Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

Christmas Day 2004

John 1:1-14

TITLE: “We Beheld His Glory”

In the name of the Father and of the  Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our text for today is the Gospel lesson from St. John chapter one, particularly verse 14: The Word was made Flesh and Dwelt Among Us.

One of the great words of the Christian faith is the word incarnation. It literally means in-flesh-born, or maybe in-meat-born. Born with flesh and blood. Jesus-con-carne. We’re not talking about some kind of high and mystical birth, a spiritual birth, or God kind of appearing like a human being. No, when Jesus Christ comes to earth and is born of the Virgin Mary, He is flesh and blood, a real man for real sinners. Or, as our Creed so rightly confesses it: who for us men and for our salvation, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For us men, for us sons and daughters of Adam, he became man. He takes on our very nature and likeness, so that we might take on His very nature and likeness.

Now in the midst of the cuteification of Christmas, it is difficult sometimes to see the real point. St. John records that the same was true even in Jesus’ day. He writes:

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Why is it that Jesus would come into our lives as a little baby, poor and helpless, only to be rejected by the very ones He came to save? Yet it is precisely for these sinners that Jesus comes to earth. Jesus comes to seek and to save the lost. And He comes in a way which is as humble and lowly and easy to see as anyone could ever imagine.

Yet it is through Him, and only through Him, that our entrance to Paradise is gained. Martin Luther put it this way:

“We should hold of a certainty that when we look at Christ, hear Him, call upon Him, and worship Him, we are seeing, hearing, calling upon, and worshipping God the Father . . . For what you hear from Christ you hear from the eternal and invisible Father, because besides Christ there is no other God, nor are we to seek any other will of God. Those who indulge their own thoughts and speculate about God and His will without Christ lose God altogether.”1

When we see Jesus, here in His Word, on His Altar, at this Font, we have access to God the Father. For it is only through Jesus that God comes to us. Yet this is for us the very best of news. For when you go to God through Jesus, you are now kings and queens who reign together with Him in heaven above! This is how our hymn puts it:

He is a servant, I, a lord;

How great a mystery!

How strong the tender Christ Child’s love!

No truer friend than he,

No truer friend than he. (LW 44:5)

But St. John reminds us again, But the darkness did not comprehend it. In Jesus’ day, many looked at Him and saw nothing. A babe born in a cattle shed. A carpenter who thought He was a preacher. A rabbi who called himself the Son of God. They were in the dark. They had no faith. They didn’t get it.

It is the same today. This day is the feast of feasts for the Christian Church, this and Easter. Yet how many of our own flock would rather spend their Christmas morning watching a parade or football or some other past-time than spend it with the Lord who gives us His flesh? Jesus was despised 2000 years ago, and so it should not surprise us that He is despised even today.

But no matter. Christ our Lord comes to us whether we ask Him or not. For heaven knows we don’t deserve His coming. But He comes in spite of us and our sin. Lowly, meek and mild, He hides Himself in bread and wine, and gives us not food for the body, but food for the soul. To the world it makes no sense. But to God’s children, the Word is still becoming flesh. And His gives us His flesh for now, and for all eternity.

Merry Christmas in Jesus’ name. Amen.

And now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through faith unto life everlasting.