I’m typing this in the days between Christmas and the New Year. The days when we are coming off of the crazy December schedule. The days when I’m least likely to know what day of the week it actually is. The days when I can just breathe.
But I didn’t want to leave the Christmas season without writing about Christmas Hope, because this year this truth grabbed my heart in a way that left me breathless.
John 1: 14 describes Jesus’ birth with these words “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”
He calls Jesus the Word made flesh.
The more I’ve let this phrase turn over in my mind, the more I’ve fallen in love with Jesus, the more I’ve seen that it really is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance, and the more I’ve been convinced that others need to see God’s kindness flowing through His people before they are going to want to know God.
The Word of God has a very specific job and an all- encompassing reach. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:22)
In his commentary on Hebrews, John Calvin says “This means that it [the Word] tests the whole soul of a man. It inquires into his thoughts and it searches his will and all his desires. It means that there is nothing so hard or firm in a man, nothing so deeply hidden that the efficacy of the Word does not penetrate through to it.”
God has given His Word the task of penetrating to the most secret thoughts of the heart.
In His interactions with people throughout the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Jesus did exactly that. He brought to light the thoughts from the innermost recesses of hearts. He scattered the darkness so that people could see Him.
The Word became flesh and drew sinners to Himself.
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” John 3:17
He came to say There is something missing in your life. I know you sense that. I know the darkness is overwhelming. I have come to shed light and give you life.
In a religious society that thought rule-keeping was the way to holiness, Jesus taught that obeying out of love for Him was the way to know Him.
We can get to know Jesus by reading through the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In these books we can see His gentleness with those who were struggling, with those who didn’t even know they needed Him until He spoke to them. We can see His compassion.
The Christmas Hope is that Jesus came to show us what God is like in order to draw us into relationship with Him. He knows us and wants us to know Him. The Christmas Hope is that this broken world is not the way it was meant to be and it’s not the way things will always be.
When Jesus begins to scatters the darkness inside our hearts, His light will shine into our world, and those around us will be drawn to Him. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us to bring hope and light into a dark world.
And today, whether it is Christmas time when you read this or not, I hope you will allow the Word of God to touch your heart in the places where the darkness has convinced you there is no hope. I hope you will ask the Word of God to shine His light, scatter the darkness, and show you what it truly means to know Him and live.