Christmas – word and light for the world!

Jesus Christ is the Word. As such, he was the­re from the begin­ning. He gave the world his light and ther­eby also life. His light shi­nes in the dark­ness and can­not be over­co­me by it. At Christ­mas we cele­bra­te the grea­test gift. We cele­bra­te that the Word beca­me a man and lived among us. If we now belie­ve in the word of Jesus Christ, i.e. accept him as a gift from God, then we beco­me child­ren of God.

My first god­son Bueb has also left school by now. But I can still remem­ber our first shop­ping trip for his Christ­mas pre­sent. We were out and about tog­e­ther for the first time in Thun and wan­ted to find a pre­sent for him. My idea: we spend the mor­ning tog­e­ther, go shop­ping for a pre­sent, walk through the town, have a hot cho­co­la­te some­whe­re to warm up. His idea: «Yay, I’m get­ting a pre­sent!». But at that point I was­n’t yet awa­re of the dif­fe­rent ide­as. In rea­li­ty, it loo­ked like this. We both went into the first toy shop and he saw some­thing he wan­ted. We could­n’t lea­ve the shop until I bought it for him. Now I got stres­sed – becau­se it was­n’t expen­si­ve at all, but now I had just under three hours with the boy and no plan for what we were going to do in that time.

How are you doing with Christ­mas? Was it stressful for you? Someone recent­ly said to my wife that we should­n’t be sur­pri­sed if Christ­mas is stressful, becau­se Christ­mas has always been stressful. Or how did the pregnant Maria fare on the long journey?

In the beginning was the word

I would like to go back with you to this shop. Ima­gi­ne the­se shel­ves full of pres­ents. But if they lack any con­nec­tion to the shi­ning eyes of child­ren, they are not a source of joy in and of them­sel­ves. But Christ­mas is pre­cis­e­ly the fes­ti­val of presents.

This mor­ning we are immer­sing our­sel­ves tog­e­ther in a Bible text that is very often read at Christ­mas, but does­n’t actual­ly have much to do with Christ­mas. «In the begin­ning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God» (John 1:1 NLB). Three things are com­mu­ni­ca­ted to us here. First­ly, that the Word was the­re from the begin­ning. It is not abs­tract, as we other­wi­se ima­gi­ne words to be, but it is an object. Second­ly, the Word is with God. It is loca­li­sed. Third­ly, this word is God. And this word is Jesus Christ, who­se bir­th­day we cele­bra­te at Christ­mas. The evan­ge­list John, who wro­te this text, uses this for­mu­la­ti­on to refer to Gene­sis 1:1, i.e. to the first ver­se of God’s writ­ten word. Other evan­ge­lists, when they speak of Jesus, start eit­her at the birth or with Abra­ham. John, howe­ver, has a dif­fe­rent approach. He starts right at the begin­ning. In this first ver­se of John’s Gos­pel, he makes two refe­ren­ces to the Old Tes­ta­ment. First­ly, to crea­ti­on: «In the begin­ning God crea­ted the hea­vens and the earth». (Gene­sis 1:1 NLB). Second­ly, through the use of the Greek word «logos». This means «word». Gene­ral­ly spea­king, but when John uses it, he puts it on the same level and con­text of mea­ning as the Old Tes­ta­ment wis­dom (Pro­verbs 8).

John crea­tes a con­nec­tion and shows that the man who appears as Jesus Christ is God. He is iden­ti­cal with him (John 1:1). He is the­re from the begin­ning. «He was with God in the begin­ning» (John 1:2 NLB). In doing so, he joins the Old Tes­ta­ment. «By the word of the Lord the hea­vens were made and the stars were crea­ted by his com­mand» (Psalm 33:6 NLB). Unli­ke the other evan­ge­lists, John starts his descrip­ti­on of Jesus Christ from the ori­gi­nal sta­te befo­re crea­ti­on. Jesus Christ has always been God and has been so from the beginning.

The Gos­pel of John has its own way of tal­king about Jesus Christ. The Eng­lish theo­lo­gi­an N.T. Wright says about this book. «This book is like a pond in which a child can safe­ly splash around, but which is also deep enough for an ele­phant to swim in» (N.T. Wright). This is exact­ly how we encoun­ter Jesus Christ at and around Christ­mas. On the one hand, lovin­g­ly as a baby, he must be pro­tec­ted, shel­te­red and well cared for. On the other hand, pre-exis­tent even befo­re the first peo­p­le in the world. He is even pre­sen­ted as the ori­gin of the world! Ever­y­thing lies in this pre-exis­tence. «Through him all things were crea­ted that are. The­re is not­hing that he, the Word, has not crea­ted» (John 1:3 NLB). The enti­re crea­ti­on came into being through the Word. God spo­ke – and it hap­pen­ed. This word, which is descri­bed here, is powerful. Just as an evil word can des­troy a gre­at deal. Yes, peo­p­le often get caught up in words and not in deeds. «So it is with my word that comes from my mouth. It will not return wit­hout fruit, but it will do what I want and ful­fil what I have sent it for» (Isai­ah 55:11 NLB).

Life from the light

Once again about the gifts in the shop. As soon as a gift meets a reci­pi­ent, it brings a ray of joy. My wife and I have a fami­ly whe­re we are god­par­ents to all three child­ren. Last year, we gave the eldest a pre­sent and his reac­tion was: «So gre­at! I’ve always wan­ted this!» We had hit the nail on the head with this gift. It would­n’t have done any­thing on the shelf, but when it hit him, it brought joy. It’s the same with Jesus Christ, if the word sim­ply comes into the world but is not asso­cia­ted with peo­p­le, then the­re is no joy.

But Jesus Christ is more than just the Word, it is not emp­ty, it is a life-crea­ting Word. At crea­ti­on, this Word crea­ted life. «Life its­elf was in him, and this life gives light to all peo­p­le» (John 1:4 NLB). The word of God does not come back emp­ty. Rather, it crea­tes life. This life gives peo­p­le light. Signs of light are hope, gui­dance and a stark con­trast to dark­ness. The life that brings this about is in Jesus Christ.  «It was from the begin­ning, we have heard it and seen it with our own eyes, we have loo­ked at it and touch­ed it with our hands: the word of life. Life has been reve­a­led to us and we have seen it. And now we testi­fy and pro­cla­im eter­nal life to you. It was with the Father, and then it was reve­a­led to us» (1 John 1:1–2 NLB). Jesus Christ was not only the­re from the begin­ning of time, he is also the­re for eter­ni­ty. Jesus is the Word, light and life.

Life is in Jesus Christ and from this life comes light (John 1:4). Con­ver­se­ly, it can also be said that the­re is no life out­side the light. «The light shi­nes in the dark­ness, and the dark­ness could not extin­gu­ish it» (John 1:5 NLB). On the one hand, dark­ness is like a lack of light – I can’t extin­gu­ish dark­ness, but I can’t extin­gu­ish it eit­her. Becau­se the adver­sa­ry of God is real and not just an absence of some­thing. The light of Jesus Christ shi­nes in all dark­ness. This light is hope.

Around 1815 the­re were major uphe­avals in Euro­pe. The­re were major chan­ges in Salz­bur­ger­land. The coun­try was emacia­ted after the war with Napo­le­on. A new bor­der divi­ded Bava­ria and Aus­tria. Boat­men, who had pre­vious­ly had the pri­vi­le­ge of trans­port­ing salt, lost this and were left with not­hing. Many peo­p­le beca­me desti­tu­te. During this trau­ma­tic time, the assistant pas­tor Franz Mohr wro­te a poem, which was set to music in 1818. Exact­ly 205 years ago to the day, this song was sung for the first time and peo­p­le were thril­led. It is cal­led «Silent Night, Holy Night». This song inspi­red peo­p­le. It is the sto­ry of the light that sho­ne into a dark world. The dark­ness was not gone in Salz­bur­ger­land, but it had to give way to hope.

When Jesus Christ came into the world and was here, he was not accept­ed. He sho­ne like a light in the dark­ness, but peo­p­le did not reco­g­ni­se him and did not accept him. «But alt­hough the world was crea­ted through him, the world did not reco­g­ni­se him when he came. He came into the world that belongs to him, and his own peo­p­le did not recei­ve him» (John 1:10–11 NLB).

Believing in Jesus means accepting him as a gift from God

As alre­a­dy men­tio­ned, our gift for Bueb, the eldest god­fa­ther and god­fa­ther, real­ly hit the spot last year. He was so hap­py. His youn­ger brot­her was just under 2 ½ years old at the time and unwrap­ped his pre­sent. When he unwrap­ped it and loo­ked at it, his big brother’s reac­tion was imme­dia­te: «Wow. You’­ve got a real­ly gre­at pre­sent!» We had to laugh quite a bit. «Wow. You’­ve got that real­ly gre­at!» This is exact­ly what Christ­mas is all about in the truest sen­se of the word. At Christ­mas, we all got a mega gre­at pre­sent that we did­n’t choo­se our­sel­ves, but that we so despera­te­ly nee­ded. This is what we could also wish each other at Christ­mas. Not «a bles­sed Christ­mas», but «Jesus Christ came into the world! You recei­ved this gift in an ama­zing way!» Per­haps a litt­le clum­sy, but no less true.

Towards the end of the pas­sa­ge in ver­se 14 we find the sum­ma­ry. «He, who is the Word, beca­me man and lived among us. He was full of grace and truth and we beca­me wit­nesses of his glo­ry, the glo­ry that the Father gave him, his only Son» (John 1:14 NLB). This one ver­se is very com­pre­hen­si­ve and con­ta­ins seve­ral points.

The Word beca­me man. The Luther trans­la­ti­on says «And the Word beca­me fle­sh […]» (John 1:14 LUT). Jesus Christ beca­me a man of fle­sh and blood in deed and truth. With us, ever­y­thing is often very cere­bral. What I think and feel is important. But faith is more than just some­thing spi­ri­tu­al, it is a fact. For exam­p­le, it may not be a com­pel­ling cri­ter­ion whe­ther I have ever been to Isra­el. But when I walk the streets whe­re Jesus wal­ked, when I am in the places whe­re he was, I gain a new, dif­fe­rent approach. It is also no coin­ci­dence that many examp­les of Jesus have to do with ever­y­day objects.

Jesus Christ lived among us. In the Old Tes­ta­ment, God cam­ped among the Israe­li­tes in the mobi­le taber­na­cle and when they had rea­ched their land and sett­led down, after some time he lived in the temp­le. In the New Tes­ta­ment, God now lives among peo­p­le in Jesus. And God will con­ti­nue to dwell among peo­p­le in the future. «I heard a loud voice cal­ling from the thro­ne: Behold, the dwel­ling place of God is now with men! He will dwell with them and they will be his peo­p­le and God hims­elf will be with them» (Reve­la­ti­on 21:3 NLB).

Jesus Christ was full of grace and truth. Grace means gran­ting some­thing to someone wit­hout the expec­ta­ti­on of retri­bu­ti­on or recipro­ci­ty. It is unde­ser­ved. The truth of the New Tes­ta­ment is clo­se­ly rela­ted to the under­stan­ding of faithful­ness in the Old Tes­ta­ment. The­re, faithful­ness means a truth that is real and the­r­e­fo­re pro­ves to be relia­ble, con­sis­tent and sustainable.

Jesus Christ was full of glo­ry in this world. Glo­ry means the honour of God in this world. In the Old Tes­ta­ment, this is what beco­mes visi­ble of God’s majes­ty and glo­ry in his reve­la­ti­on to peo­p­le. In the Old Tes­ta­ment, the place whe­re the glo­ry of God beco­mes visi­ble to peo­p­le is the temp­le. In the New Tes­ta­ment, Jesus Christ beco­mes this place.

Let’s get back to the pre­sent, which we all got as a gre­at gift. The ques­ti­on is whe­ther the­re are any ent­ry requi­re­ments. «But to all tho­se who recei­ved him and belie­ved in his name, he gave the right to beco­me child­ren of God. They beca­me so neither by des­cent nor by human endea­vour or inten­ti­on, but this new life comes from God» (John 1:12–13 NLB). Belie­ving in Jesus means accep­ting him as a gift from God. What does it take to recei­ve this gift? It does­n’t requi­re a cer­tain lineage. No human endea­vour and also no good will that is dis­play­ed. Ins­tead, the gift of life comes from God hims­elf. We can only get it mega gre­at. All we can do is say yes and belie­ve in Jesus Christ. In other words, accept him as a gift from God.

Possible questions for the small group 

Read the Bible text: John 1:1–14

1. How stressful was the Christ­mas peri­od for you? Were you able to look for­ward to Christmas?
2. Do you under­stand the state­ments from John 1:1? Try to repro­du­ce the three state­ments in your own words.
3. What does it mean when the Word, who crea­ted ever­y­thing in the world, meets you per­so­nal­ly in Jesus Christ?
4. The light of God shi­nes in all dark­ness. Whe­re do you want more light in your life?
5. What could you draw hope from in your cur­rent darkness?
6. When you read John 1:14. Which point appeals to you the most (Word beca­me man; lived among us; full of grace & wis­dom; glo­ry)? Why?
7. At Christ­mas we recei­ved Jesus Christ in a mega gre­at way – what is your answer?