"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
Last night we heard those familiar words of the Christmas Gospel according to St.Luke. Luke gives us the history of our Lord's birth. It happened at a particular time when Caesar Augustus ruled the Roman Empire and Quirinius was governor of Syria. It happened at a particular place- Bethlehem in Judea. Luke tells us of shepherds and angels, of Mary and Joseph. He gives us the details right down to the manger and the swaddling cloths. A few minutes ago we heard St.John's Christmas Gospel. John doesn't tell us anything about Caesar Augustus or Bethlehem. We hear nothing from him about Mary or Joseph, or the Christmas angels or the shepherds. Luke gives us the historical details of Jesus' birth while John shows us Christmas from the perspective of eternity.
John opens his Gospel with those majestic words "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Before there was a Bethlehem, before there was a world at all there was God, the Blessed Trinity. And this God who Has life in Himself, spoke the Word who is His eternally-begotten Son and by that Word created the heavens and the earth. God crowned His creative work with the creation of Man. In Genesis we read "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him: male and female He created them" (Gen.1:27). Adam and Eve were with God. They lived in the garden which He had made. They walked in the light of His face and reflected God's glory back to Him. They knew only good- the very goodness of the God who had fashioned them in love and made them to live under Him in righteousness and holiness forever.
When Eve listened to the voice of the serpent and believed his lie that God could not be trusted. She ate of the fruit of which God said "You shall not eat." She gave to Adam and he ate. Their eyes were opened. Shame and death became part of their vocabulary. They are separated from God. God says to them "For dust you are, and to dust you shall return." To be born is to live toward death. The world which God created bright and beautiful is now corrupted and darkened by the shadow of death.
It was into this world that the Eternal Word of the Father came. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
Adam and Eve exchanged the glory of God for the shame of sin. And we, their descendents are by nature children of wrath. The glory of God and the sin of man is a deadly combination. In the Book of Exodus, when Moses prayed to God saying, "Please show me your glory," God answered him sayng "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me and live." Then God hides Moses in a cave, covering him with His hand. God says to Moses "I will take away my hand, and you shall see My back, but my face shall not be seen." Now that glory which Moses could not see has come to us. That glory has come to us in the Word made flesh. And wonder of wonders, John says that "we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." In the flesh of God's Son, we see the very glory of God. And we are not destroyed by that glory for it is the glory of God who comes in our flesh to be our Savior.
Martin Luther writes "It is because of His humanity and His incarnation that Christ becomes so sweet to us, and through Him God becomes sweet to us. Let us therefore begin to ascend step by step from Christ's crying in His swaddling clothes up to His Passion. Then we shall easily know God. I am saying this so that you do not begin to contemplate God from the top, but start with the weak elements. We should busy ourselves completely with treating, knowing, and considering this man. Then you will know that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. So He set forth His weakness that we may approach Him with confidence." God honors our humanity by clothing Himself in our flesh and blood. And in that flesh and blood, He suffers and dies, rises from the dead and ascends as our Savior. When we look to that baby lying in the manger, we our God and we behold His glory. And so we praise Him this Christmas Day:
"All praise to Thee, eternal God,
Who clothed in garb of flesh and blood,
Dost take a manger for Thy throne,
While worlds on worlds are Thine alone" Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.