Saint John takes us back to the beginning, back to when there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word brought all things into being. In Him was life, and the light was the light of man. Man was formed from the ground. The Word breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.
The Word often showed Himself to His Father’s people as light. The Israelites saw the Word as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night as He led them from Egypt to the Promised Land. Along the way it was time to build a temporary home for the dwelling place of God among His people. Our heavenly Father gave Moses specific instructions on how and what to use in building the tabernacle. Then came the day that the tabernacle was complete and the Lord visited His people. The cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle…. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.
Many years later the Word came to rest in the temple that Solomon built as the abiding presence of God among His people. The priests brought the ark of the covenant that once rested in the tabernacle into the Most Holy Place in the temple. When the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.
The Word, the light, remained in the temple in spite of the Israelites constant flirtation with false gods. God’s chosen people cheated on Him as they bowed the knee to their affluence, their prestige, their pride, and to everything else that made them look as if God had not set them apart from other nations as His own. The prophet Ezekiel received a vision from the Lord that showed him what was going to happen because of the Israelite’s infidelity. Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out, with the wheels beside them. And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.
The Israelites went from the realms of glory among earthly nations through a split into two nations. The northern tribes were conquered by the Assyrians. The light faded into obscurity among them. The southern tribe of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians and taken into exile. Jerusalem was left in ruins.
Ezekiel asked the Lord God: Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel? The Lord God responded: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my just decrees and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. The light was nearly dimmed, but still flickering among the tribe of Judah.
Judah returned to the Promised Land, rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple, and waited for the promise of Messiah to be fulfilled. Many more forgot the promise over time. The Greeks and finally the Roman Empire conquered them. A puppet king was placed over them. When the light seemed to have been all but extinguished, when half spent was the night, or so it seemed, the time became full for the Light of the World to come among His people.
The prophet Zechariah looked forward to that day. Not merely Jews would welcome the Word when He comes to His people. Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 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.
Light has come. The Word becomes flesh. The promise is fulfilled. The hope and fears of all the years are met in Jesus, Immanuel, son of Mary, promised to Joseph, born in a stable, laying in a manger, seen by shepherds, and adored by Magi. The witness of John the Baptist is true: This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.” John was not that light, but pointed to the light as a witness of the light.
How can someone eternal, someone begotten of His Father before there was the heavens and the earth, someone prophesied for millennia, someone seen in pre-incarnate ways by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and many others, be born as a human being implanted by the power of the Word spoken by the Holy Spirit into the womb of a virgin whose betrothed is of the house and lineage of David? This question is the greatest mystery of Christmas. It’s not a mystery that is solved. It’s a mystery that is believed.
Christ the Savior pitches His tent among us for me. Christ the Savior is born to die for my sins and be raised for my justification. Christ the Savior’s heel is bruised for me. Christ the Savior stomps the head of the serpent for me. The Word becomes flesh for me. The Light of the World shines on me. He is mine. I am His. He lives. I live. He fills me with His grace and truth. He glorifies me with His glory that shines above all men. He prepares a place for me in the kingdom of heaven, where I will live with Him forever.
All this, for you, because the Word was there in the beginning, and the Word desires to be in communion with His people. O come, let us adore the Word made flesh as He dwells among us in His proclaimed Word and in His Supper! Rejoice and be glad, beloved, for the Light still shines! Merry Christmas!
Media Vita In Morte Sumus 