coaxing the main character out of the darkness and into the light. You got to see other things you really are. But the main character is not ready. But when the main character finally sees reality for what it is, that coaxing character, who's usually a little bit of an oddball, comes alongside him and like pats him on the back as they barf or whatever. And they're like, Yeah, it's okay, man. That's how it was on my first day, too. But in this genre, the story arc is always the same. Deceived, gets hints of the truth, likes the deception, and stays in the deception. Someone ushers them out of the deception and through circumstances in a jarring moment of rebirth. Main character comes out of darkness into light, and it's a bit shocking, but now there's this whole new reality to explore. And if it's a TV show, that's usually where season one ends and season two begins. Likewise, in this prologue at the beginning of John chapter one, we're seeing that story arc. There are people in view here, people like you and me, normal people, who live in a diminished expression of reality, characterized in John 1 as darkness. We don't see it. And it's intoned further that we who live in darkness kind of like the darkness. It's not perfect, but it's our darkness. Then it's familiar and it's comfortable. And when the outsider comes in to shine light into our darkness, the darkness doesn't get it. The darkness is threatened by it. The darkness could even turn angry and violent over it. Darkness definitionally recoils at light, and darkness metaphorically, you know, played out through the lenses of a character, recoils at light, like the way a vampire hisses when you slide open the shade. I don't lie, it causes the burning. So we got three movements that I'm seeing so far here in John chapter one. And by the way, I am really sorry for my voice. I've been sick all week. It has been deeply unpleasant. But we have a rule around here, which is unless I am dying, we're gonna go ahead and do this podcast every day. And if one day I am so absolutely broken that I cannot do this for a day or two while I get healthy, then you know, we'll just have Jeff do it. He's super, he'll make it work great. Every day, no matter what, even if you have to listen to my stupid, busted up weird voice. All right, here we go. Movement number one of the prologue seems to be the word, the logos, that is Jesus and God. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Okay, movement number one, Jesus and God. Movement number two, Jesus and creation. Through him, all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. And movement number three is, well, I don't know what to call it, the light shining in the darkness movement. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. The character thinks there's something off about this reality, but don't bother me with that stuff. I gotta go to work. If what you're saying is true, everything is a lie. I can't hear this. There came a man who was sent from God. His name was John. Oh, well, there's your kooky guy who comes in from the outside and is like, I have seen the light. I'm telling you about this. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light. Look at how neatly it fits. So that through him all men might believe he himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light, right? There's always that goofball character who's been out there and it's transformed by what the goofball character has seen of the greater reality. And he comes back in, and it sounds so foreign and so weird to the people who are still in darkness that they're just baffled by it. I mean, I guess this kind of storytelling I'm talking about is sort of the modern equivalent of the cave illustration, in a way. Never made that connection before. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. Okay, this is actual reality now, and John is testifying to this actual reality to people who are still in darkness. We're still in movement number three here. Again, movement number one is Jesus, that is the Lagos and God. Movement number two is Jesus and his relationship with creation. Movement number three is Jesus and illumination and the light that shines in the darkness. He, this is Jesus, was in the world, and though the world was made through him, so that's tapping back into movement number two, Jesus and creation, the world did not recognize him. Now we're back into the illumination theme. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. Now there's one more movement yet to go that starts in verse 14, and this is the word becomes flesh, the Lagos comes into the world. It's not enough that the illumination is just out there, that this greater reality is just out there beyond the boundaries of what the point of view character in this cryptic show can see. I mean, in those shows, there's always that prophet character I keep alluding to, who's a little bit kooky, who comes back into the darkness, and who leads the main character back out into the light. This would be like what's his name? Morpheus in The Matrix. But this is different than that trope. This is different than that motif because here, the outside itself, the bigger, truer, realer realities that is the truest thing ever, that the people who are in darkness can't see in this kind of story, the greater reality itself is going to take on a form like the people who live in darkness and come into that world of darkness and bring the light and bring the truth and bring the reality to them in a dramatic way. And it's this fourth movement of the prologue that we're just about to get into. Again, movement one, Jesus and God, movement two, Jesus in creation, movement three, Jesus and illumination. This fourth movement is Jesus and the incarnation. It's because of this fourth movement that the prologue of John stands apart from that genre of shows that we're talking about today. Because in those shows, reality itself does not take on human form and walk into the realm of unreality or diminished reality. But in the gospel, in God's grand redemptive plan, God stoops. The God who is God, the God who made everything, the God who is light and life, who is right in all of his judgments, and who has been wronged by those who are in darkness, that God who would stoop to wash the feet of his unworthy disciples, that God stoops into the darkness, into the chaos, and becomes flesh and makes his dwelling among us. Through this fourth movement of the prologue, the incarnation, the word becoming flesh, the glory of God is going to be visible in the otherwise darkness of the fallen, diminished, reduced, broken world. The plot then of the Bible and of John is not God is very good and far away, and he lightly beckons people who are in total darkness and cannot see for themselves to just, you know, figure it out. Put together the clues, like in a TV show, and make your way out of the darkness and come to me. I'll be waiting for you. No, no, no, no, no. The plot is we are in darkness and we can't see and we can't solve it. Like the cave illustration, our necks and our arms and our legs are shackled, we're fettered, we cannot escape this thing. So the light himself, not a representative, but himself, true reality, God of God, Lord of everything, is going to take on flesh and come into the cave, take on flesh and come into the silo, take on flesh and come into the matrix. God himself is going to enter the darkness, do the work, do the heavy lift, do the work that we could not do for ourselves, illuminate that darkness, and come and get us out of our dark cave, come and rescue us out of our darkness. So we might be tempted to read John 1 and be like, oh, I know this story. I know how it works. But all of our versions of this story, though very interesting and very fun, are only a limited echo to this truest, realist, greatest story of God taking on flesh to step into the darkness to rescue us from that darkness by his light, his life, and his power. It's a really good prologue. Thanks for enduring my voice with me. And please do tell me what that genre is called, because I don't think we've figured it out. All right, that's good for now. I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.