2016-10-02 [Month of Mission 2016] The Word became flesh

The Word became flesh

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.      (John1:1-14)

Someone once explained incarnation to me in this way: You'rein your garden and you see a line of ants marching along the pathway busily doing what ants do, when you notice that the sprinklers that have just come on and are causing a stream to flow along the path towards the ants. You want to warn and save the ants. You gesture and scream and even try and use your fingers, but to no avail. How do you tell them to move away from the danger? If only you could become an ant yourself and go and speak to them and warn them of the danger yourself and also tell them how much you care for them and what kind of person you are? If only...

God, who is so other, yet personal, comes to us as one of us (in flesh) and reveals to us, as best as we are able to understand, who he is and what we are called to do and be, and to offer his own life in order to break the power of sin and death and so save us from destruction, in this life and the next.

And, the very act of God coming in flesh reveals to us that God is a God of mission. God moves towards us. Indeed, he moves in with us. Eugene Peterson puts it well: "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood." John 1:14

This was not a move 'up', into a nicer neighbourhood. One of the Church's earliest hymns, recorded in Phil 2:6-8, expresses this well when it speaks of Jesus humbling himself in taking on our flesh. A few years after the end of World War Two C.S. Lewis famously wrote that God moved into being 'enemy occupied territory'.

So, why then would God do this? Yes, as the ant illustration points out, to save us, but more than that, because he loves us! John 3:16 puts it plainly – "Because God loved the world, he sent his son..."

As followers of Jesus who form his body this means two things: Firstly, that we too are to move into the neighbourhood. As God's people, his church, his body, we are not to withdraw from the world. No! Like God, we must move into the world, even if it means going into places that are less desirable than those we usually frequent. God is a God of mission and so are we. Secondly, we do this, not simply out of obedience or duty, but out of love. God loves the world and, as his Church, so must we. Jesus was always found to be with the unrighteous and the sick and the outcast. Where are we to be found? God's mission is to move into the world and bring love and salvation, let's join him!

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Chris Judelsohn is married to Keryn and has 3 children aged 16, 12 & 10.  He has served for the past 12 years at Midrand Presbyterian Church and is thankful to be part of God's life and work in bringing love, hope, truth, justice and healing to the world.  He also enjoys playing golf and squash, although not very well.