ADVENT 2025
CHRISTMAS DAY
DECEMBER 25, 2025
The Word Made Flesh
Rev. Dr. H. James Hopkins
(Rev. Hopkins (Jim) is pastor emeritus of Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church)
John 1:1-14 (NRSVUE)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
In the gospel of John, unlike the gospels of Matthew and Luke, there is no account of Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem. Instead, we are given a beautiful prologue in which John presents the theology of Jesus, the eternal word of God, taking on human flesh. John tells us that the One who participated in the very first act of Creation has pitched his tent in our neighborhood as an act of grace and truth. Theologians call this, the Incarnation.
In his gospel John will expand on the ways the Word became flesh and honor the ways he brought grace and truth to life. Three of those ways were as Shepherd, Servant, and Sufferer.
Evoking the imagery of the 23rd Psalm John tells of Jesus identifying himself as the Good Shepherd, the one who has earned the trust of the flock and who is willing to give his life for them. The psalm begins in the third person (“He leads me”), but when speaking of being led through the valley of the shadow of death switches to the second person (“You are with me”). With David, the psalmist, John, the gospel writer assures us that even in our bleakest of moments we can pray “You God, are with me.”
Continuing to use the imagery of the Shepherd Psalm, John celebrates the hospitality of Jesus. As the Good Shepherd anoints our heads with oil and sets a banquet before us, Jesus washes the disciples’ feet and cooks breakfast for them beside the sea. When teaching on Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr., would ask his students “Do you want a title or a towel?” As the one who lived among us full of grace and truth, Jesus always chose the towel.
Calling on the prophet Isaiah’s imagery of the Suffering One, John tells us that, in order to fully embody grace and truth, Jesus suffered with us. All the gospels tell of Jesus dying on the cross. It is John who records that from the cross Jesus cried, “I thirst.” Thirst is a condition that almost every person who ever lived can connect with.
Today we think of Jesus the new-born infant. John would most certainly not begrudge us the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Yet, he would be impatient. He would want us to think of Jesus growing to embody grace and truth. Thus, on Christmas, let us give thanks that Holy the Child has begun his journey to becoming our Good Shepherd, our Serving Brother and our Suffering Friend.