Christmas John 1:1-18 The Light of God

He has his father’s eyes.   How often have you heard that phrase, or one like it?   Family resemblance can be striking.  Sometimes you don’t have to ask a child who their parents are.  You can see it in the young child’s eyes, or their nose, the shape of their face or even by how they walk.  Family resemblance can even go beyond the little things.  Big or small, weight, height, build, talents for things mechanical, musical or whatever, all sorts of things are connected to family genes.  You can tell many things about a person by their family.

So what was Jesus’ family like?  We confess that Jesus Christ is the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God.  When we see Jesus, we see God Himself.  When we hear the words of scripture, we are hearing God speak.

That Word proclaims a miracle: the Word, the almighty, eternal Word of God, became flesh.  The creator of all things came into our flesh to be born of a virgin.  He clothed Himself in our flesh, lived our life, died the death that should have been ours, and rose from the dead so that we, too, could live that new life in Him.  This is His life, and this is our life through baptism.  As St. John says in verse 12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”  By baptism we have been adopted into the same Holy Family that had to flee to Egypt in the Judean night.

This miracle, called the Incarnation, is perhaps the greatest mystery of all time.  How can eternity be contained in a little baby?  How can the creator of the universe be wrapped in the clothes of a little Jewish baby on a cold night?  This is one of the mysteries of the Church for which we confess and give thanks to God. But perhaps the greater mystery is why. Why would God become man?

Now there’s a question we can answer, because our Lord has told us why He came to earth.  He came to earth because of His great love for us.  Love so deep and rich and passionate that He could not, He would not let us die in our transgressions. 

 He came into our flesh as a tiny baby; yet with all the attributes of His Father.  He came as one of us with this body, this flesh that God has given to each one of us, this is the flesh that we have tainted and abused by sin and greed. 

This is the flesh that holds all of our filthy thoughts, and these are the arms and legs and eyes and mouth and ears that each one of you uses to deny God, and to serve yourself rather than those in need around you.  It is into this weak and sinful flesh that Christ our Lord came; yet He remained free of sin.

John tells us, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.”  Our Lord did not come into the flesh to be an earthly ruler, or as some sort of superhuman.  No, he came into our flesh, as a human and He dwelt among us.  He experienced all of our hurts, our sorrows, our joys, and our pain.  That’s the sort of God we worship. Our Lord is not far off in heaven, looking down with a disapproving eye on all of our misdeeds.  No, He saw our sinful weakness our rebellious nature and came into our flesh to dwell among us and more importantly to save us from ourselves.  The Son of God entered the world of His creation to redeem it back from Satan and sin. 

So where do we find this Son of God today?  Did He go back into heaven after doing all of His work to save us and leave us to fend for ourselves?  Many believe that is the case.  Many teach that we have to ascend to God by our words and deeds.  The world today has all sorts of places to go to find God.  As we have entered into the new millennium, we see more and more bizarre cults and religious groups coming forth with the “truth” about how we find God. 

 But God has never been lost.  John clearly tells us: The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. He is still among us, especially where two or more are gathered in His Name. We do not find God. Rather God finds us through the Word made Flesh.   Luther put it this way:

“The Son of God did not want to be seen and found in heaven.  Therefore He descended from heaven into this lowliness, came to us in our flesh, laid Himself into the womb of His mother and into the manger and went to the cross.  This ladder He placed on the earth so that we might ascend to God on it.  This is the way you must take.  If you forsake this way and try to speculate about the glory of the Divine Majesty without this ladder, you will invent marvelous matters, matters that are above your horizon; but you will do so to your very great harm.”  

So what is the way to heaven and to God?  The answer is found in manger, the cross, and the empty tomb.  It is only through faith in Christ that we find God and ascend to heaven.  Many people will want to speculate about God, and try to put the focus away from Christ and back onto us.  That is always the temptation, isn’t it?  We so much want to get away from the cross of Christ and look elsewhere.  A little baby in a manger is cute, but death on a cross?  That’s morbid and depressing.  But it is only through this cross that God comes to us. When we look to the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we see the light of God’s salvation.

 Once again, Luther put it this way,

“We should hold of a certainty that when we look at Christ, hear Him, call upon Him, and worship Him, we are seeing, hearing, calling upon, and worshipping God the Father. . . For what you hear from Christ you hear from the eternal and invisible Father, because besides Christ there is no other God, nor are we to seek any other will of God.  Those who indulge their own thoughts and speculate about God and His will without Christ lose God altogether.”

So the light and glory of God is found in Jesus.  He did not glory in power and might here on earth.  As a healer, huge crowds followed Jesus, but as a preacher, He was a failure by earthly standards.  All deserted Him when He suffered and died.   John the Baptist did not call out, “Behold the mighty lion who takes away the sin of the world.”  No Christ’s glory came gently as The Lamb, a meek and lowly creature born of human flesh that is easily taken and killed.

That thought brings us back to the mystery of Christmas.  The angels and all the heavenly host sing of His glory, and we sing with them.  “Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.” 

We sing of Emmanuel, God’s glory, bound together in human flesh, dwelling among us as one of us.  Born, circumcised, lived, suffered, died, and rose again for you and for me.  This is His glory, that He would live the perfect life we cannot live, and die our death, so that we can partake of His glory now and in eternity.

John wrote, “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.”   Your baptism bound you to Christ’s life.   When you were baptized, all of the fullness of His indestructible life became yours.  You are bound to His eternal flesh in your baptism.  The fullness of His divine life is yours.  Life, real, everlasting life is yours through this babe of Bethlehem.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  He dwells with us today, and gives us of Himself in divine food and drink.  Here, in this holy place, we partake of His divine nature, and he gives all of the gifts won through His cross and resurrection to you.  In chapter 6 John tells you, “His flesh is real food and His blood is real drink.” (John 6:55) And as you learn and grow in Christ through worship, prayer and praise, His light shines forth through you. John goes on to say, “all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

The more you know and believe in Christ, the more His light will shine though you. And on that day………..when our Lord returns,………. all people will say to you, “You have your Father’s eyes.”

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting.  Amen.