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, [1] 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 enlightens 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, [2] and his own people [3] 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. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, [4] who is at the Father's side, [5] he has made him known.
Grace Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Our text today is the Gospel lesson, especially these two phrases. “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it,” and “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Thus far our text.
Dear friends, Merry Christmas. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. So begin the words of Holy Scripture, so begins the revelation of God to humankind. Where there was once nothing, God spoke, and His very Word became things. God speaks things and they appear. God spoke into existence every single thing that we see in our world and universe, and God said it was very good.
God spoke, and light appeared, light that reflected his own holiness and majesty. God spoke and there were waters and creatures and trees and life and it was all good, reflecting its creator. And last but most certainly not least, God created the pinnacle of his creation, forming a man out of the dust of the earth and with his own breath breathing life into him. He had created the entire creation for the man to have dominion over, he was to be a caretaker for the creation at the same time that God was caretaker of the man himself. Man and God were in perfect relationship with one another. And the man lived in the wonderful creation of God, dwelling in God’s holy light and presence. Things really were as God had said “Very good.”
But things were not to last. Things would not always be very good, and the blame falls completely and totally on us. By no fault of God, we humans decided we don’t need a god. We humans decided that we should decide right and wrong for ourselves and that we should be our own masters and our own caretakers. So we in Adam’s acts in the Garden of Eden left God’s light. We abandoned God’s very good creation, and corrupted it with our own greed and want, with our own selfish desires, with fighting death and murder. We left God’s light and presence, and instead walked alone in the dark of our sin.
God’s very good creation suddenly became a dying creation. God’s very good creation suddenly was under a new rule, the rule of sin death and the devil. Where once there was safety, now there was danger. Where once there was peace, now there was worry and fear and strife and worst of all, where once there was life, now there was death.
It is something that affects all of our lives. It is something that we all have to deal with. Imperfection. Struggles. Doubts. Sin. These things have become so common place to us since the fall that we often take them for granted saying things like, “That’s the way it goes, you live and die, its just a part of life. Its natural.” But friends, that is not the way God designed it. This very good creation is now a fallen corrupt creation, and you are a part of that.
But God doesn’t abandon his creation, even as it turned away from him. God doesn’t leave his creation alone for all time. For the very God who created the world is coming to rescue the world. The very God who said “let there be” will come to rescue his fallen and wandering creation. We read in our Gospel for today, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the word was God.” That Word is the person of Jesus, and that Word is coming for you.
Jesus was there when the world was created. Jesus was intimately involved in forming the man from the dust of the earth, and Jesus breathed out the breath of life that brought Adam to life. Jesus was the word that made the creation possible. And Jesus watched and wept as we turned away from Him in our sin, and decided we could go our own way.
But even then, even as we turned from Jesus and walked out of His marvelous light in to the darkness of our sin, Jesus vowed to save us. For God told Adam and Eve all the way back before they left the Garden of Eden in their sin that he would save them through one of their descendants, one who would crush the power of the devil. God told Eve that Jesus “Would crush the serpent’s head, even as his own heels were pierced” with nails on a wooden cross.
For Jesus is God come to save you. Jesus’ very name means “the Lord saves.” Jesus who was born of a virgin and laid in a manger in Bethlehem, has come to save you. And as our text says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus has been born, and he has lived among us in the muck and mire and sin of this world. He has been with us as we face death of loved ones. He has been with us as we fight with one another and as we fall into sin. To use the idiom, he has walked a mile in our shoes, or more appropriately, in our flesh.
And with the birth of Jesus, the light of God once again shines in our lives. With Jesus the light of the promise and the light of holiness now again shines upon us. As we spoke of last night on Christmas Eve “From the Manger new born light, shines in glory through the night.” And in our Gospel lesson today we read the same thing, “The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.”
The darkness of Sin cannot overcome Jesus’ saving power. The Darkness of death cannot stop him from coming for you. Even as that darkness and all its worldly sin, yours and mine, has Jesus beaten and nailed to a cross to be killed, even then Jesus is triumphant. For as Jesus shed his blood, as Jesus hung on the cross, he was doing it for you. He was dying for you and for your sin. He was dying so that his light might overcome the darkness of sin in your life. He was dying so that you might be saved. He was dying so that you might once again be in perfect relationship with God in His kingdom forever. Jesus comes to take you to a place even better than Eden, a place that is very, very good.
Today, in a small town thousands of miles away, a baby was born, a baby who within his own flesh contained the entire mystery of the God. A baby who has no beginning or end, a baby who has come to save you, and bring you into God’s marvelous light again is born. And as our text says “from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” We have received forgiveness of sins, being washed in his blood in baptismal waters. We have received life as we eat from his very own flesh and blood, the body and blood that hung on the cross. We have received faith as the Son of God has poured it out upon us through the work of the Holy Spirit in His word and promises.
Dear friends in Christ, the word was made 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. We have seen Jesus. Today he has been born to die for you. Today, he has given you mercy and peace. Today he has brought you God heavenly home. And so as we sang, “Joy to the World, the Lord has come.” Now Sing we now rejoice. God loves you and his son, a baby, will save you from your sins. Amen.
