Sunday Devotional: John 1:14a

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us

John’s Gospel doesn’t give an account of Jesus’s birth like the accounts in Matthew and Luke. Indeed, the opening verses of John’s Gospel are very different to those of the other three Gospels. Matthew begins with Jesus’s genealogy, and then the story of how Jesus’s birth came about. Mark skips ahead 30-odd years and starts with the ministry of John the Baptist. Luke, desiring to write an “orderly account,” starts with the prophetic notices first to John the Baptist’s mother, then to Jesus’s mother, and only gets to Jesus’s actual birth in chapter 2. John takes a different approach, somewhat more theological. His intention is not to rehash the physical details, already no doubt familiar to his audience. Rather, he wants to address the theological reality behind those events. Not that Matthew and Luke don’t at least hint at the same theological truths. But John wants to bring them to forefront.

In verses 1-13, John presents Jesus as the eternal Word, the Logos, through whom all things were created, and who came to bring light to the world, but the world didn’t want to know. It seems John is deliberately drawing on language already current in philosophy to help his readers understand the significance of who Jesus is. He is supreme wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and revelation. He is the creative force behind all things.

But verse 14 is where John draws the sharp distinction between Jesus the Word and the pagan Logos. The Word became flesh. The Word entered into his own creation. This Word was not simply a power source, or an energy that binds all things together. He was and is a person, and he became incarnate as a baby in a lowly manger.

“The Word became flesh…” The Greek verb used here is very clear that the Word was not originally flesh; human form is something the Word took on. Paul helps us understand how radical that idea is in Philippians 2:6-7, where he talks about the supreme humility of Christ. He was willing to step out of eternity into time; to become limited by the constraints and frailties of the body; to understand mortality first-hand.

“… and dwelt among us.” Jesus didn’t just settle down on a hilltop away from the rest of humanity. He “tabernacled” or “pitched his tent” with us. He made this place his home, and lived here as one of us. Mary and Joseph were his parents, John the Baptist his cousin, the disciples, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were his friends, Nazareth his home town. He felt compassion for people, and anger at injustice.

And he did all this so he could be the perfect savior. One who can represent humanity, but without the stain of sin. Who could take our sins to the cross and satisfy God’s just anger at our rebellion, so that those who run to him in repentance can find forgiveness and life.

This is what it means for Jesus to be Immanuel–God with us. He isn’t simply a baby lying in a manger. He is the Word become flesh, dwelling among us.