John 1:1-14
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
That’s It
2020. There were so many expectations for this year. I know of a few organizations who planned to capitalize on the pun “2020 Vision” to set their plans for the foreseeable future. Well, that didn’t work out so well, did it? Whatever plans anyone got down for this year or beyond had to be scrapped and reworked pretty quickly.
This was supposed to be an Olympics year. There were supposed to be graduation and wedding ceremonies that had to be canceled or postponed. A year of expectation turned into a year of disappointment. With only six days left, we may very well look back and ask, “That’s it?”
Disappointment doesn’t always have to be so profound or so global. Sometimes it’s much more acute and hits closer to home. How many children were disappointed in their gifts this year? Maybe there weren’t as many presents because there weren’t as many parties. Maybe they had been eyeing up that big, brightly wrapped package under the tree for weeks, only to open it up and find that it wasn’t quite what they had hoped or wanted. Depending on their age, they may have been too ashamed to say it out loud, but internally they wondered, “That’s it? That’s all I’m getting?”
There was so much excitement and anticipation leading up to that first Christmas too. We heard about it last night. In Genesis, God promised to send a hero to crush the head of our greatest enemy, the devil. In Isaiah, God promised to send a healer to reverse the curse of Adam and Eve and restore peace to the earth. In Micah, God promised to send a ruler whose greatness would be global and extend to the ends of the earth.
Even our Gospel Lesson for this morning establishes pretty high expectations:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.[1]
And then later John punctuates the built-up expectations we have for Jesus by saying, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”[2] That is some high praise for Jesus!
He’s called “the Word” and John says that he was God from the beginning. We heard it from Dave Korfman last night as he read Micah’s prophecy: “His origins are from of old, from ancient times.”[3] Jesus is the eternal Son of God, who existed long before the woman who gave birth to him was ever born herself.
Through Jesus all things were made. When we read Genesis, we hear that the creative process was simply that God spoke and something sprang into existence. God says, “Let there be light,” and there was light. In John, we hear that Jesus is the Word of God. He was the operative force in creation, which means that Jesus is not only eternal, but he’s all-powerful and all-knowing. He is the Creator and the Giver of Life. That is a glorious God who deserves our thanks and praise!
But John tells us: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.”[4]
Imagine the potential letdown of being told by angels from heaven that the long-promised serpent crusher, the curse reverser, the globally great, eternal, all-powerful, life-giving Saviour-God had just been born, but when you search for him all you find is a helpless baby in a feeding trough. No down duvet to comfort him, just a manger full of hay. No servants to attend him, just livestock lying nearby.
You would never expect the Creator of all this is and will be to need 9 months of gestation and growth in the belly of his mother. You would never expect the Giver of Life to be connected to his life source by a slender, spongy umbilical cord. If you were looking for glory, you’d go Jerusalem, not Bethlehem. If you were looking for majesty, you’d go to a palace, not a manger.
And if you were ready to dismiss his birthplace as a matter of mere accidence or circumstance, and you were carefully watching to see what kind of man he’d grow up to be, imagine the disappointment of finding the Word of God who spoke all things into existence with the breath of his mouth needing to pull a drawknife on a sawhorse just to make a table leg straight. Imagine a man whose own hometown friends and neighbours so thoroughly rejected him that they were ready to throw him off a cliff. Imagine a man who was supposed to save the world but couldn’t even save himself from dying on a cross.
Though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.[5] I imagine there were a lot of people who heard the rumours about Jesus but them took one look at him and asked, “That’s it?”
Do you ever feel that way? If God has all this power and majesty and glory, if Jesus is all he’s cracked up to be, then where was he in 2020? Where was he when my relationship fell apart? Where was he when my friend got sick and died? Where was Jesus during the natural disasters and the national unrest? Is this it? Is this all that believing in Jesus gets me?
And suddenly we’re transported back to the Christmas tree of our childhood and the look of disappointment that you just can’t hide from your face as you open a gift you had such great expectations for but were so letdown by.
Have you ever been on the other side of that exchange? You given someone a gift you spent hours working on or for, only to see the joy escape their eyes when they see it for the first time? It’s heart-wrenching, isn’t it? It’s a horrible feeling.
Imagine how God felt, then, when his Son wasn’t recognized by the world he created. This is the Son God loves. This is the Son our Father in heaven has spent eternity with. They worked side by side at the creation of the world. They appeared to Abraham and promised to make him into a great nation. They appeared to Moses in a burning bush and freed the Israelites from slavery to Egypt. Together they received praise and glory from Solomon’s Temple for hundreds of years. And now, when God gives his precious child to the world, the world sets him aside like a gift unwanted.
It’s the gifts we spend the most time and effort on that hurt the most when they’re unwanted. God wasn’t just sacrificing his own Son when he sent Jesus to be born at Christmas – that would have been hard enough – he was giving you his heart.
But God knew all this. He knew our pettiness and selfishness. He knew our forgetfulness and ungratefulness, and he gave us Jesus anyway. And in that way, God showed us the kind of giver he is, and at Christmas he gave us the greatest gift of all.
John says, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”[6]
That’s God’s grace in action! Even though we didn’t choose him – even though sometimes we treat him like the unwanted or forgotten gift – he chose us. It was his will that we become his children, and he made it happen. We weren’t born into his family; he called us through his Word and adopted us through the waters of baptism. We weren’t deserving of his love or perfect in our lives, but he washed us clean when he gave us his Son to be our brother.
John says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”[7] By virtue of his birth at Christmas, Jesus become one of us – not just like us, but one of us, i.e. a human in flesh and blood. That means that he understands what we go through in life. He can commiserate with our disappointments and sympathize with our pain, because he is Immanuel, i.e. “God with us.”
Jesus is not cold and distant; by virtue of his incarnation, he’s immediate and intimate. His isn’t a heart of steel or stone; it’s one that bled not just with blood but with love for you. That’s why Jesus was born and took on flesh, so that he could live and die for you. The manger scene may not have looked glorious on Christmas night. The scene at the foot of the cross didn’t look all that glorious on Good Friday either. But that is exactly where “we have seen his glory.”[8]
That’s where the gift God gives us at Christmas proved to be the greatest of all time, because there on that cross Jesus crushed the head of the serpent. There on that cross, Jesus reversed the curse and brought peace to the earth. There from the cross Jesus’ greatness has extended to the ends of the earth, to the degree that we – half a world and 2,000 years away – are still rejoicing at the greatest gift ever given.
God gave you his Son to be your Saviour. He took on flesh and blood and entered his own creation so that he could die to save it. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us for a little while here, so that we could dwell with him forever in heaven.
This Christmas, when you look at the manger, I want you to see God’s gift to you. Humanly speaking, the gift looks small. He looks fragile – maybe even a little dirty or disappointing. But after hearing what John tells us here, I pray you don’t look at that gift and say, “That’s it?” Rather, look at this gift and say, “That’s it! That’s what I need! That’s God showing his love to me! That’s God keeping his promises for me! That’s quite a gift. That’s the greatest gift!”
Amen.
[1] John 1:1-5
[2] John 1:14
[3] Micah 5:2
[4] John 1:10
[5] Ibid
[6] John 1:12,13
[7] John 1:14
[8] Ibid