A baby in a manger. Is there a more iconic image of the Christmas story than that?
If you grew up in the church like me, it’s almost guaranteed that some of your core memories involve nativity sets or singing “away in a manger” or putting on little plays where everyone dresses like barn animals and stares down at a plastic doll.
The idea of baby Jesus in a manger is so familiar, in fact, that I think if we’re honest we might even say it feels a bit cliche. We see the image again and again and we think, “Yeah yeah, reason for the season and all of that. Pour me some more egg nog.”
I know that’s our tendency. It’s my tendency. But this December, I want us to rediscover the true significance of this moment in time - to recapture the shock, the scandal, the mind-boggling miracle of Christ as a baby in a manger.
I want us to focus our hearts and minds on the staggering implications of God’s own Son becoming a human. But not just that he became a human (which is shocking enough in itself!), but how.
How: Born in a human body like yours and mine. Born into a poor, low-class family in a nation occupied by an enemy empire. Or for that matter, the Son of God spending his first days sleeping in an animal’s food trough.
This December, I want us to turn our minds to the shocking humility - you could even say the humiliation - of Christ’s birth and why he chose to enter our world in that way. If we do, I think we’ll realize that even cliche nativity scenes might just have the power to bring us to our knees.
Let’s pray and then we’ll dive in.
THE WORD OF GOD
Our passage for today is John 1, Page _____. It is technically the Christmas story, but not exactly the one we put up on our mantle.
Also, just a fair warning. We’re kicking things off in this series with a bit of mind-bending theology. Things are going to get pretty deep today. The rest of the series won’t be so theologically dense, but today you’ve got to get your thinking caps on. Let’s read.
John 1:1-5
In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
Ok. The Apostle John is using some very dense theology here. “In the beginning the Word already existed.” What in the world does that mean?
Well, let’s talk about the Greek word that John is using here. λόγος (logos) - word
It’s used hundreds of times in the New Testament. It means, literally, something someone says. A word, a statement. But here, it’s as if John is raising logos to a whole other level. The Word with a capital W. It’s not just a statement someone says; it’s a person.
Now, there are mountains of books written about this. Greek philosophers use the concept of logos, and so do Jewish rabbis. I’m not going to bore you with the details but let me share the way I’ve come to understand the biblical logos of God.
All throughout Scripture, we see that when God speaks, things happen.
For example, it is God’s word that creates the universe (“Let there be light”). He speaks and things come into existence.
When God tells his prophets the truth, it’s called “the Word of the Lord.” (“The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah”). Also, the law of Moses is sometimes referred to simply as the “Word of God” - these are the commands God expects his people to follow.
You add all this up and you see that essentially, the Word of God in Scripture is the will of God going out into our world. God’s desires spoken to and enacted in Creation. Put simply: The Word of God is what God wants being made real.
Are you with me so far? The Word of God is what God wants being made real within his Creation.
Ok, but here in John, the “Word of God” is not just an idea; it is a being. It’s God’s desires embodied somehow as a person. So, here’s how I define it:
The Word (logos): The personified will of God.
It’s a person who is, by his very nature, the desires of God made real in our world. The personified will of God.
And here’s where things start to melt your brain, because, verse 1. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Somehow the Word and the Creator are one and the same, yet also distinct. I told you this stuff was deep!
Here’s why we’re talking about all of this at the start of a Christmas series: because as John goes on to explain, the Word of God is actually Christ himself. The Son of God who is in his very nature God himself but yet also distinct from the Father.
This is who came into our world on Christmas morning. When we look at Christ what we are seeing is God’s desires made real in a person.
Are you confused enough, yet? I am! I think about this stuff all the time and I still can’t wrap my mind around it. And I haven’t even mentioned the Holy Spirit, who is also God and yet distinct from both the Father and the Son.
The three persons of the trinity exist in an eternal dance of self-giving love and yet together they are one God.
Don’t worry if you’re not following this. This is confusing and mind-bending stuff. It always has been.
We are going to get back to baby Jesus in a manger in just a second. However, if these concepts are something you want to try and understand a bit more, I have a phenomenal book to recommend to you.
It’s called Delighting in the Trinity. I’ve read it several times and it’s always a breath of fresh air to me when I’m trying to wrap my mind around the nature of our God. Right now is a perfect time to read it.
It’s not exactly a Christmasy book, but in a way it kind of is because it explains the incarnation of Christ in a really engaging way.
But enough trinitarian theology. Let’s get back to the passage, because this is where things get really amazing (as if they weren’t already!).
So let’s recap the main ideas John presents here. The Word - the personified will of God - existed in the beginning. Verse 3. God created everything through the Word. Verse 4. The Word gave life to everything. And his life brought light to everyone. “Let there be light.”
Don’t miss this: According to Scripture, these are the things that Christ himself has accomplished. The Word of God. He’s the means by which all of creation came to be. He is the source of light and life. He is God’s will - God’s desires - made real. He is the Son of God. He is God.
THE WORD BECAME HUMAN
That is who Christ is. So now - with all of that in our minds - let’s skip down to verse 14 and see what he did next.
John 1:14
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
The Word became human. Literally, the Word became flesh and blood.
Think about this for a second… The pre-existent Creator of everything became a physical part of his own creation.
The one who breathed life into humans became a human. When the infant Jesus took his first breath, he awakened into the very same life that he himself brought into this world.
Why would he do this? Why would Christ - the Word of God - take on flesh at all? Well, the answer is two verses before. Verse 12.
John 1:12-13
To all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
That’s why Christ became a human. For you. For me. He did it so that we could enter into the family of God. Not merely as flesh and blood humans, but as something more. Something eternal.
Jesus himself says it this way later in the gospel of John:
John 3:16
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Perishing - death, brokenness, decay - that is what defines our current existence. Eternality - life, renewal, rebirth - that is what defines his.
Christ entered into our existence so that we could follow him from this to that. The logos of God - the very desires of our Creator made real - took on flesh and blood and made his home among us here so that his eternal home could become ours.
The fourth century theologian Athanasius put it this way:
“The Son of God became human so that we might become God.”
Athanasius of Alexandria (4th c. AD)
What he means is, in Christ we can now be freed from the corruption and death and sin and brokenness of our lives, just as God is. We can be adopted into the family and the presence of our Creator. If we put our trust in Jesus, we are invited into the loving dance of our triune Creator for all eternity.
The Word of God was born as a human so that we could be reborn as children of God.
I told you were going to need your thinking cap for this one. It’s intense and deep. And yet this is what we celebrate at Christmas.
The next time you look at a nativity scene or sing a carol about baby Jesus in a manger, I want you to consider the staggering humility on display. The profound love of the eternal Word of God who lowered himself so completely because he wanted to lift us up.
The Word of God who came to us not as a burst of power. Not as a thunderstorm or an earthquake. But as a helpless human infant in a body just like yours.
When you think about baby Jesus in this light, remember that he did it for you. If that doesn't leave your jaw on the floor this Christmas, nothing will.
PART II: DOES THIS MATTER?
Each week in this series our messages are going to be in two parts. In the first part, we’re going to reflect on the theology of the incarnation. The staggering humility of the way the Son of God chose to be born. Again, in a human body, in an occupied nation, in a low-class family, and in a manger.
But in the second part of the message each week, I want to make things a bit more personal. To answer the question, “does any of this really matter?” How does this affect my day-to-day life?
For example, today let’s ask this: Sure, the eternal Word of God was born in a human body. So what?
To answer that, I’ll start with this. Lots of ancient cultures had stories of the gods and humans interacting. Most cultures in fact.
Sometimes the gods took on the appearance of humans. Like Athena pretending to be a shepherd in Ithaca to help Odysseus get his wife back. Or Vishnu taking on an avatar to bring balance back to the world.
In other words, the gods looked like humans, but they were essentially just pretending. They’re wearing a human body like a costume.
On the other hand, sometimes humans were made divine and worshipped like gods. For example, Julius Caesar apparently appeared in the skies as a comet a few months after his assassination. From then on, he was referred to as divi iulius (divine Julius).
The same was true for Xerxes in Persia or Alexander the Great or Caesar Augustus. They were all worshipped as gods. Essentially these were humans who, because of their great deeds here on earth, were supposedly given divine attributes and powers.
The point is, there was a lot of back and forth between the gods and humanity in the ancient imagination. So, I suppose the question could be raised: Was the story of Jesus’ birth just more of the same?
Well, according to the Bible, the answer is no. The birth of Christ was something completely different.
This was not just God pretending to be human. It also wasn’t just an ordinary human being turned into a god.
No. The birth of Jesus was a moment unlike any other. Because in this moment the very Creator of our universe - the God above all other gods - actually became a full-blooded human.
He never lost his divinity which he had from before the Creation of the world, yet he also never fell even an inch short of his full and complete humanity.
A moment ago we asked the question, “does any of this really matter?” Well, here’s why the answer is absolutely yes.
Because Jesus Christ went through puberty. The Word of God had body odor and nose hairs. He got hungry and thirsty and sad and lonely. He shed tears of laughter, and he shed tears of grief.
And probably most astounding of all, the Creator of Life began his human existence as a helpless infant completely dependent on his mother to survive… this wasn’t just for show.
The pre-existent Word of God experienced everything that comes with being a human.
Why? Because he loves you.
Because he would do anything to bring you home, including taking on an imperfect human body just like yours. A body that could be killed. A body that could be crucified.
So that through his resurrection, you could share in his eternal life. So that through his own bodily rebirth, you too could be reborn.
John 1:13
Reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
This matters. Because your savior is not some dispassionate deity judging you from a cosmic mountain.
Your God is not an otherworldly stranger pretending to be a man and he’s not a man pretending to be a god.
No. Jesus Christ is fully human and fully divine. By becoming one of us he did among us what we could never accomplish on our own. Bringing life again into a world filled with death.
He became a human because he loves you and he longs to be with you in your humanness.
He longs to share your sufferings so he can redeem them. He longs to be with you in your grief so you can find peace.
He longs to walk with you through the twists and turns and triumphs and failures of your life so that he can teach you in the midst of them how to become just like him: beloved of the Father, saved from death and decay, and called into a mission beyond yourself.
This is not an academic exercise. This is an invitation for you to trust that you do not walk alone. Your God is with you.
That is what we see when we look at our nativity sets. The Word of God took on flesh and blood - became a helpless infant – fully God yet fully human - so that all who put their trust in him will not perish but have eternal life.
You don’t have to understand the mystery of the incarnation. But this Christmas I want you to believe it.
COMMUNION
Philippians 2:6-8
Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
BLESSING