John 1:1-14
With complete credit and much appreciation to Rev. Kevin Golden and Concordia Publishing House's "Behold the Child" Advent series, and with slight revisions for my proclamation.
As much joy as that brings, it gets better. How long will the tranquility last? It’s only a matter of time before an argument erupts between siblings. And, at some point, that holiday tradition you wish would just die will come to life again—the comments on the attire of others, the rolling eyes when a certain family member enters the room. Being home means you need grace to forgive one another. And that grace is yours because Someone else has made His home with you. God has pitched His tent with you so that you may behold His grace.
When something is important, we attach a lofty word to it. So it is today. Christmas rejoices, not just in a birth, but in the incarnation. That’s from the Latin for “in the flesh.” Today we rejoice that the Son of God is in the flesh. It’s a chief mystery of the Christian faith—the eternal God takes on human flesh.
St. Augustine marveled at the incarnation: the Creator of all things enters His creation; He enters a womb that He had formed. It transcends our minds, because God transcends our minds.
Still we confess the incarnation; we believe it; we rejoice in it, because we receive unending blessings from it. God in human flesh brings all of God’s blessings to humans. The chief blessing is His grace. John speaks of the incarnation, saying that the Word became flesh. And then he tells us the divine purpose for the incarnation. “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” (John 1:14).
As we heard it sung last evening:
“There they found the wonder child, in lowly swaddling clothes lying,
Yet all the world with His free grace supplying.”
Today we rejoice. The Word has become flesh so that He dwells among us. It’s the great news for us today. The Word—the eternal, divine Son of God—has become flesh. He has taken on a human nature, flesh and blood, in the womb of Mary and has been born in the flesh. That’s why we celebrate today. But there’s more to this verse, more reason to celebrate. A more precise translation says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”
In the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, God tabernacles among us. The tabernacle was a tent designed by God Himself so that He would have a place to dwell among His people. That design was given to Moses shortly after the exodus from Egypt. “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle” (Ex. 40:34). The tabernacle would serve for nearly five hundred years before it would be replaced by the temple, which had the same design but was a permanent structure rather than a tent.
Jesus tabernacles among us. Everything that God promised about the tabernacle now stands fulfilled in Jesus. He is the place where God dwells among us. No more need for a tabernacle or a temple. Jesus is where it’s at. And that is saying a lot.
The tabernacle was a place of awe. It was apparent that God was present in the tabernacle, because there you beheld His glory. It was a cloud that rested in the innermost part of the tabernacle, the Most Holy Place. While only the high priest would enter the Most Holy Place, and only once a year, the glory of the Lord went out the top of the tent into the sky. It could be seen by all, no matter where they were standing or sitting. It was an awe-inspiring sight.
And now that awe is bound up in Jesus. He is born and appears as any other child. There is nothing in His appearance to make Him more glorious than any other person. Yet you can still marvel at Him. In this man, the eternal God dwells. This child lying in His mother’s arms is the one who created the whole universe and even the motherly arms that hold Him. Marvel at the majesty of that. How great is your God that He can humble Himself to be born of Mary yet remain the source of all things.
Just as the tabernacle inspired awe, it also produced fear. The glory of the Lord that could be seen coming out of the tabernacle is the same glory that the people of Israel had seen on Mount Sinai when the Lord descended to speak to Moses. It looked as if the mountain were on fire. A boundary was set around the mountain so that no person or animal would step on it, lest they die.
That same fear should be ours as the Word tabernacles among us. It’s no small thing to be in the presence of God. The Most Holy Place was the precise location of God’s presence in the tabernacle. Only one day a year would the high priest entered it, and that only after certain sacrifices had been made to cleanse him. To walk into the Most Holy Place outside of that protocol would mean death. Sinners do not just waltz into the presence of the holy God.
That has not changed. Don’t be fooled by Christ’s humility. Yes, He comes as a baby, but He is still the holy God. He is still the Creator of all things. When I honestly assess my sin, it leaves me shuddering in fear when I think of approaching the One in whom we behold of the glory of God.
Yet the faithful kept coming to the tabernacle, and for good reason. Yes, it is an awe-inspiring place as you behold the glory of the Lord. Yes, it is fearful to know you cannot hide your sin or explain it away as you behold the glory of the Lord. But you also have His Word and promise. The Lord commanded Moses and the people of Israel to construct the tabernacle, and He told them why. He promised that it’s the place where He would dwell among us, His people, with grace.
God desires to dwell with His people. But He also knows they are sinners who cannot live to tell the tale if they behold His unfettered holiness. So He puts on a mask. He desires to be truly present with His people, and He wants them to live to tell the tale. That is grace. That is the tabernacle.
And it’s all bound up in Jesus. Here in the child born of Mary God is dwelling among His people with grace. He will not be apart from you, so He puts on human flesh as a mask. That is grace. All of that grace is in Jesus, and that explains why He took on our human nature. Grace comes at a price—a price that you and I cannot pay. So Jesus pays the price in His flesh. The glory of God will be revealed in its fullness at the cross. On the night when He is betrayed, Jesus prays, “The hour has come; glorify Your Son” (John 17:1). At other times, Jesus says it is not yet His hour (John 2:4). His hour is at the cross; that is the time of glory, glory that abounds in grace.
With His unending grace, you have just the place to dwell—in the tabernacle, in Jesus. His presence, His glory, and His grace is no less available for you today than it was when He was lying in Mary’s arms. He still wears a mask today so that He can dwell with you. His glory was manifest to you in your Baptism, a glory that remains with you. His glory is ever present with you in Scripture and in hearing the Word of Christ, a glory that remains with you. His glory is truly present under bread and wine. Right there, He comes to you with the very same body and blood that Mary held in her arms, the very same body and blood that was crucified for your salvation, the very same body and blood that rose from the dead, the very same body and blood that will come again for you on the Last Day, the very same body and blood in which you behold His glory, the glory of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus tabernacles with you. So welcome home! You are home right here because here is where Jesus is present through His Gospel, His Baptism, and His Supper. That means God is at home with you because of Christ. “God’s own Son is born a child . . . ; God the Father is reconciled.”
“O sing of Christ, whose birth made known
The kindness of the Lord,
Eternal Word made flesh and bone
So we could be restored.
Upon our frail humanity
God’s finger chose to trace
The fullness of His deity,
The icon of His grace.” (LSB 362:1)
Amen.
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