The Incarnation

THE INCARNATION

 

John 1:1-14

 

One word kept popping into my thoughts as I thought about the core truth of Christmas: Incarnation. 

            How do you explain the incarnation? Yes, God became a man. But really, is that adequate? I have tried to articulate the wonder and the miracle of God coming near and find that words fail to express the reality of it. I have spoken of this mystery to congregations before expecting a reaction and instead a response of silence. Perhaps that’s “awe.” Or perhaps we just don’t know what to do with “God become flesh.” 

            That’s probably to be expected. Leon Morris wrote on this text saying that two things stand out. “The one is the astonishing fact that the Word of God, true God as He is, yet took upon Him man’s nature. The other is the even more astonishing fact that when He did so men would have nothing to do with Him,” (John, NICNT, 93). John tells us two things in this text that he doesn’t want us to miss: the good news of the incarnation of Christ and the tragedy of man’s rejection of God.

            If we could have done an autopsy of Jesus when he died, we would find that he was flesh and blood. But take the blood, that’s the real mystery. Or specifically his DNA. Would we find that he had the X chromosome from his mother, but not the Y chromosome from his father? The child was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary. Would modern science have detected anomalies in the biological makeup of Jesus?

            John was not concerned with the science. He wrote about the Word who was God saying, “He came into the world he created…” reflecting on v. 3 where it says God created everything through him. God entered creation; from the realm of the eternal, the Creator became a finite creature. 

            “…but the world didn’t recognize him,” (10b). John said this another way: the light of life came into the world, but darkness could not overcome it (comprehend it; extinguish it). The Creator of our vast world was unrecognizable to the created beings. 

It gets worse: He came to the people he chose to be his own special community and THEY didn’t recognize him. No, they REJECTED him. 

            It’s a sad commentary on the sinfulness of humanity that we should act in hostility to a loving God who comes to live with us. We killed the One who came to explain God in his very self. 

            Thanks be to God! It doesn’t end there. “But to all who believed him and accepted him (not everyone said “no” to Jesus) he gave the right to become children of God (they receive the full authority to become, not to be, but to becometransformed). They are reborn…” (not by their efforts or power, but by God’s will and power). They “become” impacts us with the reality that we cannot simply choose to be God’s children, but that God transforms us. 

            This is the message of Christmas that speaks loudest to the believer: “So the Word became human and made his home among us…”

 

            This is Incarnation. God is speaking to us today through his Son, Jesus Christ. In this Christmas season he invites you to behold, not just a babe in a manger, but a King of kings, the Creator in creature’s clothes.