“The Word became flesh”, those words begin John 1:14 and
themselves are filled to overflowing with meaning. The incarnation of Jesus Christ, the eternal
Word of God now joined together with human flesh and blood in a Bethlehem
manger, becomes the pivot point of history as divinity is combined with
humanity in God’s all-out effort to restore humanity to fellowship with
him. This dual nature of Jesus, far from
being just an interested fact, is an essential element in the Gospel message
itself that cannot be watered-down because the essence of the Good News is that
our faith is IN Jesus Christ, the God-man.
What he accomplished while here on earth is entirely connected with who
he was.
The
phrase after that first one is equally full of implications, “and made his
dwelling among us.” To Jewish readers,
this harkens back to the term used to describe God’s portable dwelling with his
people, the Tabernacle. God tabernacled
with his people, dwelling among them, but in a very unapproachable way, within
the Holy of Holies, only accessible once per year on the Day of Atonement, and
only by the High Priest. Now, with the
incarnation, God through Jesus is reaching out, letting the children sit on his
lap, talking with people, having lunch with “sinners”, and even reaching out
his hand to touch the untouchable lepers.
God is “with us” in a far more dramatic way, a step that paves the way
for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to dwell within those who follow
Jesus.
The
last third of the verse speaks of the glory of Jesus, an example of the unique
glory of God, and the grace and truth that he brought with him. The glory revealed within Jesus is another
reminder of how far short humanity has fallen from that of our Creator, the
coming of the Christ was an act of grace designed to rectify that deficit, and
the truth preached by Jesus is that he himself is the way through which we can
be saved. Thus Christmas is indeed a
time for celebration, a time to commemorate the coming of the Way, the Truth,
and the Life to dwell among us, to be one of us, and to save us.
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