12.25.2020 John 1:1-5, 9-14
When the first Star Wars movie came out, it was rather unique in that it started with a scrolling dialogue describing what had happened prior to the movie, so you’d at least have some clue as to what was going on and be able to follow along better. The same thing happens in the book of John. He scrolls WAY back to the beginning, even before the beginning. He wants us to see the Person behind the baby in the manger to understand and appreciate the beauty and the glory of Christmas.
Take a Far and Close Look at the Baby in the Manger
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him everything was made, and without him not one thing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. 5 The light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
In the Greek it is two words “?? ????,”the same words used in Genesis 1:1, drawing us back to the beginning of time. God is the One who created EVERYTHING with WORDS. He isn’t someone WE speak into an imaginary existence. He isn’t just a concept or an idea. He is an actual Being, a powerful and intellectual Being who spoke US into existence. And when He speaks, things actually happen. He’s not like a politician or a drug addict or a selfish parent who promises lots of things and produces nothing. He isn’t JUST words. His Words are actions.
What kind of actions? In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. Think about the concept of life. SpaceX has plans of sending astronauts to Mars in hopes of finding life. No other planet is created the way Earth is, with actual LIFE and all of its complexities of DNA and design. Jesus is the author of LIFE. There would be no physical life in this world without Him. There would be no spiritual life without Him. There would be no life after death without Him. When John directs our eyes to the manger, He shines a light on this baby and wants us to understand WHO we are actually looking at - we aren’t just looking at a newborn infant. We are looking at the ETERNAL God who created LIFE. He, in fact, IS life.
The light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. When light shines in the darkness your eyes are naturally attracted to it. It can be a great source of comfort and guidance. Remember the soccer team that was caught in some caves when the rains had fallen in June of 2018? A Thai youth soccer coach took his team, the Wild Boars, to explore a cave he’d visited before, intending to stay just about an hour. But when monsoon rains hit the coach and his 12 players, ages 11-16, became trapped. The team was stuck down there for two weeks, and they were running out of oxygen. Imagine the joy when they saw the first light coming from the tunnel, a Thai Navy Seal who had come to rescue them, bringing oxygen tanks and food to escape. That’s what Jesus has come to do for us living in this dark world, to provide us with the light of forgiveness and salvation and lead us out of the darkness of death into heaven itself.
However, the darkness has not overcome it. The word for “overcome” in the Greek is ?at??aße?. It means to overcome something in the sense of wrapping your mind around it and grabbing hold of it. John points in the manger and says, “Here is your God. Here is your Creator. Here has come into your world to rescue you by dying for your sins on the cross. This baby is your light and your only hope of salvation.” The people that live in the darkness see what He is pointing at. They hear what He is saying. But it just doesn’t make sense: God in the flesh: the Creator in the crib. Think of how many people know our most popular and catchy Christmas songs. They hear them sung every year on the radio and know the words by heart, yet they don’t believe one word of them. Why? Because the darkness cannot overcome it. They can’t fit it in their brain. “How could this little baby save the world? Why would we need a Savior in the first place?”
Back at the end of World War 2 Japanese women were told that the Americans would rape and torture them. So when the American soldiers drew closer to them they would stand near a cliff. No matter what the soldiers said, no matter how slowly they walked, they couldn’t convince them any differently. So the women jumped from the cliff. It was a sad thing to see, when the soldiers were not going to harm them at all. When the light comes in the darkness, many run from the light. They are afraid of the light, when the light has come to save us.
Why do WE run to the light, grab hold of Him, living with faith and hope in Jesus Christ? What attracts us to Him? Let’s look again at those words that give us life. The Word became flesh and dwelled among us. We have seen his glory, the glory he has as the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
There’s something magnificent about that word “flesh.” Think of a baby’s flesh. It’s so soft and gentle. When God is only Spirit, we have a hard time visualizing Him. We think that WE have to become spiritual in order to come to Him. That’s what far eastern religions all do - try to meditate the soul up to heaven - so that we leave the body. God is left to only an invisible power or a hidden glory, and when you can’t see Him or touch Him, He can be scary. You don’t know for sure what He’s like. You can only read Him through nature, and nature can be pretty scary. But not when God comes down here and takes on the flesh of a baby.
Moses saw God do some scary things through the plagues. He had seen God rescue the Israelites from slavery. He had witnessed God spare the Israelites after worshiping idols. The LORD then promised Moses that He would go with Moses as Moses led the Israelites into the Promised Land. He was so enamored with God that he wanted to actually see him. In a moment of emotion and exhilaration he said to God, “Now show me your glory.” (Exodus 33:18) The LORD responded,
“You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
The best he could see was God’s back side. God is TOO glorious to be seen.
The Incarnation changes all that. God comes down here and seems to break His own rule of being unseeable by taking on flesh permanently, 1500 years later. The God who COULDN’T BE seen made Himself clearly visible with eyes and ears, a mouth and a nose. It’s a profound and yet simple miracle. God is in the manger. You don’t see warnings on pictures of babies saying, “Warning: disturbing content!” There’s nothing more harmless than a baby. We can hold a baby. We can touch a baby. His holiness is hidden under the flesh of a baby. And if God was willing to come down here and become THIS for US . . . then maybe He’s not so scary. Maybe He wants to be held. Maybe He doesn’t want us to think about Him as this God that is out of touch - so far beyond us, but One of us.
How can this be? God doesn’t tell us to understand it. What do we sing? Oh come let us understand Him? Oh come let us figure Him out? No! Oh come let us adore Him. This is how God feels about you. This is God’s intent for you: not to damn you or confuse you: but to come here to save you: to die for you. He’s come to make you HIS OWN CHILD, by becoming one of us and going to the cross for us. The Holy Spirit uses this beautiful baby to breathe life and hope into our souls! Oh come let us adore Him! It’s interesting, isn’t it? In order to give us SPIRITUAL life, Jesus had to take on PHYSICAL life. In order to adopt us into HIS family, He had to become a part of OUR family first.
We have seen his glory, the glory he has as the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. When we see God in the manger, and we see what He took on flesh to do: to die on the cross for our sins: we then see what is the most glorious thing of all in our God! It is in His weakness: it is in His GRACE and TRUTH. He doesn’t have just a little bit of it. He is full of it. And if He is God, then that means GOD is FULL of GRACE and truth. The grace of God is in knowing Jesus Christ, that He died for the sins of the world, and He came to give us this grace: not by works: but by faith. It is for “all who did receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” When Jesus becomes a son of humanity in the flesh, it enables us to become sons of God through faith.
Examine any other religion in the world, and you will find nothing like it. The gods are equated with nature, thunderstorms and lightning, mythical creatures, mountains and hills. When they are put in human form they are full of power and they use their power to mess with humanity. They are mischievous. They are selfish and perverted. They need to be feared. They are unpredictable, mean, and petty. They are demanding.
This God in the manger is unimaginable. Here is a weak baby. He has not come to demand His pound of flesh. He has come to give His glorious grace through weakness and death. He has come to be the Truth, the only way of salvation through the cross. He has come to give to us free of charge, by faith. This is the only place to find grace, mercy and forgiveness - in this baby right here - this is what Christmas is all about. We have seen his glory, the glory he has as the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
A few weeks ago someone posted the picture of a giraffe on Facebook - but you had to get your nose on the computer screen and then slowly pull back and not stop from focusing on the picture in order to see the giraffe hidden within the picture. If you don’t start up close you can’t see the big picture.
That’s in some way how we see the miracle of Christmas and the Incarnation. They only see a cute little story about a baby in a manger, but they don’t stop to take a deeper look or pull back to see a wider view either. John opens up the truth and shows us a closer look at it, and then the Holy Spirit pulls us back to reveal who this baby is in the manger, and we see our salvation in the flesh. It is the most beautiful vision of all. This baby of flesh is life. He is light. He is grace. He is truth. All in the flesh of Jesus Christ. As you see Him for who He is and put your faith in Him, have yourself a Merry Christmas. Amen.
