Christmas 2 John 1:14-18
January 5, 2014
I’m sure it’s still the same today as when I was still in school. When classes resume after Christmas and you see all your friends again, the big question everyone asks is, “SO WHAT DID YOU GET FOR CHRISTMAS?” And they talk about the cool stuff they got from their parents and grandparents or show it off if they brought it to school. Sometimes there’s a lot of envy, “Aw, you’re so lucky! My parents would never get me something like that.” And there’s some bragging, “This is the best one you can get.” And some competition, “That’s not so great. I got the same thing, but mine can do even more than yours.” But a few weeks after Christmas it’s all forgotten. The newness wears off and those cool Christmas gifts become part of everyday life. Still cool, but not so special anymore. We’ll have to wait until next Christmas for that kind of excitement again.
So what did you get for Christmas? Something you needed? Something you wanted? Something you weren’t expecting? This morning I’d like to tell you what I got for Christmas, but I’m not telling you to make you green with envy. I want to be excited with me, because it’s what you got for Christmas, too. John unwraps it – reveals it – for us in these verses of his gospel.
- The gift of God with us
First of all, John writes, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” At the very beginning of this chapter John tells us who “the Word” is. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” God, who created everything in the universe became a creature. He didn’t become like a man. He didn’t look like a man. He became a man. He became someone just like me – someone who eats and sleeps and learns and gets hurt and gets sad and happy and lonely and afraid and even die. And yet he is still God. John goes on to say, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One andOnly, who came from the Father” and later he describes him as “God the one and only, who is at the Father’s side.” And since it is the holy God who became a human being, he is a holy human being. He is without sin.
John actually says, “The Word….pitched his tent among us.”That reminds us of the Old Testament, where God told Moses to have the people “make a sanctuary for me and I will dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). So they made a portable Tabernacle, a tent, where they could worship God wherever they went. And when it was finished, a “cloud covered the Tent of Meeting and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.”(Exodus 40:34) God was present among them, but the people could only look at it from a distance.
So can you hear John’s excitement as he talks about his Christmas gift? “He made his dwelling among us! He was born of a woman, laid in manger, raised in a family, and then became friends with us. And we have seen his glory!”What an amazing Christmas gift this is! While the greatest minds all over the world are trying to figure out how we got here and why we’re here and where we’re going, the Creator came to this planet in person to tell us himself. While there are oodles of religions in the world that are trying to find God and figure out what he wants, God came here and told us. And John and Jesus’ other disciples saw his glory. They saw it one day on a mountain where Jesus’ divine nature shone like the sun. But they saw an even greater glory in the work he came to do for them. And you and I have seen that glory, too, “full of grace and truth.”
- The gift of Grace
If you knew nothing about the Bible and were to take a guess as to why God would visit our world, what would you say? Maybe he’d come down to do some cleaning up – get rid of the really bad people. Or come down and warn people to straighten up and behave themselves. Or show us how to develop some social programs to help the poor and needy. In other words, you might guess that God would come down and tell us what we should do, or start doing. But that isn’t why God came to earth. He came to tell us what he was going to do for us. In the Bible he calls it grace.
Why should God want to do anything for us? Why would Jesus even bother to be born? Why would he come to a world that would hate him, reject him, and finally kill him? What had anyone done to get his special attention? Why does God care about me when I can’t make it through a single day without sinning against him? Why would Jesus love, much less lay down his life, for an ungrateful, self-centered, unloving, unfaithful person like me? Because that’s what God does. He is “full of grace”. That’s what I got for Christmas, and so did you. And there’s one more gift that makes our Christmas complete,
- The gift of Truth
You and I have lived long enough in this sinful world to know that it’s hard to trust what people say. We get ripped off, hurt, and disappointed. At times we can’t even be trusted to do what we say we’ll do, and sometimes we even lie to ourselves. That’s what we’d expect from sinners who are under the influence of the Father of Lies, the devil. And when you live in a world of lies and deception, there’s confusion, speculation, and lots of opinions about God - who he is, what he is like, and what’s on his mind.
But then comes Jesus, the Word made flesh, who “came from the Father full of grace and truth.” “No one has ever seen God,” John continues, “but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” Jesus takes away all the guesswork. “If you want to know who God is, what God is like, what is on God’s mind, look at me.” And what do we see in Jesus? The God who loves us so much that he is willing to go the ends of the universe to rescue us from his eternal judgment and bring us home with him forever. Who gives it all to us as a gift of his tender heart.Who shares with us the only way to heaven.This is who God is, what he is like, what in on his mind. This is the Truth.
For a lot of people, a few weeks after Christmas this is all forgotten. The newness of Jesus’ birth wears off and the wonder of his amazing grace becomes part of everyday life. Still cool, but not so special anymore.But we don’t have to wait until next Christmas for that kind of excitement again. It is ours everyday. You see, you are never “yesterday’s news” to God. He doesn’t grow tired of you or lose interest in you. “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” Literally it says, “We have received grace for grace” or “grace to replace grace.” You know how when you to the beach and dig a hole in the sand and a wave comes in and fills it up with water? When we need God’s grace today, he fills us up – comforting us when we are hurt, forgiving us when we sin, taking the load off our conscience when we are guilty, sheltering us when we are afraid. At no charge to us, but only because of the Word became flesh, pitched his tent among us, and replaced our sin with his grace on the cross. When we need that grace tomorrow, he fills us up again. And again.And again.
There will never be a time in your life when Jesus will say, “That’s all I have. Now you’re on your own,” because Jesus is full of grace – God’s infinite, unending, unchanging grace. Just as the sun shines on the whole world each day and is not used up no matter how much we draw from it, and then comes back the next day just as full of energy as the day before, even more we will always have the gift of God’s abundant, undeserved love all the days of our lives.
God with us, full of grace and truth.That’s what I got for Christmas, and so did you. Merry Christmas! Amen