Such Love

Day Six                                   Such Love                     John 15:9-17

Why is there such a gap between the sublime opening verses of John’s Gospel and the statement made in verse 14, that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us? Some commentators, over the years, have suggested that the lapse indicates time. It was in the beginning that the Word was with God. He was instrumental in creation. His voice called forth all living things. His was the light that shone in the darkness, which the darkness had neither understood nor overcome. Then came John the Baptist, the forerunner and prophet of the Messiah. It was only when he had testified, and experienced the darkness, that the true light came into the world.

The trouble with this view is that it seems to make the coming of the Word dependent upon us, whereas Scripture is clear that God is sovereign. God’s plan of salvation began even before creation; it will not end until the consummation of all things. If there is a delay it is not really a matter of time, but of mercy. That the Word became flesh, especially that He should suffer and die so cruelly, is not dry theology. Neither is it about dates on a calendar. The coming of Christ into our world is the crowning glory of God’s amazing love for us. His timetable was not determined by the passing of the years but by the depths of His mercy and love.

The context tells us exactly why Christ came when He did. It was to an ungrateful world, which would not acknowledge Him, that He came. From the first hint of His coming, cruel men conspired to harm Him. Herod failed, but others did not. Eventually, they denied Him with a kiss, delivered Him into the hands of the ungodly, stripped and whipped Him, forced a crown of thorns upon His head, nailed Him to a Cross, thrust a spear into His side, and confined His broken body to a borrowed grave. All this, God knew; all this, Christ endured.

The supreme irony is that Christ came when men were ready to do their worst to Him. He left the courts of heaven, for a time, in order to descend into the misery of human existence. He came, as the Messiah, to those who ought to have recognized Him, but they did not. He remained misunderstood and maligned, rejected and refused, deserted and denied. What greater proof of God’s amazing love could there be? We were at our worst, and yet He loved us; we were as far away as we could be, and yet He came to lead us home.

Before such love our tongues are stilled, Lord God of wonders. There are no words to describe such love. We can scarcely begin to understand. When, “veiled in flesh” we “the godhead see” all we can do is to fall in adoration before “Jesus, our Immanuel.” In His name we pray. Amen.