Many times we heard the story of Christmas from the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, the historical events taken place two thousand years ago.
We talk about Mary and Joseph, we talk about shepherd and angels and we talk about Magi and King Herod.
Here in the Gospel of John the Christmas story is different. We will not see Mary and Joseph or any other historical characters here.
But we see here God and Word. And we Christians can understand the Word is Jesus who came to this world to live among us.
Let us talk about the incarnation of God: We Indians can have better understanding about a incarnation of a god or goddess. Because our Hindu culture have so many gods’ incarnations.
Even now, many sages come and tell us that they are god’s incarnation. Some people think that Mahatma Gandhi was also one of the incarnations of a god.
When we look at the incarnation of Christ, it is so different from Avataras. I don’t want to go into that details but I want to concentrate on the story of Christmas.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
So we have clear indication that God, Almighty and the Word, Jesus Christ is equal and there is no separation from each other.
One little girl asked her Sunday school teacher, “Who is the in charge of the world while Jesus was in the manger as a baby?”
It is a good question but it is complicated question to explain to a little girl.
Let us see what a commentator says about this:
“What Jesus taught and what he did are tied inseparable to who he is. John shows Jesus as truly human and fully God. Although Jesus took upon himself full humanity and lived as a man, he never ceased to be eternal God who has always existed, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, and the source of eternal life. This is the truth about Jesus, and the foundation of all truth. If we cannot or do not believe this basic truth, we will not have enough faith to trust our eternal destiny to Him. That is why John wrote this Gospel- to build faith and confidence in Jesus Christ so that we may believe that he truly was and is the Son of God.”
Woe, what a wonderful statement: We should believe that Jesus is fully divine all the time. Evan he was in the manger or he was in the Cross.
Then we come down to verse 14, “The Word became flesh” means became fully human.
“ and made his dwelling among us.” Some translators say, “And lived here with us.”
From the original meaning: He tented among us. Means he made his residence among us.
By doing so,
Christ became the perfect teacher- in Jesus’ life we see how God thinks and therefore how we should think.
The perfect example- as a model of what we are to become, he shows us how to live and gives us the power to live that way.
The perfect sacrifice-Jesus came as a sacrifice for all sins, and his death satisfied God’s requirements for the removal of sin.
By taking the Cross He forgives all our sins and gives us eternal life.
1 John 4:9. Our elected verse for this Christmas: “In this how God showed his live among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”
From the Old Testament Reading we heard: Isaiah 9:7. “ The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”
This is the God’s plan for our salvation. Whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.