John 1:1-18; Titus
3:4-7; Exodus 40:17-21; 34-38
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
“The Word became flesh and made His
dwelling among us.” There it is. That is the basis of your redemption. Without
the incarnation of the Word of God, there could be no salvation for you.
Because of your sin, and because of your parents’, and their parents’, and your
First Parents’ sin – which is all your sin – you fell from God’s grace. No,
that’s putting it too lightly. Rather, you rebelled against God’s grace. You
threw it off of you like a damp blanket. You left yourself naked in your sin
and rebellion before God’s holy and righteous face, and you couldn’t hide,
though you tried. But He could see right through your feeble façade. God was
right, and you were wrong. And, because you were wrong, there was no way
possible for you to make yourself right with Him once again. God must be
reconciled, and you couldn’t do anything to make that happen. Therefore, He did
what was necessary to reconcile you to Himself. “The Word became flesh and made
His dwelling among us.” The incarnation was the basis of your redemption, but its
fulfillment was yet to come.
“The Word became flesh and made His
dwelling among us.” That wasn’t the first time, though it was the final, the
last, and the eternal time. For, the LORD had always dwelt among His people in
various ways. Of course, in the Garden, before the Fall of our First Parents,
God dwelt with them, walking and talking with them, in the cool of the evening.
But, after the Fall, man could no longer abide in God’s holy presence, lest he
be destroyed in the face of His holiness and righteousness. Therefore, it was
in mercy that the LORD banished the man and the woman from the Garden that they
might not eat again from the Tree of Life and live in eternal separation from
God and His presence. However, before He sent them packing, the LORD sacrificed
an innocent beast and shed its innocent blood that He might clothe Adam and
Eve’s nakedness and cover their sin until time was full and He would send His
only-begotten Son into the flesh to be the sacrificial Lamb of God’s offering
that would take away the sin of the world.
The shedding of innocent blood and the
covering with skin, with flesh, is a key Old Testament type of the Incarnation
of the Son of God, the Word made flesh and dwelling among us. The innocent
blood and the fleshly covering are typological symbols of what would be
necessary to reconcile God in His relationship with humanity. Innocent blood,
blood that is not corrupted and tainted with the stain of sin, must be shed and
must cover, atone for, and wash away the sin of men. Innocent flesh, holy and
righteous flesh, must cover sinful men, and incorporate them into the New Man,
the Second Adam, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, with whom the LORD God is fully
pleased.
And so, God instructed Moses to erect a
tabernacle made of wooden poles and animal skins, a tent of fleshy skins in
which God would dwell among His people. Within the tabernacle, Moses placed the
Ark of the Covenant containing the testimony of the LORD, the Ten Commandments,
Aaron’s budding staff, and a pot of manna. The Ark was covered with the Mercy
Seat, flanked by fiery Seraphim, upon which the atoning blood was sprinkled. In
this way, the Glory of God dwelt among His people.
Within the tabernacle, the Priests
performed animal and grain sacrifices before the LORD on behalf of the people. And,
while it is true that these sacrifices never took away or forgave sin, they did
indeed permit God to overlook the peoples’ sins for a time, for He had attached
His Word of promise to them that He would overlook their sins and spare them.
Centuries later, the tabernacle was replaced by Solomon’s temple and, later
still, Herod’s temple. The LORD would be present among His people in the temple
just as He was in the tabernacle, and the sacrifices would continue just as
before. However, neither the tabernacle, nor the temple, nor the sacrifices
were an end in themselves, but they were shadows and types of a fulfillment yet
to come – the Temple made without human hands, and the sacrificial Lamb of God
that would take away the sins of the world.
“The Word became flesh and made His
dwelling among us.” The phrase “made His dwelling” is only one word in the
original Greek, eskēnōsen. It is the
exact same word that is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for
the tabernacle. Literally, it means “pitched a tent.” Therefore, we could read
John 1:14 this way, “The Word became flesh and pitched His tent among us.” The word implies an intimate dwelling
together with man, a living together in a domestic sort of way, making a home
together and having a family together. Yes, that is what is connoted in the
words “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.”
In the
Incarnation of the Son of God, the Word of God made flesh, God has incorporated
humanity into Himself. As the ancient Church has put it, “God became man that
man might become God.” We are not God in and of ourselves, but we have been
incorporated into God through Holy Baptism and faith in the Word made flesh
Jesus Christ. Undoubtedly the very best symbol the LORD has given us to
understand the kind of God He is and the kind of relationship He desires to
have with us is marriage. “It is not good that the man should be alone.” When
the LORD made Adam, He had no intention of leaving him alone. Eve, His wife,
was not an afterthought, but was God’s divine plan from the beginning. The LORD
joined Adam and Eve in marriage – the LORD’s creation, not man’s, or the
state’s, or the court’s. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother
and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
No, Eve was
not an afterthought, and neither was marriage and family an afterthought.
Indeed, one cannot fully understand the meaning of the Incarnation apart from
these symbols, these types, and foreshadowing the LORD has provided. For, from the
beginning, God’s plan was to receive you into Himself. Now, many have
speculated, even Martin Luther, how the LORD would have accomplished this if
our First Parent’s had not plunged humanity and the world into sin and death.
While it is speculation, Luther believed that the LORD still would have found a
way for humanity to become one flesh with God. Perhaps, Luther thought, they
might have fallen asleep, as in a bed of roses, and awoken to a new and fuller
life? Regardless, the point is this: Your God and LORD desires to dwell with
you, to make His home with you, to marry you, and, yes, to have a family with
you! That is why the predominant theme throughout the Holy Scriptures depicting
your relationship with God is marriage.
The
incarnation of the Son of God, the Word of God made flesh, is the beginning of
the redemption of your flesh, even as the death and resurrection of Jesus is
the redemption of both your body and soul. God has redeemed the Bride by
sending His Son, the Bridegroom, into your flesh to suffer and die and be
raised to new life with the promise that your flesh and blood bodies will be
raised to unending life as well. However, you have already begun to live that
new life, life that will never die. Yes, your bodies are still under the curse
and will surely die – you feel that and know that each and every day of your
life as you grow older and weaker. However, your bodies will be raised new and
holy and will be wed with your new spirit born of water and the Word in Holy
Baptism. Therefore, the incarnation of the Son of God has meaning for you now.
And so it is
that Christmas is every bit as much about your redemption and salvation as is
Easter. “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us,” and that has
changed everything, already, now! In the Incarnation of the Son of God, the
Word made flesh, God has begun to remake you in His image once again, the image
and likeness of His Son Jesus Christ. Though this work will not be complete in
you until the resurrection of your body, you are already changed, and you will
continue to be changed until then. Once you were in darkness, but now you are Light
in the Lord. Therefore, put away the works of darkness and walk as children of
the Light. Emmanuel, God with us, is with you, always. He has pitched a tent in
your midst that He might make a family with you and bear within you the fruit
of the family, love: Love for God, and love for your fellow man.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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