Deo Gloria
Sermon for December 25, 2022
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: John 1:1-14
Theme: The Word Became Flesh!
(God Becomes One of Us!)
There once was a man who lived in a cave in Africa. On December 25th he was all by himself—no Christmas gathering with all the relatives. He had no gifts, no decorations, no music, no table full of food, not even a glass of eggnog. Can you imagine that, not even a glass of eggnog? All he had was an old, worn Bible. So he opened his Bible to John ch. 1 and he read to himself, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Then he closed his Bible and prayed in his heart, “Thank you, God! Thank you for sending your Son into the world to be our Savior!”
In the meantime, there was a family here in America. Their house was decked out with every decoration you could buy, including life-size figurines of Santa and his reindeer in the front lawn. The house was packed with people—relatives from both sides of the family. Bing Crosby was singing about snow and open fires on the stereo. The table was covered with food. Children were opening one gift after another as the parents made small talk in the background. A good time was had by all. Then, one by one, everyone went home. There was no mention of Jesus. No one opened their Bible. No one said a prayer of thanks to God. Now who really celebrated Christmas—the man in the cave, pondering in his heart that “the Word became flesh” or the family at the traditional, Christmas get-together? Isn’t it a blessing this morning that you don’t have to sit by yourself in a cave somewhere and worship God on your own? What a blessing that we can gather together as a family of believers and ponder this miracle of God because this is what Christmas is really all about. This is what gives us reason to celebrate and give thanks to God: The Word became flesh. God became one of us!
In the opening chapter of his Gospel, John uses the phrase “the Word” to refer to Jesus. In fact, you can substitute Jesus wherever it says “the Word.” “In the beginning was [Jesus], and [Jesus] was with God, and [Jesus] was God. He was with God in the beginning”(v. 1). Isn’t that amazing to think about? Jesus existed long before Christmas. Technically, Jesus wasn’t “born” on Christmas. He became a human being on Christmas. Jesus existed long before he became a human being. According to John, he was even around at the beginning of time. Jesus is God.
Do you know why John calls Jesus “the Word” in his Gospel? In Old Testament times, if you wanted to see God, you would have to look to his Word. Nature, of course, would give you a little bit of a picture. But for a clear picture of God, you would have to look to the Old Testament Scriptures. Thing is, they didn’t have books back then like we have today. In fact, most people didn’t read. So most people would need to listen. If I wanted to see God, I would have to go the temple or go to the local synagogue, close my eyes, and listen. And I would hear the Word of God. I would listen to amazing stories and gracious promises and fearful warnings and wonderful blessings. Those words were how I saw God.
But on Christmas everything changed. The Word became flesh. Instead of being far-away and distant, God became up-close and personal. He became human. Just think about that. If you wanted to, you could jump on a plane today and tomorrow you could be standing on the same hill and seeing the same views and splashing in the same lake as the Maker of heaven and earth did. God became human. He stepped onto our planet. And he gave himself the name Jesus. Isn’t that interesting too? Jesus is the only infant I know of who named himself. Before he was born, he sent an angel to tell Mary and Joseph what to name him.
This is what sets the Christian faith apart from all other religions in the world. Only in Christianity does God become human. In all the other world religions, God keeps his distance. But not our God, not the true God. He didn’t just write us a letter or send us a representative. He actually became one of us. He spent nine months in his mother’s womb, putting on the same human flesh you and I are wearing right now. Isn’t that amazing?
The story is told of a crazy, old man. At least, everyone thought he was crazy. The man took care of horses for a living. And every winter he would lock himself out of his house and move into the barn with his horses. He’d sleep out there in the barn and eat with them and drink with them. One day someone had the courage to ask him why he did this. He told them, “I want to know what it feels like to be a horse.” The point of that odd story is that this is what God did on Christmas. He locked himself out of heaven and went to live in this “barn” we call earth. He put on a human body and allowed himself to be born into a lowly, peasant family. He even spent the first night of his life in our world, sleeping in a stable for animals. God did that. But why?
It’s because our world was a very dark place when he arrived. I’m not talking about it being night time. I’m talking about our world being dark with sin. Adam and Eve brought sin into our world. And ever since then, every human being has been born with a sinful heart. And that sinfulness can be seen in the selfishness and self-centeredness in our world. Have you noticed that: how selfish and self-centered people are at times? Have you seen that come out of your own heart too? Deep down, every human being wants to be God. “I want to be in charge of my own life. I want to rely on myself. I want to make money for myself and spend my money on things I want and spend my time with people who make me feel good about myself—me, me me!” That’s self-centeredness. And that’s sin. We all have it. The world is filled with it. Adam and Eve acted in a very self-centered way when they sinned many years ago. Basically what they said to God was “God, we don’t want you to be our God anymore. We want to be our own god.”
And ever since then, the world has been a very dark place spiritually. Deep down, everyone knows that there’s something wrong here, that there’s something missing in their lives. Our relationship with God is broken. There’s a hole in my heart, and nothing fills it. There’s a dark cloud hanging over our planet, and it isn’t going away. People try to forget about it with decorations and snowmen and cookies and presents; but that dark cloud doesn’t go away. There’s sin in our world. There’s sin in my heart. And that sin leads to death, eternal death in hell.
That’s why God became human, why he stepped into our world. Listen again to vv. 4+5: “In him [Jesus] was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” When God stepped into our world, it was as though a bright light had been turned on in a dark and dirty basement. Jesus, the light of the world, had come. In him was something that was lacking in our world: life—not physical life. There was plenty of that. The life Jesus brought was spiritual life. Do you want to have a relationship with God? That’s life—and Jesus brings it. Do you want to understand where you came from and what the purpose of your existence is? That’s life—and Jesus brings it. Do you want to have hope, hope that when your 70 or 80 years on this planet are over, there’s something more, something better? That’s life—and Jesus brings it.
But why was it so important for Jesus to become flesh? I mean, why couldn’t God just send down an angel and that angel could set up shop somewhere and we all could go and listen to him and he could set us straight? The reason God became flesh is so that he could die. Isn’t that awful? When a baby is born, you’re not supposed to think about how he or she is going to die. And yet, when you look at the baby Jesus, you can’t help but think about his death, because that’s the number one reason he became human. God became human so he could die for you and me, so he could take all our sins upon himself, including the worst and most horrible sins we have ever committed, including the sinful nature we inherited from our parents. Jesus was born so that he could take those sins upon himself, and 33 years later, offer his life on the cross as a payment for those sins. That’s why God became human.
And look at what happens as a result. Look at the benefit you and I receive—v. 12: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Those who believe in Jesus become children of God. Isn’t that good news? God became a part of our earthly family, so that we, through faith in Jesus, could become part of his heavenly family. Jesus took on our flesh and died with all of our sins, so that you and I might rise from the dead someday and live with him forever. This is what Christmas is really all about.
In a week or so Christmas will pretty much be over for most people. The presents will all be opened. The food will all be gone. The decorations will be back in their boxes. And the Christmas tree will be out on the curb, waiting for the garbage man to pick it up. But the one part of Christmas that’s never over is what we read about in v. 14. It’s the best part of Christmas, the part that lasts all year long: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling 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.” Amen.