He Dwelt Among Us
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How would you feel about going to live with a homeless person? Sharing their lack of shelter, their hunger, their uncertainty about what the next moment might hold. Any volunteers? That’s nothing compared to what Jesus did. He left the glory of God the Father’s presence, the joy and peace of heaven, to come live with us. John tells us:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus has already been described as the Word of God, who indeed is God, who created us, the universe and everything else that exists. But it’s hard to relate to a being who you can’t see and is so different from us, so powerful, that it is hard for us to comprehend Him. No one has seen God in the fullness of His glory, but God wants to be known, to have a personal relationship with his people.
In the Old Testament God appeared in a variety of limited ways – a voice from a cloud, a burning bush, in dreams and visions. Then God’s presence was centered on the Tabernacle and later on the Temple, and was seen in the cloud of glory which settled on and filled them both. While this did give assurance that God was with them, it did not reveal much more about God.
The Word Became Flesh
The Word Became Flesh
With the coming of Jesus God shows Himself in a much more personal way. The fancy word for this is ‘incarnation’, in the flesh. It means ‘embodied’, that God the Son took on a human body, that the One who existed before time began and the world was created entered time and became a part of the world He created. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In Jesus, the Word became a visible picture of God.
In 1873, a Belgian Catholic priest named Joseph Damien De Veuster was sent to minister to lepers on the Hawaiian Island of Molokai. When he arrived, he immediately began to meet each one of the lepers in the colony in hopes of building a friendship. But wherever he turned, people shunned him. It seemed as though every door was closed. He poured his life into his work, erecting a chapel, beginning worship services and pouring out his heart to the lepers. But it was to no avail. No one responded to his ministry. After twelve years Father Damien decided to leave.
Dejectedly, he made his way to the docks to board a ship to take him back to Belgium. As he stood on the dock, he wrung his hands nervously, recounting his futile ministry among the lepers. As he did he looked down at his hands, he noticed some mysterious white spots and felt some numbness. Almost immediately he knew what was happening to his body. He had contracted leprosy.
It was then that he knew what he had to do. He returned to the leper colony and to his work. Quickly the word about his disease spread through the colony. Within a matter of hours everyone knew. Hundreds of them gathered outside his hut, they understood his pain, fear, and uncertainty about the future.
But the biggest surprise was the following Sunday. As Father Damien arrived at the Chapel, he found hundreds of worshipers there. By the time the service began, there were many more with standing room only, and many gathered outside the chapel. His ministry became enormously successful. The reason? He was one of them. He understood and empathized with them
Jesus experienced hunger and tiredness. He felt the sting of being misunderstood and rejected. He suffered the pain of being scourged and crucified. He faced death. There are a number of reasons why God did this and why it is so important for us:
To able to sympathize with us
Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
To be an example
Philippians 2:5–8 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Humility
Obedience
To reveal God’s character
John 14:9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Grace
Mercy
Faithfulness
To show us God’s love
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
Giving Himself
To destroy the devil
Hebrews 2:14–15 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
To redeem us
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
We have seen his glory
We have seen his glory
John testifies that he and the other disciples saw all this.
We can see His glory
We can see His glory
In these ways Jesus reveals to us both the grace of God and the truth about God.
Because of this we can know that God is not some distant, impersonal being too far above us for us to be able to relate to. He came to us so that we can know His love, can see His glory in a way that gives us hope.
No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.