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December 25, 2006
Christmas Day
John 1:14
Pastor Robert Raasch

The Word Became Flesh

1. What it Means Doctrinally
2. What it Means for our Lives

If you were to go out on the street and ask people, "What do you think the miracle of Christmas is?" what answers do you think you would get? I expect someone might say, "The miracle of Christmas occurs when people discover that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Or the miracle of Christmas is what happens when the family comes together around the Christmas tree. Or the miracle of Christmas is the transformation that takes place when an old penny pincher named Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas. And I guess some might say that the miracle of Christmas is how that big guy in the red suit gets down the chimney each year.

Of course there are others who recognize that the real miracle of Christmas is found in a Bible story. The real miracle has to do with the birth of baby named Jesus. And yet, sometimes people are a little fuzzy on exactly what that miracle was. Was it that this child survived being born in a stable? Was it that the animals all spoke on that night? No. Maybe the real miracle was a virgin conceived without relations with a man, or that the angels announced his birth from the heavens or that the shepherds came to worship him or that the Magi were led by a star. While all those things are true, they don't represent the greatest Christmas miracle. The greatest Christmas miracle, in fact, the greatest miracle that our world has ever seen is found in four simple words. They are recorded here in John's gospel, chapter 1, v. 14:

The Word Became Flesh

My friends, that's the Christmas miracle. This morning we want to take a little closer look at:

1. What it Means Doctrinally
2. What it Means for our Lives

First, what do those words mean doctrinally? In other words, what do these words mean, in layman's terms? I mean this is kind of a cryptic statement, isn't it? "The Word became flesh." Well, let's break it down into its individual parts. The "Word" is the Greek word "logos." It can be translated "word, or message or conversation." But notice that here the word is capitalized. That's because John uses this term as a proper noun. The Word refers not to something, but rather to someone. Who is that someone? John tells us in verse 14. John writes, "The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Whose the One and Only (or as it's sometimes translated, "the Only Begotten")? It's of course, God's Son. So that's the first thing we need to know. The Logos is the second person of the Trinity.

But now, there is something else we need to go back and learn about the Word. In the very first verse of his gospel, John writes, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." What does that mean? It means that when time began, the Word was already there with the Father and the Holy Spirit. And, in fact together they were all God. You maybe remember the conversation that God had with himself recorded in Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in our image." From before the very beginning of time, God has been three persons, who are all equally eternal, equally powerful, equally divine. Or, as we confess in the words of the Athanasian Creed, "The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. Yet they are not three Gods, but one God." So, 1) the Word is the Son of God; and 2) The Son of God is God. That means that the Word is God.

Now, let's go to the second half of this all important statement, "the Word became flesh." The Greek word for flesh is "sarx." It's the word the Bible uses to describe our human nature, the human body, our flesh and blood. So what is meant by the statement, "the Word became flesh"? It means that God took on a human nature became man. Or to put it even more simply, God became man. Theologically, that's referred to as the Incarnation. "Carnis" is the Latin word for flesh. So incarnation means to "come into flesh." At the moment of his conception in the Virgin Mary, the Son of God came into flesh, that is, he took on a human nature.

Now, you realize that there are a lot of people who misunderstand this idea of God becoming man. They say, for example that: 1) Jesus was born a man just like we are and that God merely called him "his Son." Or that 2) Jesus was a man who by his perfect life became God. In a sense, he was promoted from human to divine. Or maybe the most popular theory, 3) that Jesus was God from eternity, then became a man and lived and died as a man and then, when he ascended into heaven, he became God again. It's kind of a riches to rags to riches story.

Unfortunately, none of those explanations are consistent with what the Bible teaches about Jesus' incarnation. Scripture makes it clear that while the Son of God has been God forever, still at the time of his conception he took a 2nd nature and he is now 100% true God and 100% true man forever.

Now, at first glance you're maybe thinking, "Yeah, that makes sense. That's how I've always understood it. That's not so hard to believe." Oh, really? Then let me give you a little quiz. If God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, would it be accurate to say that on Good Friday…God died? Would you sing with the hymn writer, "O sorrow, dread; our God is dead?" Is that accurate? Yes, it is! Now, maybe you're thinking, "Wait a minute. How do you reconcile that with the fact that God, by definition is eternal and therefore can't die?"

How do I reconcile it? I can't-any more than I can reconcile how Jesus can be God and man. Or how God can be a spirit and yet have flesh and blood, or how Jesus can be God and yet cry out from the cross, "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" If there is only one God, how can God be forsaken by God? How can a God who is everywhere at once suddenly be confined to the body of a baby? How can God be all powerful and suddenly be too weak to hold up his own head? How in the world can God be a man and still be God?!?

I don't know! I can't explain it. In fact, Luther said that trying to explain the incarnation is like trying to illuminate the sun with a candle or trying to catch a crocodile with a bluegill hook. It can't be done. The whole things is way bigger than we are. The fact is, when Mary looked at that baby in her arms, she was looking at the face of God. Isn't that amazing? When I went to watch the Nativity Story in the movie theatre last week, that's the thought that kept running through my mind. "That little baby is the God of the universe. God Almighty stepped into our world at that particular time and place and became a baby. Wow!

In fact, isn't that what the Prophet Isaiah said about the birth of this child? Isaiah 9:6: "he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Actually the Hebrew word for Wonderful is not an adjective. It's a noun. Jesus will be a Wonder. That's the same term that the Hebrews used for what we would call a miracle. The prophet was saying that Jesus, in and of himself, would be a miracle. Long before he turned water into wine or fed the 5000, Jesus himself was already the greatest miracle. He was, and still is, God and man in one person. He is the Word Incarnate. That's what John meant when he wrote, "the Word became flesh."

So, does that have any application for you and me today? Absolutely. Let's consider II. What those words mean for our lives today. The fact that God became man in the person of Jesus means a number of things. First, it means that God Almighty is not some kind of disinterested observer a million light years away. God took on flesh, stepped into a body just like ours and therefore knows exactly what we're going through. Scripture says that Jesus "shared in our humanity." And Jesus is a high priest who is not unable to "sympathize with our weaknesses." In fact, the writer the Hebrews says that "he was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin." That means that in Christ, God experienced all the same emotions that you've experienced. He knows exactly what it's like to lose a loved one. He wept at the grave of Lazarus. He knows what it feels like to have someone turn their back on you. He knew what it's like to have Satan keep hammering away at you, with one temptation after another. He knows about the physical pain that a human body often has to endure. In other words, because he's both omniscient and human, he knows exactly what we're going through in life.

And yet, God became man to do more than sympathize with our human weaknesses. Jesus became man to live a perfect life in our place. St. Paul writes, "When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law to redeem those under law" (Gal. 4:4). What does that mean? It means that in order to save us, God didn't merely stand up in heaven saying, "C'mon people. You've got to get it right. You gotta start obeying me. You've got to start keeping my commandments." No, rather, Jesus said, "Let me come and obey God's commandments for you. I'll become a man and live the perfect life that God demands of all of you." And since God's law also establishes that death is the penalty for sin, I'll take care of that, too. I'll also die for you. And even though I'm God, I can die because I'm also a human."

That's what Jesus' human nature means for our lives. But what about his divine nature? Is it all that important that that baby in the manger is God? What if he were simply a sinless son of Mary? Well then, he would have saved himself from hell. But in order to pay the price for the sins of the whole world, Jesus' blood had to be more than the blood of man. It had to be the blood of God. In Acts 20, St. Paul says that Christians as the church which "God bought with his own blood."

Do you realize what that means? It means that you or I need never say, "God doesn't care about me." No, wait a minute. God cared enough about each one of us to shed his blood for us. And not only that, God has also given his righteousness to us. That's what the prophet Jeremiah means when he called Jesus "the Lord, our righteousness." Each one of you can be sure that your sins are covered, and that you are all right in God's eyes. You can be sure of it because that baby in the manger is God.

My friends, let's face it. The events of that first Christmas Day are familiar to all of us. We've heard them read, we've maybe recited them as a child. Yet it is my prayer on this Christmas Day that those words never grow old in our hearts, but rather fill us with a sense of wonder and awe as we reflect on that precious, yet incomprehensible truth that, in that little baby boy…God became man, for you and me. "Marvel now, O heav'n and earth, that the Lord chose such a birth!" Believe it. Cherish it. And celebrate the miracle that God has accomplished-for you, in his Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.