The “so what” of Christmas
Chris Jones
As I write this, it’s January 14th. The Christmas decorations are back in the attic. Hopefully, you are enjoying your gifts… or at least your kids haven’t destroyed theirs. Either way, this feels like a good time to take stock and ask what the point was of the season we just left. I suggest we look at John 1:14 to help us make sense of Christmas.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Sonfrom the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Word became flesh – John loves to juxtapose opposites for dramatic effect (light vs dark, etc.), and this is a prime example. The Word (John’s term for Jesus) becomes flesh. The idea is that the highest becomes the lowest. The contrast is the point. John is trying to get across how extreme a change of circumstances God went through when He became flesh. This is like Elon Musk going from the owner of Tesla to the guy who takes out the trash at Tesla.
The Word dwelt among us – Not only did God become flesh, but He came to live with us! Some of you live in some very nice neighborhoods. Is your neighborhood nice enough that someone would move out of heaven to live there?
We have seen His glory – John witnessed many glorious miracles in his time with Jesus. The glory of God was present when Jesus turned water into wine and fed thousands of people with a couple of fish and a bit of bread. As a matter of fact, John’s writing of this was a miraculous act of God’s glory. How else would you get poetry this good from the redneck fisherman son of a redneck fisherman?
Full of grace and truth – Jesus was a man of mercy and justice, grace and truth. He never excused wrongdoing, but He forgave like nobody’s business. There was never a man like that before Jesus.
All this sounds great, but the question is, why? Why would God leave heaven, submit Himself to being born in an animal’s feeding trough, and move into your neighborhood? Why would He display God’s glory to us through miracles, grace, and truth? What was He after that caused Him to go to such lengths?
You. He was after You. He traded heaven for a manger and eventually a cross, for you. So He could bring you to life. So you could share in His glory and love.
That’s the “so what” of Christmas.