John 1:14-15
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”
Exodus 40:34–38
The Glory of the Lord
Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel during all their travels.
Sometimes one little word can say so much - much more than we think on first sight. For instance, 'promise', 'possible', 'love', 'simples’. And sometimes we find powerful little words in our scriptures. One of the challenges of the scriptures is that we are not reading them in the languages in which they were originally written - our OT was written in Hebrew, and our NT mostly in Greek, with a little Aramaic here and there. And in our translations, it's sometimes difficult to render certain original Hebrew or Greek words into English without losing some of the nuance of meaning.
We're continuing our little series from the prologue to John's Gospel, and this evening we find ourselves thinking about just one really important verse from John chapter 1. And in that verse, v14, one of those meaningful little words appears, one of those words that has lost its nuance in translation. We read this:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
It's that little word 'dwelling'. He made his dwelling - he dwelt - among us.
Dwelling
You see, what we miss in English is that the Greek word behind this derives from the word for a tent. So literally,
The Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us.
Why does that matter? Well, John chooses his words very carefully. He is the master of brevity. And he likes to echo the OT. He's already echoed the first verse of the book of Genesis in the way he opens his Chapter 1: in the beginning was the Word. And now he echoes the OT again - the Word (God) came to pitch his tent among us. How does that echo the OT?
Well, where in our bibles do we find God dwelling in a tent? Only in the Exodus, in the desert, in the midst of the Israelites whom he has called out of slavery in Egypt. Remember that in the OT God met his people - he figuratively dwelt - in the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, the portable temple that travelled with the Israelites as they wandered those 40 years towards the Land he had promised. His presence was symbolised by the pillar of smoke by day and the pillar of fire by night, moving with then through the desert.
And yet they could never see his face. They were his people, and he was their God, but he remained remote, distant, a frightening presence characterized by thunder, lightning and smoke. Moses never got to see God; the nearest was when God allowed him to be tucked into a cleft in a rock while he passed by.
The LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand". (Exodus 33:21)
For no-one could see God, no-one could see his glory and live.
But now? John tells us, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. This was God in human form, who could be touched, spoken with, laughed with, adored, worshipped. Jesus, who declared to Thomas: Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. And in Jesus, the Word made Flesh, v14 tells us:
We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
Moses and all those OT characters would have given their right hand to be able to see God - but in Jesus Christ, God made man - we have been given that immense privilege. God has made himself known in Jesus Christ, personally, first to the people of 1st Century Palestine, and now, through his Spirit, down the ages, to us. Even to you and me.
And what do we discover about him from this same verse? That he was full of grace and truth. Two very particular attributes.
Truth
John often refers to Jesus as 'The Truth'. He is the way, the truth and the life. John records Jesus saying repeatedly, I tell you the truth. He is full of grace and truth. Jesus is the ultimate truth - in him there is nothing false, nothing conditional, nothing that will shift like the sands. His word is rock-solid; his judgments are true.
We find it shocking that certain powerful people, even world leaders, bend that word to their own purposes. For them truth is something of their own design, something to be defined as such so long as it suits them. And then revised for convenience. But with Jesus, truth is absolute - for God does not lie. Jesus prayed to the Father for his followers:
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. John 17:17
But truth is a two-edged sword - for the truth can be great news, but it can also be devastating. And for us, as we approach Lent, the truth is not always something we want to hear. Because, in truth, we have fallen below God's standards in our lives and our thoughts. The Apostle Paul wrote that:
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
David the Psalmist wrote that:
there is no one who does good, not even one.
The prophet Isaiah wrote that:
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way
And that's something we especially recall on Ash Wednesday as we repent of our wrongdoing.
So we have a predicament. If Jesus, the Word of God, came and dwelt among us bringing only truth, then our predicament would be terrible - for our sin is ever before us. But the good news is he came from the Father, full of grace and truth
Grace
We often forget the meaning of grace in everyday speech. If I say someone is full of grace you're more likely to imagine them as having great poise, delicacy of movement, maybe someone who is charming and polite. But the scriptural meaning is entirely different. In the bible, in God's language, grace is the free, unmerited gift of God's favour.
You can easily remember it if you think of it as an acronym - the letters GRACE meaning 'God's Riches At Christ's Expense'.
You see, God's Truth tells us that we have fallen short of his standards. That there is a gulf between us, caused by our rebellion and sin. We have a huge and life-threatening problem. But God's Grace deals with our problem - not by pretending that it doesn't exist; not by sweeping it under the carpet; but by dealing with it head-on.
Sinful man and holy God cannot co-exist, any more than light can co-exist with darkness. So God deals with our sin by a great cosmic exchange - our sin is transferred to Jesus, and his holiness is transferred to us. Someone has to pay the price of sin - and God allows his own Son, fully God, to carry our sin on his shoulders on the cross where he died in our place. Isaiah tells us:
he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
So, three little words that say so much. Three powerful words to hold close to our hearts this Ash Wednesday: dwelling, truth and grace. For:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.