God in Flesh

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”—John 1:3

The details of the story are well known. Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem for a census decreed by Caesar Augustus when the time came for her to give birth. Unable to secure adequate housing for the evening, the young couple was forced to stay in a stable where Mary gave birth to a son, Jesus. She wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger.

Of the four gospels, only two give testimony to the birth of Christ while the other two are surprisingly silent about that event. Mark begins his gospel with Jesus’ baptism, while John takes a much more spiritual approach. Rather than focus on the physical details surrounding Jesus’ birth as did Matthew and Luke, John pulls back the curtain and allows us to see God at work: “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” That is the wonder of the Christmas season—God assuming flesh and then living among us.

God’s promise plan of redemption has sometimes been depicted as the greatest story or drama of all time. God, the grand writer, steps into the play—like Shakespeare into Hamlet. Except God is infinitely greater and didn’t simply cross from script to performance; no, God stepped into time, putting on the flesh of His creation so that He might bring us to Himself.

The wonder of the Christmas season is not only that God came near to His creation by putting on flesh, but how He could place Himself under the same rules, guidelines, prejudices, and injustices of our finite, fallen selves (Philippians 2:5-7). In our humanity we ask the question, “What would possess God to do such a thing? What would cause Him to love so much? To give up so much?” But the answers fall far from our ability to comprehend. God simply gave Himself because of His love (see John 3:16)—the dynamic operative force of self-giving so that we may not be self-pleasing, but self-denying. Or as C.S. Lewis so eloquently expressed it: “The Son of God became a man that men might become sons of God."

In our humanity, we have a god-complex, whereby we desire to become gods in our own right, but we cannot. While made in the image of God, it is only by denying our humanity and embracing the self-giving Son of God that we might truly understand what it means to be “sons of God” (Luke 20:36; Romans 8:19; Galatians 3:26). May this Christmas Eve be a time of wonder and joy as we consider the implications of God coming near. Amen.