The last time the Lord appeared on earth was way back in
Exodus at Mt Sinai. The people were
frightened out of their wits by the signs accompanying that theophany. Smoke covered the mountain and it
trembled. The sound of trumpets was
heard on the mountain and people were warned to keep far from it. Zechariah announces that He will be in the
midst of the people and you have to wonder was he thinking that this meant something
like the glory of the Lord filling the tabernacle and temple rather than a
physical presence. What did he envision
when he heard the Lord declare these things to him? How glorious it would be to experience that
again! More surprising was the idea that
the Lord might walk among them as He did way back when with Adam and Eve in the
garden. That would be unsafe for all
concerned. Surely He would send a human
representative, the Messiah, the son of David.
Little did anyone know or imagine that He, Himself, would walk among
them. It is unthinkable.
Could anyone believe Jesus literally came from above? When He made such statements it would be hard
not to wonder what He really meant because He surely couldn’t mean what it
sounded like. He claimed to have
pre-existed and to have been in the very councils of God, to speak truth in an
absolute way, with the knowledge that what He said wasn’t interpretation it was
exactly what was not only said but intended.
Surely Mary’s story about His conception was part of the lore
surrounding Him and yet no one believed that either. The truth is too good to be true isn’t
it? How could the God who created all
things take on human form and live among sinful humanity. The theologians of the time could never get their
heads around it, it couldn’t be squeezed into their plausibility
structures. It can’t be today
either. If you believe it true, thank
Him because without the Holy Spirit you couldn’t believe it. It sounds mad.
John makes two propositional statements here that go
together. First he says, “No one has
ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is
perfected in us.” Second, “Whoever
confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” Love was the motive for sending the Son. If we receive the Son then we receive the
motive. If we have those two together
then our response is love for God and for one another. He is formed in us by faith and the Holy
Spirit. He is the true and perfect
humanity and by the power of the Holy Spirit love is to be perfected in us just
as it was in Him. If we take away one
thing from the incarnation let it be that God’s motive was purely love for
those created in His image and let that be our motive for making Him known and
let it be also our methodology. What was
too good to imagine is true because of love.
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