11th December 2024

Incarnation, Rejection and Acceptance. 

Whilst Matthew and Luke provide us with two narrative accounts of the Christmas event from widely differing perspectives, it is John who provides a theological exposition focused around three words: Incarnation, Rejection and Acceptance.

So, ‘The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory, the glory which befits the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth’ [1 v 14]. This is the passage that gives us the word Incarnation derived from the Latin carnis meaning of the flesh so as we look at that vulnerable child in Bethlehem’s manger we see the Son of God embodied in human flesh, the God who lives amongst us and who we can fully recognise: Emmanuel has come among us.

That is the good news, but the forthcoming history is there in v 11 ‘He came unto his own but his own would not accept him’. And so this is a story of Rejection which will end with this same embodied Son of God crucified upon a cross. Grace and truth aptly denote Jesus’ ministry of word and action, all that the prophets had spelt out in their teaching about the coming Messiah, but it is that which the compromising leadership in Jerusalem rejects as it kills both grace and truth in securing Jesus’ crucifixion.

Beyond this failure, however, John points to a greater achievement in verse 12, where he speaks of a theology of Acceptance: ‘But to all those who did receive him, who put their trust in him, he gave the right to become the children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.’ Whilst in Bethlehem a saviour is born, on Calvary the church receives its birth, becoming the new Incarnation as God’s body here on earth, his instrument of truth and grace.

John Briggs