I’m sorry, but this is yet another text about the true meaning of Christmas. And to make it worse, divided into three parts. As if the stream of perspectives and reflections that flows from all quarters on "The Meaning of Christmas" at this time of the year, I, irreverently - and perhaps irrelevantly - leave here my own 50 cents of perspective (a perspective that I hope it’s informed by nothing other than the Bible, the only reliable source of information on the story of Christmas).
The first thing we have to understand is that the story of Christmas, albeit sublime - God being born in the world that he created as a helpless baby, from the womb of a virgin - speaks little of what is absolutely essential in the Christian message . If we have nothing but a little baby lying in the straws, we have an incomplete story. And it is even dangerous to have Christmas as a static picture of the Nativity, and to see God as no more than a child. Let’s say it clearly: Jesus was a baby, but he did not come to earth just to be a baby. If we leave it here, we mutilate the story, decontextualize it, and leave out the fundamental part. The birth of Jesus is not an end in itself but is a means to something even more incredible than the sole fact of the incarnation (the incarnation is the theological term to designate the coming of God to earth in the form of man): the complete work of Christ, from his birth to the cross, and his resurrection.
As the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 ESV
Any words about Christmas in this reminder of what the Gospel really is? No. It does not mean that the birth of Jesus is not important; indeed, it is indispensable to the Christian message that Jesus came to the world as a man, and we see it blatantly outlined in John’s first letter. But we must frame the message of Christmas in a much larger picture of Jesus' work on earth.
And to do that, and to show that Christmas is more than a story, let’s resort to a Gospel that does not tell the story of Christmas - at least not in the classic way others do, in relating the well-known episodes of mother of Jesus, Joseph, the angels, the shepherds, the nativity. Let us turn to a singular Gospel such as that of the apostle John, who, while not telling the story of Christmas in the what became the traditional way, also tells us the story of Jesus' coming into the world, but from a much broader perspective - because Christmas is more than a story, yes, but it’s also a story. Let’s read it.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:1-14 ESV
Although John does not do it like other evangelists, in his own way, he also tells us a story. Although it clearly conveys to us the idea that Christmas is much more than a story, it is also a story. The most wonderful story of all time, in fact, and John tells it in an absolutely masterful way. Let's summarize it, verse by verse.
From verses 1 to 3 we read that this Word was with God from the beginning. It is evident in the subsequent text that this Word is Jesus, and it is immediately told that in the beginning he was with God because he was God. Moreover, as God the Creator, He participated in the creation of all things, and without Him nothing could come into existence. Could there be a clearer statement about the nature of Jesus? Unlikely.
Since he is God, how does this Word relate to men? Well, he’s all that men need, it’s the very hope of humanity. For "in him was life, and the life was the light of men" (v4) - without him there was no life, for He is Life, and all life comes from him, because he is the author of it; and this life is the light of humanity, the only hope for men in darkness (v5). Because this light invades the darkness and blows away the darkness; the darkness can not comprehend it, it can not contain it, it can not resist it.
What a sublime Word, and how the Word reigns supreme: the Creator, the Life, the Light that dispels the darkness. But how does this Word come to be announced? One of the privileged forms is through "a man sent from God, whose name was John" (v6). This man "came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him" (v7). This man was only a man; he was not the light, "but he came that he might testify of the light" (v8). He was not the light, he was only a man, but he was chosen to be the herald of the coming of the Light itself to the world, he came to be the one who prepared the way for the greatest series of events in the history of the universe.
This man bore witness that all should believe through him, although the true light, gives light to everyone. (v. 9). This light, the Word, is inescapable, unavoidable, and no man can hide from it. But men can hate it and reject it, and this is what they did when the Word was in the world: “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (v. 10, 11). This Word came to a world that was his, that he created; he came to a world in a cosmos in which each atom is full of his presence … but it did not impose itself. He could have done so, as Supreme Sovereign, but he allowed the system to which he presented himself, this “world”, to not know his Creator … those who “were his”, the Jews who had all the revelation necessary to recognize him, they were given the right not to receive him. This speaks volumes of men, of their blindness and pride, in not receiving the Lord of the Universe; but it says even more of the Word, the Creator who exposed himself to the rejection of creatures, the Life that entered into a dead system, the Light that, though impossible to avoid, became subject of rejection.
Hardly anything could be both more ironic and sadder than someone being rejected by those that owe him their very existence. This open rejection of Life is worthy of death. But the Light finds ways to shine, however much the darkness may want to surround it. His own chosen people did not receive him. But many have received it (including many from that same people), and to these is given power for a new relationship.
What kind of relationship does the Word offer to those who belong to him by right — or rather, what kind of relationship does the Word want to create between his own and the one with whom he was in the beginning? Well, “all who received him were given the right to be made sons of God” (v. 12), and this is the relationship that the God-Word wishes to create between creatures and God-the-Father — not just an impersonal Creator-creature relationship, but a personal Father-children relationship (just as the Word himself — we have come to know later in history — is also Son, though not by a granted right, but by a shared nature).
And what does it mean to “receive” him? The evangelist tells us that those who have received him are those who believed in his name; obviously this “believing” is much more than simply believing in the sense of an intellectual consent — it is at least as deep as “putting trust in,” (the Greek word is pisteuó, the word whose root is translated “faith” and “faithfulness”. Thus, the children of God are exclusively those who trust in him and who are faithful to him, living by faith in him. The children of God are not born” of blood, nor of the will of the flesh , nor of the will of man, but of God. “(v13) There is a new nature in those who become children of God, a nature diametrically opposed to those who reject it. A nature that does not come to existence through human will, but by God’s design.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (v. 14). The Word incarnated. Jesus, the Word, was born in a dirty manger, surrounded with animals, smelling of manure. He sucked on Mary’s breasts. He ate, drank, made digestions, pooped, peed, burped, cried, suffered, had pains, ran, spoke, laughed, cried, became angry, was moved.
God became flesh.
God became flesh. We are anesthetized for the implications of this amazing declaration of Christianity. But John, the evangelist, the apostle, the disciple who walked and talked, ate, lived with Jesus, affirmed this about him without hesitation: the Word dwelt among us, and we saw the glory of the only Son of God the Father. Clearly, this Son belongs to a different order from that of the other children, those who receive him; in theory, anyone can, by God’s initiative and his or her own response, receive Jesus and become a child of God — but — attention — only by the power/right given by God. Jesus is the Son of God, by his very nature. And this nature of Jesus can be received by faith — it is given “to them that believe on his name.” These are born not primarily of the blood and the will of the flesh, they are no longer primarily results of biological processes — John means it’s no longer the biology that gives them their identity; they are born of God, and become his children, and that becomes their primary identity (we will explore the popular and blatantly anti-biblical idea that “we are all children of God” in the next text).
But why all this (why Christmas too)? The last sentence of this introduction is key, because it raises the veil over the nature of the Word: he is, in a complete way, Grace and Truth. All this happens because the Word is “full of grace” — grace meaning the giving nature of a God who is love and therefore comes to the world personally and gives himself to men, exposing himself to rejection. Knowing in advance that the rejection will happen; and giving himself anyway. All this happens also because the Word is full of “truth.” Jesus tells us, later in the Gospel of John, that He is the incarnate Truth itself. Jesus comes to this world that hates Truth to the point of denying the very existence of Truth, a world of men completely disoriented as to what the Truth is (no one represented the lost condition of humanity better than Pilate in asking Jesus “What is the truth?”), a world of men alienated from the one living and true God … and comes to point the way back, the path of reconciliation, in which the rebellious, alienated, dead creature can unite with the Creator in a deep communion in which it receives his nature, receives power to become the son of an Eternal and Perfect Father.
