A New Roommate
Posted on Dec 25, 2016 by David Whetter
Merry Christmas! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Now I love this text, but it doesn’t seem very “Chritmassy,” does it. Where is baby Jesus, where are Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the manger… In the Gospel of John, you will not find any mention of baby Jesus, or Marry, or Joseph, or the shepherds. And, yet, the Gospel story assigned every year for Christmas morning is this text.
Well, fro John, the notion of Emmanuel God with us, is critical and John isn’t overlooking the meaning of Christmas. No, actually this gospel writer wanted to make sure we all knew the very meaning of Christmas when he wrote this opening line to his Gospel. For John, Jesus, the Word of God, was not an afterthought. Jesus, was not an idea God came up with when all else failed. No, John wants us to know that Jesus, although not yet revealed to the world, was “In the beginning.” God’s plan for salvation was not something that God had to think up after the fact. No, Jesus was present and active in God’s creation. Secondly, creation came to be through the Word, Jesus, “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him;”
This term that John uses, Word, in Greek is logos. This word appears in the New Testament seven times in total. Four of the times are right here in this lesson. The other three are in 1 John, Revelation, and 2 Timothy. As the Word, Jesus is, in effect, God’s Word, and it has the power to intimidate politicians and leaders alike, and it has the power to communicate God’s presence and love to a world yearning for peace and love.
“In the beginning...” John uses the same phrase here that the writer of Genesis 1:1 used. We hear these words and understand that the beginning was long before the birth of Jesus, God in human form.
With all of this in mind, I want to jump to the end of the text for today. In Verse 14, we read, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.” For me, this verse is the ultimate good news. This is the most critical piece of information that we need to know. For you see, in these fourteen verses, we, the readers of John’s Gospel, become insiders in the unfolding witness in this gospel. Unlike the characters in this Gospel story, we are privileged to information that those in the story must go through great lengths, and sometimes, painful ones, to find out. What we know is that this one, who we find out in verse 17 is Jesus, was with God, is God, and came into the darkened world to be the light. But for John, it is also important for us to know how God came into the world, and here in Verse 14, he tells that God’s Word became flesh. The Word became flesh, and it has the power to create, the power to give life, the power to bring light into the dark, and it lived among us. This is what we celebrate today. We have a God that chose to not only create us, to love us, but also to come and be with us. Our God is not some distant God that looks over us from afar. Our God is here, right now, in this place. That is the Good News. God is with us, Emanuel!
Not only does John tell us that God became flesh, but John also uses another very important word here. The word in Greek that we translate as “lived,” as in “lived with us” is eskanosen, and it literally means, “he tented.” In the literal translation of this verse, we would say, “The Word became flesh and he tented with us.” What is so important about this word is its ancient meaning? Well, in the Hebrew text, the equivalent Hebrew word is used when God has Solomon build the Temple which would become God’s home. Prior to this, the Hebrews always had a “tent” in their community which is where God resided. When the moved, so did that tent and God, would go with them. Once that temple was built, God would no longer reside in the tents as the people moved around but God would live in that temple. But when the Word became flesh, John tells us that God now would “tent” in the flesh. In Christ, God chose to once again live with us, that is “tent” with us, where ever we were. As John points out, in Christ, God no longer resided in a fixed temple that cannot go where we go. Our God tents with us. Our God goes into the darkest places of our lives with us and provides that light that we so desperately long for.
Brothers and sisters, today we do not celebrate just the birth of Jesus. As Christians, we are celebrating that fact that we have a new roommate in our lives. We have a God that knows we cannot find our way back to Him in this darkened world, so this God comes to live with us. John makes it very clear that we have a God that comes to us and lives among us. What did we do to deserve such an awesome God? Absolutely nothing! For as John tells us in Chapter 3, it was God’s love that caused this action, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…” God gave us God’s son out of love, his love for the world.
Today the Church gathers to begin the celebration of the Season of Christmas, the season in which we celebrate the living God, the God that out of love chose to come down to us, the God that out of love chose to give his only Son so that his creation may share in God’s glory. Today we celebrate God’s ancient promise that all creation is good.
So, Merry Christmas! For today we know that God has brought light into a darkened world and today we know that God is with us. Amen.