A sermon on John 1:1-14 for Christmas Day. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz.
The most well-known and well-loved Christmas account, the one we read last night, is Luke chapter 2—and rightfully so. Luke puts forward in plain, straightforward language the events of the very first Christmas. But John chapter 1 is also a Christmas account, albeit from a very different perspective. John gives us this beautiful, poetic, theologically rich tapestry that explains who Jesus is and what His relationship is with the world. As we look at the miracle of Christmas in the Incarnation, we see how Jesus bridges the gap between us and God and how He comes to us still today in the flesh.
I. Disconnected from God
Here John uses an interesting title—almost a philosophical concept—to refer to Jesus: the Word. As the Word, Jesus is the expression of God and the manifestation of God in creation. We see “the Word” in the very beginning. John 1 links with Genesis 1, “In the beginning.” In Genesis 1, God creates everything out of nothing with His powerful Word, and in John 1, we see who that Word is.
The Word was God. Through Him, everything was made. He is life and light, which shines in the darkness. These are all beautiful, rich, deep pictures to describe the preincarnate Christ—Jesus before He became man.
But there’s a problem. The Light was coming into the world, but the world did not recognize Him. Everything was made through Him, but creation wants nothing to do with its Creator.
Humanity is living in darkness. And this darkness is not just the absence of light, it is hostility to the light. Those in the dark want to stay in the dark and hide themselves from the light.
By nature, we are all born into the darkness of sin. We want to hide from God and His light lest our sin be exposed. We close our ears to the Word lest we hear something that condemns us. We harbor secret sins and keep them hidden away from sight. We relish the darkness, we treasure what we do when no one sees. I don’t need to give examples, because I know that you feel them weighing on your heart.
There is a disconnect between us and God. There is sin which engulfs us. There is darkness that separates and divides us.
II. Jesus Bridges the Gap
Describing Jesus as the Word and light are beautiful images, but they’re a bit abstract and impersonal. What relationship can there possibly be between God, who is light, and us, who are darkness? How can the disconnect between Creator and creation be overcome? The answer is in the climax of our text. In the Incarnation, Jesus gets personal.
There seems to be a contradiction between the opening verses and the closing verses of our text. The Word was with God but now He is with men. The Word made all things but now becomes a part of creation. The Word was God, but now becomes flesh. This is not a contradiction, but a combination. Jesus bridges the gap between God and man by being both. “The Word became flesh” does not mean that Jesus was changed into flesh and stopped being God. No, Jesus remained everything He was but became everything He was not. He stayed God but became man. How can that happen? It can’t. It’s a contradiction. But the Almighty Word does what He pleases and does the impossible.
And the contradictions don’t stop there. Verse 14 continues, “we beheld His glory.” Jesus says in John 12:23, concerning His death, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.” He uses the term “glory” to refer to His death, which is what we see here in John 1 and in many other places in John’s Gospel. The Incarnation was not without a purpose. It’s pointing forward to Jesus’ glory in His death.
In the crucifixion, we see another great contradiction: God’s wrath and God’s mercy, sins punished and sins forgiven, the death of God and life for men. In the hiddenness of the cross, we see the glory of the Word most fully revealed. We see light shining in the darkness. We see the reconciliation of God and man.
In the Sacraments, as in the Incarnation, Jesus is bridging the gap between God and man as He comes to us. God is pure spirit, but we have physical bodies. There’s a disconnect. So God comes to us in concrete, tangible ways. If we only had the spoken or written Word, we might be tempted to think that our relationship with God is purely intellectual and could only be fed by reading the Word for sacred information. But God knows that we are physical, flesh and blood. He knows that we need personal assurance. So He gives us the same Word in a physical, personal way.
I have three small kids. And I don’t get to sit with them in church much anymore, so I soaked it up when I got the chance. But there were definitely services where I couldn’t hear the lessons read, I couldn’t listen to the sermon, where I didn’t “get” anything out of the spoken Word (I’m sorry for being crass). And that’s more my fault than theirs. But when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, I know that I got the goods. Maybe I didn’t hear or I couldn’t listen, but I know without a doubt that I ate and I drank. And because of that physical, personal reality, I know that I received the forgiveness of all my sins.
And I’ve seen how that’s valuable for my children, too. There are times when they’ve had to go in the cry room because it’s hard to sit through a sermon. I get it. Although it’s hard for them to sit through a service, in my experience, my children have been the most behaved, the most attentive when we take them up to receive communion. Even they know that here is something important, something sacred. The Sacraments speak the Word to us in a physical way. It’s the same Word of God coming to us.
It’s been said that every Sunday is a little Easter. Every Sunday we celebrate the resurrection, that’s why we gather on Sundays. In a similar vein, I propose to you that every celebration of the Lord’s Supper is a little Christmas. Every time we have the Sacrament, the miracle of the Incarnation happens again. At Christmas, the Word became flesh. Today, in our midst, the Word made flesh becomes present again.
In the Sacrament as in the person of Christ, there is a union of two things: one earthly, one heavenly. Just as Jesus is both true God and true man, so the host is both bread and Jesus’ Body and the wine is both wine and Jesus’ Blood. That can’t happen. It’s a contradiction, it’s impossible. It’s a miracle in our midst.
How does this happen? The same way the Incarnation happened, by the power of the Almighty Word. It is Jesus’ words spoken over the elements which cause this miracle to happen. The Word becomes flesh. The Word causes Christ’s presence. The powerful Word of God, which said, “Let there be light,” and there was light now says “This is My Body,” and it is. When the pastor says, “This is My Body,” those aren’t human words. They’re Jesus’ words. I’m not the one speaking. Jesus is. The Words of Institution are not a narrative recitation, they are the words of the Word which consecrate the elements, which make His Body and Blood present in our midst. Every celebration of the Lord’s Supper is a little Christmas as the miracle of the Incarnation happens again, as the Word becomes flesh.
Just as the Incarnation had the purpose of the crucifixion, so Jesus’ presence in the Supper has a purpose. The focus isn’t just that Jesus is there but that He is there for you. He is coming to you. He is there to give you His gifts: the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. He is present under the bread and wine so that He might be present in your heart. He unites himself to the elements so that He may be united to you.
John 1 probably isn’t your favorite Christmas account, and that’s okay. And if you think about the Incarnation too much, you might give yourself a headache (which actually did happen to me when I was preparing this sermon). But at Christmas, in the mystery of the Incarnation, we see Jesus bridging the gap between us and God as the Word becomes flesh. This same mystery is present in the Supper as the Word made flesh, Jesus, who is both God and man, is present by the power of His word in a very special way. And this presence has a purpose: Christ comes in the flesh for you. Amen.
