Christmas Eve Meditation

John 1:1-5, 14-18

The Word Became Flesh

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

*******************

I learned a lot about having a child this year. And by that, I mean that I learned a lot about watching my wife have a child this year. While she was undergoing pregnancy and having a child grow inside of her, I was getting into the best shape of my life and competing in triathlons. So let's not pretend that both sides of this equation are equal.

But still, I was with her every step of the way, even when those steps got a bit shorter and slower as Caleb grew. I was with her in the delivery room, throughout the long labor, and I have been ever since. And the one thing I gained from this experience is the wisdom that having a child is not an everyday occurrence. It's not easy, nor is it safe. Caleb was not in a big hurry to come into this world, and Rachel and I both came to the conclusion that had her pregnancy occurred 100 years ago, neither she nor Caleb would have likely survived the labor. Having a baby is a risky endeavor, and not for the faint of heart.

And so it amazes me all the more this year, as we come to this miraculous Christmas eve, that God chose this dangerous, risky process by which to bring a Savior into the world. Our God, the One who spoke the world into being, could easily have had a little boy materialize somewhere in the wilderness to be adopted by some loving family, perhaps by Mary and Joseph on their way to Bethlehem. Or Jesus could have simply appeared in the wilderness at the age of 30, having skipped all the dangerous years beforehand, and not much would have changed. Mark and John's Gospels would read the same.

But God chose to have Jesus come into this world as a baby because God longs for us to worship Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, to turn from sin to Him. And in order for us to worship Him, we have to be able to trust Him first. We have to be able to trust that he understands us, that he knows what it is like to be scared, to be sad, to be human. We have to be able to trust that Jesus doesn't save us out of pity, but out of love, because he knows exactly what it is like to be human, and he shows us how to live in our humanity, not trying to avoid it, but embracing it.

In Jesus Christ, God becomes vulnerable. Trust me, there is nothing more vulnerable than a newborn infant. The only things that Caleb can do are cry, eat, dirty his diaper, and flail his limbs without any semblance of control. It's amazing to think that our Lord and Savior was once the same way—he couldn't hold his head up without the help of Mary and Joseph. This is the One who came to save—and does save. He was dependent on humans.

Thousands of years later, the church still depends on humans. God uses us to carry the message of Christ forward. Without the church to be His hands and feet, the message of Christ flails around here in the manger—confronting no one with the awesome message of love. But your hands and your feet have been chosen by God to be the objects to carry the message of love and grace forward. God is depending on us, the feeble and sinful church, to share Christ's love with the world.

God invites us to join in with what he is doing in the world. God uses us, just as God used Mary and Joseph, to move forward the redemption of all of creation.

This Christmas, may you celebrate the reality of a Savior who comes as a man, fully human and fully God, to offer us salvation, and may you rejoice that this Savior invites you to play a role in the redemption of humanity. God uses people, you and I, to work in the world—won't you join in?

Let us pray.