Artwork by Full of Eyes

Audio: iTunes | Spotify

“And the WORD became flesh and dwelt among us.”

᛭ INI ᛭

Everything for Christmas depends on that verse. It’s one of the most important verses in the entire Bible. “The hopes and fears of all the years” are in that verse. All God’s promises flow into that verse and out from that verse. This verse is one of the two great pillars of the Christian faith. The second is “You seek IHS of Nazareth, who was crucified; He is risen just as He said.” If Christ is not raised, then our faith is meaningless. If He is raised that means He died and His death counted for something, counted even for you. But for Him to die, He must be born, and for His death to count for you He must be the eternal son of God, He must be the WORD, He must be Immanuel, God with us. “And the WORD became flesh and dwelt among us.”

The Christ, the Son of God, having flesh, “becoming man,” being a human being, needs to be true for you to have any hope of salvation. With out Christ taking up your flesh, without Him taking up everything that makes you, you, and me, me—everything that makes a human being, a human being—then no human being would ever be saved. We’d end up living meaningless lives, with only hope and joy for this life only, only to die in despair. If there’s a god, who knows if you’ll be okay or not, and if there’s not, well, then it’s just over. And death would be the end.

Except it wouldn’t be the end. Well, for whatever’s going on in your noggin it wouldn’t be, but it wouldn’t be the end for your flesh. Your flesh would decay into dirt and dust. We actually live through decay. We’re so used to our deathward path, we forget and don’t notice. Your skin is best in your 20s. Your eyes peak at 30, same with your muscle mass, and mental clarity. There’s COPD, Low T, Menopause, macular degeneration. Your flesh, your physical body, is degrading and decaying right now! Death is a spectrum disorder.

Besides that our flesh produces all sorts of sin! Your flesh works sin and death. “I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh.” (Rom 7) “The flesh fights against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other.” (Gal 5) “The mind that is set on the flesh does not submit to God’s Law, indeed, it cannot!” (Rom 6) Your flesh, your body, your mind, you produces sin and death. What you see in the mirror, what you clothe, what you give food and drink, what you sin with will die. Without the mind of Christ, without faith in Christ, without your hearts and minds being ruled by the Holy Spirit, your flesh decays into ever deeper, darker, more grievous sins in thought, word, and deed.

Eventually this path of death and decay ends in darkness. You pass on from world darkened by sin and death, and you move on into the “outer darkness,” as Christ calls it, “where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.” That place of eternal darkness and separation from God, is also called the second death, the lake of fire, the pit, hell.

The LORD saw all of this. So, “The WORD became flesh and dwelt among us,” for WITHOUT THE WORD’S FLESH OUR FLESH WOULD DIE AND DECAY IN DARKNESS. He came into the darkness to bring light. He came as Life to die. He overcame decay—“For David says concerning Him: ‘You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.’ For David, …being a prophet…foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ,… For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but He whom God raised up did not see corruption.” (Acts 2; Acts 13) As our one communion Hymn has it:

Hail, the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail, the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Ris’n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth. (LSB 380)

WITHOUT THE WORD’S FLESH OUR FLESH WOULD DIE AND DECAY IN DARKNESS.

At His conception, the Eternal Word took up everything that makes us human, except for sin. From the littlest two-celled flesh unto the flesh of an adult—He took each age, each moment, each stage of life to redeem you. “For whatever was not taken up [by Christ] was not healed.” (‌Τὸ γὰρ ἀπρόσληπτον καὶ ἀθεράπευτον.) He became man for your sake. He assumed, picked up, took our humanity into Himself. “Whatever is united to God is also saved.” (ὁ δὲ ἤνωται τῷ Θεῷ, τούτο καὶ σώζεται.) Nothing was left out of His flesh, except sin.

“If half of Adam fell, then what Christ assumes and saves is also half. But if the whole of Adam’s nature fell, then everything is united to Him who was begotten, and is wholly saved.” *Εί ἤμισυς ἔπταισεν ὁ Ἀδάμ, ἤμισυς καὶ τὸ προσειλημμένον καὶ τὸ σωζόμενον. Εί δὲ ὅλος, ὅλα τὸ γεννηθέντι ἤνωται, καὶ ὅλως σώζεται.*

WITHOUT THE WORD’S FLESH OUR FLESH WOULD DIE AND DECAY IN DARKNESS.

But with the WORD’S FLESH the opposite is true! It eternally matters for you and the whole world that THE WORD’S FLESH was laid in a manger, that it was nailed to the cross that it’s delivered from the altar. It’s eternally important that the Word made Flesh is swaddled for you, preserved and proclaimed for you in the flesh of trees, the pages of Holy Scripture. The Flesh laid in the manger, nailed to the cross, proclaimed in the Bible, and given in the Supper means that your flesh won’t die and decay in darkness. His flesh is life for your flesh. It’s the promise of restoration and resurrection for your flesh. It’s the promise and source of everlasting light. In Him there is no darkness at all. In eternal life His flesh will be Your light, for the Lamb in the midst of the throne will the lamp, His of His face will shine like the Sun in full strength.

Until then He puts your flesh to death daily by means of His Holy Word and Spirit. He raises within you the new person who will live in the light of His glory forevermore. He gives you His flesh to eat with the promise, a promise only enjoyed by faith, that “whoever eats My flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will resurrect Him on the Last Day.” His flesh at Communion does that by the forgiveness of sins. The very flesh He took up in the virgin’s womb, that was laid in a manger, that was crucified, that was raised, and is now ascended far above all heavens, is yours that your flesh would live forever, for at the resurrection, “the entire flesh and all its essence will be cleansed of all depravity, ignorance, lust, sin, and filth. Consequently, the flesh is then immortal.” (LW3, 141)

WITHOUT THE WORD’S FLESH OUR FLESH WOULD DIE AND DECAY IN DARKNESS.

But with His flesh, and faith in Him, there is life, restoration, eternal light and life. A light first flickering at Bethlehem’s manger, shining brightly at communion. His light “leading onward, beaming bright,” all the way to the place “where no clouds His glory hide.”

᛭ INI ᛭