Christmas: The Big Picture

January 3, 2021

Hope Lutheran Church

John 1:1-18

Christmas: The Big Picture

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Well, Christmas is nearly over. Decorations have been packed away until next December. The holiday baking is nearly all consumed and now we face the New Year’s resolution to get rid of that extra Christmas ten we packed on.

Once again we’ve heard the Christmas story we so dearly cherish. We never tire of hearing Luke’s nativity! The eighty-year-old listens as raptly as the eight-year-old. Luke’s account, however, is not the only nativity story in our scriptures. John also bears witness to Jesus’ story of origin. But the two accounts – Luke and John – are very different from one another.

If a Hollywood director were to make a movie of each version, the opening movements would head in opposite directions. In Luke’s version, the camera would gradually zoom in closer and closer. The movie opens at a distance: Caesar is in Rome and Quirinius on the throne in Syria. The scene then closes in to the outskirts of tiny Bethlehem in Palestine. Joseph and Mary are arriving to a packed city.

The camera continues to move in closer and closer. First the stable. Then Mary’s contractions, her furrowed brow, the anxiety and peril of the delivery impressed on Joseph’s face. And then the close shot: Jesus, the baby all clean and wrapped up, lying snugly in the manger.

Luke’s version is earthy and real. We can picture it, smell it, even! The account of Jesus’ birth is so very visual. Christ comes into our midst so humanly.

But John’s story is extremely different. We heard his nativity account today. It’s nothing short of VAST! John’s Christmas story is more like the beginning of Star Wars. The camera captures the vast expanse of the universe while the story unscrolls before us. John uses his camera to capture a macro picture. It doesn’t zoom in like Luke; it pans out.

John starts at the beginning – the VERY beginning. John opens his nativity narrative on page one of the Bible: “In the beginning.” You can’t get any bigger than that! For John, Jesus’ nativity is utterly cosmic in scope. Jesus’ origins and the world’s beginnings are inextricably connected. Christ was there in the very beginning. He was the Word that set all things into motion! He was the Word, the Divine LOGOS.

This divine word, this holy force, God’s sanctified logic, was always there! And John the Baptist understands that completely. As he stands on the banks of the Jordan River, he gives us this confusing backwards/forwards message: “He who comes AFTER me ranks AHEAD of me because he was BEFORE me.”

The Reverend John gets it completely. He understands the big picture! This Christ thing unfolding before their eyes, it’s nothing new at all! This presence has been around since the very beginning!

Gospel writer John wants us to grasp the BIG picture of Christmas. He wants us to understand the full meaning and significance of our Lord’s birth. It’s connected to God’s ultimate objective: the salvation of the world.

And so we look back to Genesis. We look back to “in the beginning.” Way back when there was naught, the presence of our Lord was there. He was the divine Word itself! As God spoke all things into existence, Christ was that very word uttered from the omnipotent God.

Christ was there, at our origins! He was the light on that first day. And his light has shone ever since. Nothing, no darkness from the depths of nothingness can stop it.

This is what came down at Christmas. This is the baby laid in the manger. Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. But even more: he is the divine Word made flesh in our midst.

He is salvation itself. He is simply: full of grace and truth.

This baby is God’s plan since the dawn of time. And that plan is: full of grace and truth.

At this appointed time, in this remote stable in Bethlehem, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And that divine word pronounces: grace and truth.

This grace and truth is the Light of the World. It cannot be quenched or extinguished, this divine light. No, nothing in all of creation, no heights nor powers, nothing can divert this godly plan. This grace and truth will achieve its intended purpose.

Hidden in the hay of the manger, there we behold God’s big, cosmic plan for the salvation of the world! We behold God’s intended plan for all which was created on that very first day: it is salvation, full of grace and truth.

Since the dawn of time, our creation was woven into the genesis of this Word-Made-Flesh. His destiny is our destiny. And it is full of grace and truth. And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.