“The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us.” John 1:14 (NIV)

John’s Christmas narrative vastly differs from Luke’s focus on angels and a virgin birth and from Paul’s exhortation to imitate Jesus’ humility (Philippians 2). John’s version, instead, resonates with Old Testament echoes. 

John’s first words echo Genesis 1, “In the beginning was the Word,” recalling the creation account in Genesis. Jesus is the Word, with God from the beginning, speaking creation into being (vs. 1-3). He is, to echo our theme, home with the Father.

Referring to Jesus repeatedly as the Word, not Immanuel or the Christ child, John emphasizes communication, echoing the Old Testament’s oft-repeated phrase: “and the word of the Lord came.” God’s word came then through prophets. With Jesus’ birth, though, no longer would Israel receive the word second-hand. They were given the eternal Word of God Himself, in the flesh, to communicate with.

But to communicate effectively requires close contact.

Thus, “The Word [not only] became flesh” but also “lived” with them (v.14). The verb lived (or dwelt in some translations) literally means tabernacled, a verb with more Old Testament echoes, recalling Israel’s wandering in the wilderness and the glory of God dwelling – making a home – with them in and communicating with them from a tent (the Tabernacle). Fast forward several centuries. Leaving the glories of heaven, Jesus came to tabernacle with us, His very name meaning God with us. He is the embodiment of what the prophets heard when “the word of the Lord came” to them. He made His earthly home, a tabernacle in a manger, with a poor couple in a small town. Then, as an itinerant preacher steadily on the move (as was the original Tabernacle), Jesus carried within Himself (as did the Tabernacle) God’s presence among His people. His home expanded to include all who would hear His words and come. 

How can we post-New Testament folks have the same at-home-with-Jesus experience, too, since “the Word who became flesh” (v.14) now tabernacles again in heaven? Well, the method is the same for those listening to the prophets or to Jesus as He preached as for those of us struggling in darkness now. Listen again to John’s Christmas story with more Genesis echoes: “In [Jesus] was life, and that life…shines in the darkness…and brings light to every man” (vs. 5,9). Where sin has left darkness in our souls, Jesus brings “true light” (v.9), a light we can’t generate ourselves, but a light to which we can, as did saints of old, respond. And once we choose to follow Him, He sends His Holy Spirit to tabernacle with us, “testifying that we are His children” (Rom. 8:16). And in the church, Jesus tabernacles with us in our collective midst, making His home in and with us.

Now that’s a home worth seeking.

What if God intends your very life to be a tabernacle, a place where God would personally dwell? If that is God’s desire for you, what are one or two ways you could respond?