John 1.1-14
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. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 1He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
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The great mystery of Christianity is, how can the divine become human, how can the eternal become temporal. How can the infinite, become finite. How can God himself become human. It is a question that has vexed many throughout the centuries; with many arguments in the early church about how to make sense of who Jesus is. Somehow divine, but somehow human as well.
There were many controversies and heresies; some said that Jesus was a mere creature, a mere human others argued that Jesus only had a divine nature, and that he only appeared to be a human being. There were many other arguments in between.
And it wasn’t until AD451 at the council of Chalcedon that the declaration was made by the church that Jesus was both truly human, and truly divine, Fully human and fully divine. The Creed which we will say in a few moments time is the product of numerous councils, Christians coming together trying to figure out how God can be Father, Son and Holy Spirit, how God the son can become a human being.
The writer of John’s gospel says this beautifully, ‘The Word became flesh and lived among us.’
The Word was a powerful idea back in the ancient world, especially in Greece and where they held influence. The Greeks loved their philosophy, and for them ‘the word’ was everything, In Greek, ‘logos’. It’s a strange word, logos, indeed it can be translated as ‘word,’ but it also means ‘reason’, or ‘plan’. So here there’s a sense of thinking going on, a sense in which this is what separates us from the other animals, our rationality and our ability to think and reason, to self-reflect and be self conscious, to know things about the world.
But behind that word Logos is something more, there is something about it that is cosmic in scope; something ‘behind’ the whole universe. The logos is not just a human invention, it is the ‘divine reason.’. One Jewish philosopher for example thought that the logos was a kind of intermediary between God and the creation.
This is not a popular opinion these days in a Godless universe. It is believed that there is no true purpose behind the universe, or maybe we live in a multiverse, and the sense of meaning that we have is an illusion
To all this, the writer of John’s gospel says ‘the Logos, (the Word) became flesh and lived among us. Probably the most profound sentence that has ever been written down and speaks of our limited human language the unfathomable thing that God has done.
The divine reason, the Word of God, eternity itself, became a human being, a little baby boy.
One writer says this about this incredible event, it’s worth repeating in full:
“The plain meaning of [the reading] is that our divine Saviour really took human nature upon Him in order to save sinners. He really became a man like ourselves in all things, sin only excepted. Like ourselves, he was born of a woman, though born in a miraculous manner. Like ourselves, He grew from infancy to boyhood and from boyhood to man’s estate, both in wisdom and in stature (Luke 2:52). Like ourselves, he hungered, thirsted, ate, drank, slept, was wearied, felt pain, wept, rejoiced, marvelled, and was moved to anger and compassion. Having become flesh and taken a body, He prayed, read the Scriptures, suffered being tempted, and submitted His human will to the will of God the Father. And finally, in the same body, He really suffered and shed His blood, really died, was really buried, really rose again, and really ascended up into heaven. And yet all this time He was God as well as man!” (Bishop Ryle)
Jesus has entranced so many in each generation since his birth. When he was born wise men and shepherds came to worship him. When he grew up and became a Rabbi he was followed by so many. John the Baptist witnessed to him as is written in our passage, and couldn’t fathom it when Jesus asked him to baptise him; truly identifying with our humanity. Jesus spoke into so many peoples lives about the love that God had for his people. When he did that, he gave them a glimpse of eternity that we all long for. They put all their hope in him, that somehow, he would save them.
Two thousand years on, we hope and pray for the same thing, that we would receive and know the love of God through Jesus Christ. That we will know his presence in our lives by the Holy Spirit, that we could live our lives as children of God, knowing that we are loved and cherished.
That’s what this night is about, it’s about the time when everything changed. Sometimes it’s good to do a lot of thinking ‘how can God become human?’ ‘how does any of it make sense?’ But when you look at a new-born, you don’t ask those kinds of questions. In fact, the questions fall away; you simply gaze upon them in wonder at just how beautiful they are.
Now we simply gaze upon him in wonder, as new parents gaze upon a new-born. As Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds and the Magi gazed upon him in wonder. We all know what the child’s destiny is; over there on the horizon there is a silhouette of a cross on a hill, over there is a future of torment and pain.
But we are not there yet, that’s still a long way away, and we will get to that. Now we are in the deep winter. Now we are ‘halfway out of the dark,’ and now we have that little baby Jesus with us. And through him, a bright tomorrow has come for each one of us, and for the whole world, for our salvation has come at last.
Amen.
