Revival and Renewal

John 1:1-18

Sometimes the images of Christmas are too familiar to us. We see the story reenacted year after year: Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus, with their attendants, stable-mates, and visitors. We theorize and imagine who and what would be there. Of all the images we use, one almost always stays the same: the child, wrapped in swaddling cloths, laid in a manger (Luke 2:7). 

Yet as we read the account of the birth of Christ in John’s gospel, we get a wholly different perspective. None of the familiar images are mentioned. Instead, we are told a story that goes much further back and higher up. We are told of One who in the beginning was called “the Word,” and who was both God and with God, Co-Creator and equal in power and identity (vv.1-3). This Word is the source of life and light, a light that beats out all darkness (vv.4-5). This Word is different from John the Baptist or any other character, biblical or otherwise (vv.6-8). 

From the high perspective of heaven and the long perspective of history, the Word has no equal. Yet in verse 14, we read these startling words: “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.” This peerless Word, who has the identity and authority of God himself, came and took on human flesh. He was not a ghost, a specter, or a phantom, but a real, bona-fide human baby. As real flesh and blood as you are right now. 

When we behold the infant Jesus placed in a manger, or at his mother’s breast, or growing in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:40), we are beholding One who is not just man but the God-man; not just flesh but God in the flesh; not just fully human but fully divine. This child is he through whom all life comes. This infant is the One who upholds the universe by his power (Hebrews 1:3). The mystery of the incarnation is that these two natures, human and divine, exist in the one person Jesus Christ.  

Now our images and celebrations are endued with a new glory. For these are not just nice stories—they are witnesses. Witnesses to the reality of the incarnation, to the reality of God, to the reality of the mystery, wonder, and grace of this Christian life. They are reminders that from Jesus Christ we receive “grace upon grace,” grace overflowing and filling every nook and cranny of our lives (v.17). They are testimonies to the truth that “no one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (v.18).