The Lodestar

John the Apostle wrote the gospel to correct the notions of a section of Greek philosophers who posited that the Divine, being transcendent and holy, cannot touch the sinful world. In the first chapter of this gospel, the author persuasively argues that Jesus Christ is the eternal creator God, but he has come into the world to walk and talk with fallen humanity and to save them.

The Son of God coming to this world differs from the other incarnations we are used to. He came as a human, in a human body, not in the form of lesser beings like animals or birds. Moreover, he came to make the sinful world his home for a while, though he remained sinless.

John uses the powerful word “dwelt” to describe God's arrival in human form. The original Greek word means “to dwell in a tent.” If the English language allows, we may translate it as “tented among us.”

By carefully choosing this world, John indicates that the arrival of the Son of God, though in a weak human body, parallels God's presence in the Old Testament. When Moses completed the work of the Tabernacle, the glory of God, in the form of a cloud, descended to fill it: “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the Tabernacle” (Exod 40:34).

The Son of God came into the human body, but not without his glory. He hid his glory but allowed his close disciples to glimpse it on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:2—8). He displayed his glory through healing miracles, raising the dead, and providing food for the hungry. John thus affirms, “We have seen his glory.”

The Book of Exodus says that the glory of God that descended on the Tabernacle continued to lead the Israelites.

“Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys” (Exod 40:36—38).

In the Christmas season, when we celebrate the Lord's coming two thousand years ago, we remind ourselves that he is still with us spiritually so that we may experience his glory through what he does in our lives.

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