The Word Made Flesh

“And the Word became flesh…” This text means many things, but let us focus on one profound meaning. The Word made flesh – God’s gift to us – makes it possible for us to become children of God. As God created all things through his Word, God re-creates us through his Word made flesh. When we believe in Jesus – when we give our self to him in trust, allegiance, and devotion – God spiritually remakes us in Jesus. We become new people, at the very core of our being.

This new life is a rich life – rich with the splendor, love, and goodness of God; and rich with the beauty and goodness of God’s creation. The opening of John's gospel (chapter 1, verses 1-18) overflows with a sense of the fullness that comes to us from the Word made flesh, from God with us. “And the Word became flesh…we have seen his glory…full of grace and truth.” “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” Jesus gives us life, abundant life.

We may not experience a sense of fullness of life every day in every way. Life can seem little else than boredom, disappointment, struggle, or sorrow. Sometimes this is because of circumstances around us; sometimes because of habits, dispositions, and characteristics within us. Too often life simply does not feel full of the fullness of divine grace and truth.

This is hard, but is it so strange? The Word did not become flesh as a fully formed adult. The Word did not live the successful life touted in popular culture as the life we deserve, as the life we can achieve. The Word became flesh like we did – as a baby, small and vulnerable, needing to grow. The Word suffered like we do – longing for a better world. Is it so strange that, in Jesus, we are spiritually born as babies, needing to grow, and continuing to suffer the ills of this life?

Yet the claim in John 1, the claim at the heart of Christmas, the claim that Jesus makes by his words and actions, is clear and true: the Word made flesh, the Word crucified, the Word raised from the dead brings new life. Mysteriously yet truly we can become new people in Jesus and begin to live in the fullness of divine grace and truth. We may not be perfectly able to do this today in every way. The question is, “Are we better able to do it today than yesterday?” In the power of the Holy Spirit, are we better able to experience in our mind and heart, in our words and deeds, in our self and relationships, the fullness of grace and truth in Jesus, the Word made flesh?

In the power of the Holy Spirit, let us commit to living in the fullness of grace and truth better today than we did yesterday, and let us commit to do this every day, that next year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Word made flesh, we are more like Jesus, as individuals and as a community of Christ, than we are today.