December 4, 2024 – Advent Text: Luke 1:26-38
Dear Friends in Christ,
When you teach Junior Confirmation class and you are dealing with kids of that age, you never know what they might ask. One of my first classes in Texas a kid wanted to know how they got the filling in a twinkie. The next week I brought Twinkies, we all turned them over and there were the three holes where they put in the filling. With Baptism you get off the wall queries such as, “In an emergency could I baptize someone with Dr. Pepper?” It does have water in it, but can’t find a biblical answer for that one.
At other times the kids can really challenge the Pastor. Such as this, “When Jesus was our age, did he know that he was God?” Interesting. Hard to answer. We have a lot of hard questions these days, and for some of them there are Advent answers. That will be our theme for these Wednesday evening get togethers. We will address this question tonight . . .
“HOW CAN GOD TAKE ON HUMAN FLESH . . . AND WHY?”
Imagine yourself in a remote missionary out post, trying to share your faith with people who have never heard of God. Or imagine a conversation with a friend or co-worker who knows nothing of the Christian faith. How would you describe God? You know, the God we trust with our lives and eternal destinies. The God whom we believe, teach, confess, worship serve, and pray to.
Glorious. Eternal. Majestic. How to give a description of something that has no beginning and no ending. This almighty God is beyond our understanding. Try not to fit Him into a little box of your own making.
We have lot of words to describe God, but we can never explain Him. Just marvel at God as Creator. Light out of darkness. Seas and stars and mountains and animals and fish and birds and man and woman. God made it all from scratch. Amazing.
So why would this God take on human flesh? John writes, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” It is a mystery, but it is a mystery with some bones on.
It is a miracle story. We just read it as our Gospel. A young girl named Mary. Chosen to be the human mother of this holy God. Conceived in her by the Holy Spirit. Then comes a baby in a stable in Bethlehem. A faithful husband and father looking on, name of Joseph. God did take on human flesh, and his name was Jesus. How? Mystery and miracle. Thus, the birth of God!
The name of the baby gives a nice reason why God took on human flesh. Jesus is a form of the same name as Joshua, both of which mean “Savior.” The first man and woman made in the image of God, fell from grace. And now every man and woman since free fall into sin. Sin is powerful and deadly and creates havoc. The world needed Jesus. The world needed a Savior. The qualifications seemed unthinkable. Holy. Without sin. Able to endure the consequences of sin. Pain. Suffering. Death. He would have to snuff out of the power of all of these through the new life of resurrection.
Why did God take on human flesh? Because he loves us enough to say, “I’ll never give up on them. I’ll never leave them. I, as the Father, will send them my only Son. He will be born among them, he will live among them, and he will save them from the curse of their sins.”
So it was, on that night we call Christmas, when heaven met earth. Amen.