Today’s Scripture Readings

Gospel Reading

NRSV

— John — 1 — 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

“The Word became flesh and lived among us.” (John 1:14) This line, celebrating the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, is surely the most thrilling in all of scripture. The impossible paradox that the eternal one, the almighty God, should become a creature just like us is certainly astounding, perhaps confounding.

Confounding because we are flesh: we are finite, mortal creatures. Isaiah (40:6-7) tells us that “all flesh is grass, and its flowering is as the flowering of grass”. All our flowering, all our achievements, will come to nothing in the end: the paths of glory lead but to the grave. In light of this sobering reality, why does it matter if God should become flesh? Though an amazing thing for him to do, does it really change anything for us?

Well, it changes everything because in his coming Christ gave us the “power to become children of God”. (John 1:12) This is the power that transforms us from the transitory blossom of flowering flesh to the eternal reality of divine life. And what is the power that achieves this transformation? Love. It is the capacity to be loved by Jesus with the Father’s own love that enables us to give love in our turn. This is the love of him who is “close to the Father’s heart”: a God who is not just infinitely powerful, but also infinitely tender. And this tender Word of love that was spoken into the darkness of Bethlehem two thousand years ago teaches us to love, and thus to become immortal. For as Isaiah (40:8) also tells us, “The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever.”