John Piper is fond of saying, “Books don’t change people, paragraphs do — sometimes sentences.” To his credit, he does quickly iron out this statement by explaining that he doesn’t think books are a waste of time—he’s written over 50 of them!—it’s just that it’s difficult told hold an entire thesis of a book in your head at once.
He’s not wrong.
I’m working through a massive 1,300 page systematic theology book right now and, when I’m finished with it, I will have forgotten most of what the author wrote. What I won’t forget, however, are those handful of places where what he wrote made me stop reading and reflect on what I just read.
This same thing happens to me when I read the first page of John’s gospel.
Believe it or not, but I don’t really get hung up anymore with the language of the Word being with God and God, himself. Probably because I’ve fooled myself into believing I know what John is talking about. But, nearly every time I get to verse 14, I can’t continue until after I’ve had time to take a few breaths.
“And the Word became a human being and made his home with us.”
With just a sentence (not even a full sentence in Greek) John gives us one of the greatest mysteries to ever be known…ever. The Word of God, who had existed forever prior to what happened in John 1, stepped down into humanity, not to have a look around to see how things were going and then quickly remove himself, but to become (egeneto) what human beings are.
Literally, John says that the word (ho logos) became flesh (sarx). In other words, he became precisely what makes us who we are. He, who was forever truly God, continued to be truly God but took upon himself the nature of humanity. As Paul puts it (better than I ever could) in Philippians 2, Jesus (the Word of God), “…emptied himself, by taking the the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7).
But, he didn’t leave it at that. Jesus was not content with merely becoming what we are, he wanted to live with us—as has been the goal of God ever since the beginning and will be the realized reality in the age to come (see Genesis 1-3 and Revelation 21-22). As John puts it, this Word became flesh made his home (eskenosen) with us!
This is, for me, why Christmas is so meaningful—and, grows more meaningful with each passing year. It’s the reason why I have to pause almost every time I read John 1:14a.
Jesus not only became what he was not (and remains that to this day), he stepped down into this broken world full of broken people to make his home with us, so that some day we will be able to have our home with him—forever.
A home in a made new world full of made new people…all because of the reality contained in one sentence in John.