Christmas Day
Jn
1:1-14
12/25/15
Amy and I have never been in a
position where we could take our time in looking to buy a house in an area that
already we knew. Each time – in the
Dallas area, the Chicago area, and then in Marion – we had a very small window
in which we could find a home. Each time
it was in an area that we did not know at all.
Under these conditions, you are not
going to recognize all the factors about the house and area. In the rush of looking for a house, then
finding it, going through the buying process and the house inspection, you have
only scratched the surface. It is only
once you actually buy the house, move in and begin to live there that you are
going recognize the quirky features – like why is that light switch behind the
door when you open it?
I had one of these realizations the
first night when I went outside. We had
– of course – looked at the house in the day time. We had the house inspection in the day time.
Something I never realized until the first night when we were in the home and I
went outside is that our neighborhood doesn’t have any streetlights. There are none. And so at night, things are really dark.
What is more, Marion is not a large
urban area. After living in the St.
Louis, the Washington, D.C., the Dallas, and the Chicago areas, I had gotten
used to the general glow that is present in an urban area at night. But Marion
is not urban, and when you live anywhere near the edge of town you really live
right next to a rural area that is very dark.
The Gospel lesson for Christmas Day
is the Gospel of John’s classic discussion of the incarnation of the Son of
God. John explains who Jesus Christ is
and what he means for us. He says that
Jesus is the light of life that has come into a world of darkness.
The Gospel of John is quite different
in character from Matthew, Mark and Luke.
John assumes that the reader already knows details about Jesus’ life and
ministry. So for example, in the Gospel John the Baptist says that the descent
of the Spirit on Jesus has identified him as the coming One – and yet the
Gospel never actually narrates Jesus’ baptism.
Factors like this have caused scholar to believe that John was the last
Gospel to be written.
John begins his Gospel with some of
the most remarkable and important statements in Scripture. He writes, “In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with
God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made
that was made.” John begins with the
words of Genesis 1:1 – “in the beginning.”
He says that when all things began there was the Word; the Word was with
God; the Word was God.
The Word is the second person of the
Trinity – the Son of God. The Word is distinguished from God, but also
confessed as God. We have here the mystery of the Holy Trinity: for the Father
is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father; and yet the Father is God, and
the Son is God. We learn that the Word – the Son of God – was active in making
all of creation.
In the last verse of our reading we
find the clearest explanation of what we are celebrating today. John says, “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.” The Word
is really God. And yet the Word really became flesh. With these words, John tells us that the baby
in the manger on Christmas is true God and true man. He is God in the flesh.
Jesus Christ is God. That’s what
John is saying. This text reveals how
silly it is to say that Christians and Muslims have the same God. Jesus fulfills a prophetic role, but he is
far more than a prophet. He is God in
the flesh. John’s Gospel leaves no doubt
about this. The risen Lord invites
Thomas to touch his flesh, and Thomas confesses: “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus is God, the source of all
life. And so John says in our text, “In
him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Jesus brings life, and so John describes him
as the light of men. As he goes on to
say in our text, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming
into the world.”
The Son of God entered into our
world in the incarnation. He entered into a world of darkness. He entered into a world of sin and death, a
world where Satan – a murderer and the father of lies – held sway. Jesus Christ came to bring life. He came to overcome sin and death by dying on
the cross and rising from the dead. He came
to give life to all who believe in him.
Jesus said of his death, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have
eternal life.” He declared: “I am the
resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he
live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
This is the good news that we
celebrate on Christmas. Now almost everyone celebrates Christmas – I mean, my
Hindu neighbors put up better Christmas lights on their house than I do! But not everyone celebrates Christmas because
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us – because of the incarnation of the
Son of God.
John addresses this reality in our
text. He says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not
overcome it.” John likes to use language
that means two things that are true at the same time. The verb translated here as “overcome” also
means “receive.” Jesus the light came
into the darkness of this sinful world.
The darkness has not overcome Jesus who conquered through his death and
resurrection.
But at the same time, the darkness
has also not received Jesus. As John
goes on to say in our text, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was
coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him,
yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not
receive him.”
The world of darkness rejects Jesus
– it does not believe in him. Later in
the Gospel Jesus explains why. Our Lord
declared that God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but
in order that the world might be saved through him. Jesus said: “Whoever
believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned
already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And
this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the
darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who
does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his
works should be exposed.”
Jesus is rejected because people
want to hang on to their ways of doing
things. They want to be in charge.
They do not want to let God be God.
And while you do believe in Jesus Christ, until you die or our Lord
returns, the same inclination continues to dwell in you as well. You face the continuing temptation to do
things your way and to make something else into god. In fact, this does happen. And so our life of faith in Jesus is also a
life in which we continue to confess that we are sinners who need Jesus each
day. We struggle against the darkness,
and so in faith we cling to Jesus because we know he has said, “I am the light
of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the
light of life.”
In his Gospel, John is the apostolic
messenger who has shared the good news about Jesus the light of life. At the end of the Gospel, John says, “Now
Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not
written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his
name.” This Spirit inspired word
continues to bring the Word become flesh to us.
The baby in the manger, now comes to us as the risen, ascended and
glorified Lord through his Word and his Sacraments. He sustains us in faith. He gives us forgiveness. He gives us life – life that extends beyond
death and will culminate in resurrection life.
This is a life that we want others
to have too. We want our family and our
friends to share in this life. Christmas
– both the amazing truth of the incarnation and the way people celebrate
Christmas without the incarnate One – puts this right before us.
And so Christmas leads us to reflect
upon those who need to hear about Jesus the light of life. Remember, Jesus’ word is always doing
something. It is a word that calls
people to faith. And it is a word that has
power, even when it is rejected. Jesus
said, “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may
not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do
not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The
one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I
have spoken will judge him on the last day.”
When you speak about Jesus, it is
Jesus who speaks. If Jesus is rejected, it’s not you who is being
rejected. There is something far bigger
happening. In his first epistle, John
said, “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever
does not believe God has made him a liar, because
he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.
And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in
his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God
does not have life.”
On this Christmas day we give thanks
for the Word become flesh through whom we have received life. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh – true God
and true man. In him is life, and that
life is the light of men. Because of his
death and resurrection you do not walk in darkness but have the light of life –
eternal life already now.
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