The Word Became Flesh by Jason Edwards
The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.
(John 1:14, The Message)
Some people think there is no Christmas story in John’s gospel. That’s just not true. John’s Christmas story is found in its prologue, John 1:1–14.
It’s a bit different than the other Christmas stories. In the other gospels, we read about Mary and Joseph, Zechariah and Elizabeth. In the other gospels, we read about a donkey, an inn, and a ride to Bethlehem. Not here, because here the Christmas story is being examined from a different vantage point. John is narrating it from the perch of the cosmos, wanting us to perceive what happened from a God’s eye view. John wants us to understand right off the bat that this little baby’s birth is going to change the world. Our world — our day in, day outlived experience. He will do it by fully entering into that lived experience.
“The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood,” wrote Eugene Peterson, in his paraphrase of the story. It was an epic shift, unlike any in the history of creation. God had been with us before, but not like this. This new thing in creation — God in creation — happened ultimately to bring about a new creation. The first Christmas truly changed the world.
This one can too. How?
It happens as we actually allow the Lord of all creation to truly become the Lord of our lives, so that the Word who became flesh all those years ago might continue, through us, to move powerfully through the neighborhoods of our lives, illumining all of our relationships with God’s love and God’s grace.
If we allow the one who came into the world that first Christmas to change us, this Christmas will change the world too. What might that look like for you?
Jason Edwards, Senior Pastor