hail, hail the word made flesh
the babe, the son of mary
As this familiar passage gets underway, it sounds as if we’re about to hear some abstract theological concepts. “In the Beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God.”
In fact, as you might know, the Greek word used here is “logos.” In the Beginning was the logos. And logos is where we get words like logic. But not logic as a process of reasoning, more like logic as the principles by which the world operates.
However, right when you start to settle in for a flight of theological fancy, the evangelist takes a left turn! Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, the Gospel zeros in on this specific, historical person, John. John, not called the Baptist here. But yes, that John; John, the Jewish man who lived in occupied Palestine nearly two-thousand years ago.
…A quick lesson in philosophy here: this is entirely backward! When it comes to reasoning, you don’t start with the abstract and then work your way toward the incidental. No, you start with accidentals as they happen to be here on earth and then theorize out from there what the eternal truths behind them must be. The divine logos, though, works precisely the other way ‘round! This logic of God begins in abstract but is resolved in the historical!
And, as it turns out, that’s nothing less than everything this John has to say, too! The John the evangelist speaks of in today’s Scripture isn’t on the scene to elucidate the finer points of the logos. No, he’s there to witness to it. Only, it’s no it John directs our attention to. John doesn’t point to a formula scrawled on a chalkboard. No, instead he stretches his long, boney finger in the direction of none other than Jesus himself.
Jesus, another specific, historical person! Only, this Jesus, so says the witness, is not any other person. No, this Jesus is the very logic of God in the flesh! God’s way of operating, says the voice in the wilderness, has two hands and two feet, and his name is Jesus! Jesus is the embodiment of God’s logos!
Moreover, it’s the very fact that Jesus is the hands and feet of God’s logos on this side of eternity, whereby this strange logic of God is realized!
…Now, we’re in pretty deep theological waters here. But, on the last week of Advent, a thorough consideration of the incarnation is merited. Furthermore, our Scripture today practically compels it. But, and here’s the Good News, the subtitles of the incarnation don’t just make for clever cocktail chatter. No, they work in service of proclamation!
The backward logos of God that begins heavenly but ends earthly is a logic only God could conceive of. More importantly, though, it’s also a logic only God could execute! In Jesus, the gap between humanity and God has been bridged! But it’s been bridged in one direction, and one direction only, from God to us!
That’s why it matters God’s logos doesn’t begin with the earthly and then work its way toward the heavenly! Because that’s not how God works! And in Jesus Christ, God has revealed just that! In Jesus, God shows God’s hand. And what God reveals isn’t an idea, but a person! A person with two hands and two feet. Two hands and two feet that are pierced for you and for me.
In Jesus, God holds nothing back! Or to say it another way, in Jesus, the fullness of God is pleased to dwell, as the author of Colossians puts it.
This is what we mean when we say grace is God’s one-way love! Grace is God’s very logos! It’s how God actually operates, from God to us! Grace is God’s unilateral work in our lives! And Jesus is this logos of God in action! in Jesus, God embodies this one-way love. In Jesus, grace is what God really does for you and me!
In Jesus, grace is executed on this side of eternity! And it’s executed by Jesus’ execution. In Jesus, God commits so fully to grace, God dies for it! But, by that death, grace happens! By Jesus’ death, grace is now the most operative thing about your relationship with God!
God does indeed have a word of love for the world, and his name is Jesus! In Jesus, the love of God runs from God to us finally and fully! And from that fullness, we have all received grace upon grace! From that fullness, we can look to God with love and hope. Not fear and shame.
And here, dear children of God, is where the rubber of the incarnation hits the road of life! In Jesus, God has definitely become like you and me so we might receive the power to become like Jesus, a child of God! In Jesus, you no longer have to try and make your way to God like a self-sufficient adult would. Instead, in Jesus, God goes to you as a parent goes to a child!
In Jesus, you have received the fullness of God’s one-directional love, God’s grace! And by this grace, you are actually set free! Set free to live as a child of God! Which is the way God intended from it eternity, all the way from the beginning, from Eden!
In Jesus, you have received more than was lost in the fall! In Jesus, you have not only been restored to a right relationship with God. In Jesus, you have also received the fullness of love that establishes and upholds this relationship, come what may! And in this upside-down logic of God, your relationship with God is, at last, put in order!
And that, if you haven’t already guessed, brings us right back to the beginning. “In the beginning was the word.” The logos. The strange logic of God. The logic whereby sinners are made righteous. The logic whereby God takes on hands and feet and leaves eternity so you might have a place there. The logic whereby God gives up all that is eternal to have you right here and right now once and for all!
And there’s absolutely nothing abstract about that. Is there?
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