What We Believe: The Word Became Flesh

25 August 2019

Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; Romans 11:25-32; John 1:1-5, 10-18

"The Son, who is the Word of the Father, the very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took man’s nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin; so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided; whereof is one Christ, very God and very man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile His Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt but also for actual sins of men.”  2016 Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, Article II, ¶104, pg 66

So for Christianity, Jesus is foundational.  Though He is held in high esteem in Islam as a prophet and in some quarters of Judaism as a teacher, in Christianity He is the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of the living God.  As Peter professed and Jesus affirmed, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:15). 

As if this were not enough, there is more because it cannot be said Jesus was strictly born to die.  If that were so, there would have been no need for the angel to warn Joseph to take his wife and the Child and flee to Egypt to escape the murderous rage of Herod.  In that profound act, we are told there is much more to Jesus the Messiah than to simply anticipate and commemorate His gruesome and tortuous death. 

If He is “the Word which became flesh”, as it is written in the Scriptures and affirmed by our Articles of Religion, then we are challenged to evaluate our relationship with Him not only through His Bride, which is the Church (the congregation, not the institution); we are also required to measure the depth of our relationship with Him based on our knowledge of The Word which “became flesh”.  As it is written in the Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2).

He is, therefore, inseparable from the Eternal Word.  I have stated before, and this statement has caused some consternation with some, that we cannot claim a “personal relationship” with Someone we know virtually nothing about and will make no effort to know.  To know Jesus as “the Word which became flesh”, then, requires a knowledge of The Word itself.  Otherwise, absent a physical body to literally follow, what else is there for us to follow but The Word?

Though I do not mean to diminish the efforts of many to memorize the Scriptures, there is more to the knowledge of the Scriptures and comfortable familiarity with Jesus than mere memorization.  There is context, the setting in which Jesus taught so many lessons.  There is also the necessary context of finding our place within everything He taught. 

It is knowing where He is coming from when He challenged the religious authorities of His day and as He continues to challenge us today who have designated ourselves our own religious authority.  It is to rise from our spiritual complacency and yet remain low in our humility.  It is knowing He never dissuaded the practice of religion but, rather, sought to persuade and invite us into a much deeper relationship – through our practice of religion, which includes Christian education for all ages - with something much greater than ourselves as individuals, something which is – by its very nature and origin - everlasting.

In our Wesleyan tradition, one of the several means of grace is the “search of the Scriptures” rather than merely “reading the Bible”.  By “searching” the Scriptures, we are called to much more than to merely read the words on the pages.  Our “searching” involves not only reading but also hearing and meditating on what we’ve read.  In meditating on the Word, we not only must read it again and again and hear it again and again, we also have to have those moments of silence to reflect on and contemplate what is written and, ultimately, what is revealed.

In this, we cannot overlook the deeper meaning in St. John’s words as he expressed the blindness of the world at large as well as the willful blindness of the ones who should have seen very clearly who Jesus was … and still is.  “He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him; yet the world did not know Him.  He came to what was His own, and His own people did not accept Him” (John 1:10-11).    

The “world” did not know Him, but His “own” did not accept Him.  Given that St. James expresses an innate incompatibility between the Kingdom and the world, there is no real condemnation in that statement more than it is a simple acknowledgement that there were Jews, the people of The Lord, and there were Gentiles – those not Jewish, not familiar with Israel’s God.

However, that His own did not “accept” Him is a statement which should not escape our notice.  What does it mean to “accept” the Messiah?  To acknowledge the historical Jesus of Nazareth as a man who existed is not much of a stretch.  To accept Him as “personal Lord and Savior” is a Reformation thing and a fond notion that expresses a necessary level of intimacy, but it still falls short of what we really need to know about the Messiah and what He means not only to those of His “own” who do not “accept” Him but to the world at large that does not “know” Him but needs to.

Jesus Himself posed this very question to those who would profess Him as “Lord” but ignore what He says.  As it is written in Luke’s Gospel (6:46), “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, but do not do what I tell you?”  As He goes on to compare a house with a solid foundation that will withstand the storms of life against a house with no foundation that will certainly fall, our Shepherd says there is much more to “knowing” Him than to simply acknowledge His existence.  Even calling Him “Lord” but refusing to obey Him is of no effect.

At the core of all this, proclaiming faith in Jesus but separating Him from The Word is to strike at the very heart of Jesus’ existence and Lordship.  There is certainly the Man born of the flesh, but we confess He was crucified, dead, and buried.  The Man was killed, but The Word was raised and now sits at the Right Hand of the Father.  It is The Word which will come again “to judge the living and the dead”.   “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Words will never pass away”, our Shepherd declared (Matthew 24:35).

The Word which became flesh had something to say then … and has something to say now.  It is our blessing, our very Life to learn to listen and listen to learn.  To the edification of our souls and the Holy Church, and to the glory of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.  Amen.