Word Made Flesh 1

Advent 2013

During the weeks of Advent, you are invited to share in a journey of faith. All of our attention, this year, will be focused upon one verse:

“The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
                                                                                                                                       John 1:14

In these startling words we are introduced to the concept of the Incarnation. This is what makes Christmas so wonderful. It’s not just about Mary and Joseph, unable to find a room at the inn. It’s not just about shepherds keeping watch in their fields, frightened by a sky full of angels. It’s not about wise men and a star. It’s not even about a baby in a manger. The significance of Christmas lies in whom it was that was lying in that manger. On that holy night, heaven came down. In that holy Child, God took on human flesh. Christ became like us, sharing our humanity and bearing our sin, so that we could become like Him. The Incarnation is God’s answer to the reality of human rebellion. That answer was concluded on Calvary, but it began in Bethlehem.

                        They all were looking for a King                                                                                             To slay their foes and lift them high.                                                                                                      Thou cam’st, a little baby thing                                                                                                           

That made a woman cry.                                                                                                                                            George MacDonald

Every Sunday, during Advent, we will look at a different facet of the jewel of the Incarnation. Every day, through Christmas Day, we will share a simple devotional reading, looking a little more closely at what it means to say that the Word became flesh.

Join me in the journey, will you? May the Christ who came in Bethlehem dwell in your heart this Christmas.

Yours aye,
                          in Him, 

          Alan Trafford

Introduction

What did John mean when he called Jesus the Word? The Greek term is logos. The word had a broad history before John was inspired to use it of Jesus. Scholars have argued for years about which stream of thought the apostle had in mind when he referred to Jesus as the Word made flesh.

Clearly, John had the Old Testament in mind. As we shall see, there are many points of reference between the opening words of Genesis and the opening words of John’s Gospel. “The Word of God” as it appears in the first book of the Bible refers to the means by which God accomplished His acts in creation. As the centuries went by, the thought of the active and powerful Word of God was expanded to include not only creation but also deliverance and judgment. The agency of the Word was that of God Himself. It was His very breath, spoken into chaos and creating life. It was His illuminating power, speaking through the Law and the Prophets. The Word was God.

The “Word of God” also became a common replacement for the name of God when the Greek Old Testament was read in public. Since the Jews did not feel able to speak God’s hidden name, they used an alternative. So, by the time of Christ, generations of Greek speaking Jews had grown up associating the phrase “the Word of God” with God Himself.

The Logos also had a long history in non-Jewish Greek thought. Heraclitus, in about 500 BC had used the term to describe the unifying principle of the universe which shapes and directs our path. Philo, a Jewish philosopher who had been trained in Greek thought, adopted the term and personalized it. The power behind the universe he described as “the captain and pilot of the universe” or, tellingly, “the Father’s elder son.” But, for the Greeks, the Logos was never material, it was pure thought.

In Jesus, John saw these concepts combined and expanded. Christ is the voice behind creation; He is the power behind our deliverance; He is the authority behind our judgment; but Christ is also the mind behind the universe. He is God in human form; He is the Word made flesh.

Day One                       Word made Flesh                  John 1:1-14

E. Stanley Jones, the famous Bible teacher and missionary, once said, “If I were asked to put my finger on the most important verse to be found anywhere in the Word of God I would unhesitatingly put my finger on this one.” He was speaking about the opening verses of John’s Gospel, in particular verse 14: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (RSV). Many other commentators agree. William Barclay, the Scottish theologian, wrote, “It might well be held that this is the greatest verse in the New Testament.” William Hendricksen wrote, “The incarnation – and the realization of its purpose, the crucifixion – is the climax of God’s condescending grace.” The truth contained within these words is simply staggering; it is, as Hendricksen wrote, “the climax.” Yet, at its heart it is deceptively simple. It is that God stooped down and became flesh in the Babe of Bethlehem.

To those who are unaware of the importance of what we call the Incarnation, the coming of the Word in human flesh, John’s words seem confusing. How can God be “contracted to a span,” and what does that mean to us? How can the birth of a child, two thousand years ago, have any real relevance in the twenty-first century? But, to those who find in Jesus Christ the answer to the deepest longings of their hearts, John’s words are precious indeed because they point to the uniqueness of Christ and to the loving purposes of God. It is true to say that these words divide humanity. Either you treat them with contempt, as remnants of a barbaric, intolerant creed; or, you value them as bearing witness to the unique blessing that is Christ.

Every other religious belief system in the history of the world has described how human beings have searched for the truth about God. Only the Christian revelation describes how God reached down to us. According to John, humanity’s search for God would be fruitless had He not come searching for us. As always, the importance lies not in what we do but in what He has done. We cannot climb to heaven to bring God down; He has stooped to the clay of the earth to lift us up. All this, through the work of the Word, through God’s initiative in a Baby whom the angel called ‘Emmanuel’ – God with us.

This Christmas, see if you can’t recover something of the wonder. Beyond the jolly old elf and the Victorian traditions, truth beckons us. Can you find time to pause from the rush of these days, to lose yourself in the wonder of the God who loved us enough to come, despite the cost? If you try to put your finger on the heart of Christmas you will find yourself pointing to these verses, and to the One who came for you.

Loving God, You did not stay, remote and unconcerned, upon a cloud, dispensing good and evil like lightning bolts from the sky. You did not remain, isolated in splendor, inoculated by distance from the stain of my rebellion. Instead, You came and took upon Your broad shoulders the consequences of my sin. I praise You, for Your love beyond words, in Christ my Lord. Amen.