The Word Became Flesh

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us." John 1:14

Can our minds wrap around this truth? The One who made the earth, the universe, who put the stars and the planets in their place, became a man and walked with us for 33 years!

He was born of a peasant woman, but He was a King!  The ruler of heaven and earth came to that little town, Bethlehem, and the angels, a whole host of them, were His army. The word in Greek that Saint Luke used, “stratia”, means army! 

Caesar Augustus, the first emperor of the ancient Roman Empire, was in power when Jesus was born and he issued an edict that he could not have known would fulfill words in the Bible from 600 years before. Joseph took his little family from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census. 

The prophet Micah had foretold that the Messiah would be born in the tiny village of Bethlehem:

"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." (Micah 5:2, NIV)

The ‘ruler of Israel’ appointed Peter as leader and the successor of Peter, Pope Francis, is still in Rome. He can still look from his window to the Colosseum which was funded from the opulent plunder taken from the Jewish Temple after the first Jewish-Roman war in 70 AD. Not only were Jewish prisoners of war used to build this massive amphitheater, but followers of Jesus were martyred there as well. 

The powerful dictators of Jesus’ time tried to destroy Him, but they were the ones who were destroyed. Where is the Roman Empire today? Long gone. All the kings and kingdoms of the world eventually get thrown into the dustbin of history. But the Kingdom that Jesus came to build on earth, His Church, is still alive and flourishing in many places here on earth! 

That same Word who became flesh, who is outside of time and place, entered time and stepped into His own creation, to become the Immanuel, “God with us”. He is the same God who wants to dwell in our hearts. May we make a place for Him by “cleaning up the cobwebs” of festering disappointments, envy, shame, guilt, resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, whatever keeps us from having a good relationship with the Father who loves us best. 

Let us rejoice because He came to free us from the poisons the enemy wants us to imbibe every day. If we follow the way of the Lord, we will reap a harvest of blessing!