Of Flesh and Flattery

John 1:10-18

Have you made your New Year’s Resolutions?  Statistic show that the top two resolutions are exercising more and losing weight. This isn’t surprising.  We want to improve ourselves.  And one way to measure improvement is in the appearance of our bodies.  At some deeper level, we want to be better human beings in the largest sense.  Better at our work.  Better friends and parents.  But it’s kind of hard to bring that lofty goal into focus.  And so, understandably, we aim at more nearby goals.  We vow to get to the gym.  We vow to lose a few pounds.

You might think that this topic is a long way from talking about Jesus.  But John’s gospel begins with the question of what an excellent human life looks like.  

The gospel of John begins with John the Baptizer pointing to Jesus: here is a beautiful human person; here is an excellent human being, a life lived to its fullest.  Now it’s true, John isn’t focused on Jesus’ body shape.  John sees in Jesus a human being who is full of God.  The goal of human life is to be full of light, full of life, full of God.  Like Jesus.  That’s what it means to be a real human being - to be filled with God.

The second Sunday of Christmas is a good time to ask ourselves why Jesus matters.  Why does Jesus matter?  Why is it that our faith circles around him?  Why is he at the center of our singing and prayer and work?  Jews, Christians, and Muslims all agree that only God is worthy of our worship.  So why do we exalt and honor Jesus of Nazareth, who is as fully human as we are?  

John’s gospel begins by reflecting on Jesus’ preeminence.  He is the human being of first importance.  In him there was a divine fullness - so that his human life is - at the same time - the life-story of God.

At the end of the year we are awash in lists.  I bought two albums last week just off Pitchfork’s list of the Top 50 Albums of 2010.  There are lists of the world’s richest people.  Lists of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs.  Lists of the most beautiful people.  New York Magazine recently ran a graph chart of the New Yorkers most often photographed at parties (none of you made the graph, sorry).  These lists are silly, in a way.  Excuses for articles to fill magazines or websites.  But on another level they interest me.  They are ways of getting at different kinds of human excellence and human importance.

Actually, John’s gospel begins with a list.  It’s short.  He compares three people - Moses, John the Baptizer, and Jesus - and asks which should receive top billing, first rank.  It’s not a question about power, or wealth, or prestige.  There have certainly been human beings more wealthy and more politically powerful than Jesus of Nazareth.  Jesus was obviously bright but we have no reason to think of him with an especially high IQ.  As a peasant laborer he likely was physically fit, but there have been millions with bodies more beautiful and strong than his.  But John’s gospel puts Jesus at the top of the list.  As a living window into God’s own life, Jesus is unmatched by anyone else.  You can look at Jesus and see what God is like.  He is the walking, talking, healing embodiment of God’s love.

Yes, this gospel admits, there are other very important Jews.  John the Baptist is of first importance among Jewish prophets, given the task of announcing the arrival of God’s long awaited Messiah.  But John the Baptizer says of Jesus, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me” (1:15).  Moses is Israel’s great deliverer, leading Israel out of slavery in Egypt.  The law given to Moses on Mt. Sinai was God’s gift to Israel - the law that gives shape to Israel’s life.  But Jesus is more important than Moses.  Moses gives the law, but Jesus gives us “grace and truth.”  Both John the Baptist and Moses are important people.  Yet their lives do not show us, pure and simple, what God is like.  “No one has ever seen God.  It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known” (1:18).

Now let’s address a couple of questions.  We live in a city that is post-religious in an important way.  Most people do not shape their lives by religious practices.  It’s also a pluralist city -- to the extent that our neighbors are religious, they represent a wide variety of religious traditions.  So it’s obvious that many of our friends may not understand why Jesus matters.  They may wonder why we organize our lives around Jesus of Nazareth.  Well, John helps us with an answer:  Jesus lives at the limits of what’s possible for a human being -- he is full of God.  Placing Jesus at the center of our lives is a way of placing God at the center.

OK, so Jesus is important to you, someone might ask us.  But isn’t it true that there are lots of important people?  Haven’t there been many people in history who have lived with courage and love?  Many who have shown us the love of God?  Of course!  John’s gospel mentioned John the Baptist and Moses.  But there were other significant Jewish figures -- Abraham and David and a host of others.  There are other important human beings who shine with significance -- figures like the Buddha, the Prophet Muhammed, Mohatma Ghandi, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mother Theresa.  They too can show us God’s love.  They too can shine with God’s light.  God’s goodness shines on us in a thousand different faces.  Putting Jesus at the center of our lives does not mean that no other human beings matter.  It just means that none matter in quite the same way he does.  He is the clearest manifestation of God’s love.  And there will never be a substitute or replacement.  Jesus is unsurpassable.

There’s another potential problem here.  Some of us might worry that focusing on Jesus reveals a kind of disdain for the ordinariness of our lives.  Shouldn’t sophisticated, worldly people like us focus on our own personal development and self-worth?  Isn’t it a little unseemly to be so fixated on another person?  Doesn’t our focus on Jesus make us look like stalkers?  The celebrity stalker is a familiar figure in our culture.  Bored and unsatisfied with their own hum-drum lives, the stalker fixates on and obsesses over someone more interesting.  You don’t find a lot of stalkers who are mentally well adjusted and happy with their own lives!    

Again, the gospel claim is that Jesus is the clearest manifestation of God’s life and love.  It is not a claim that no one else matters.  We do not venerate him because we hate ourselves.  We do not elevate him because we are unwilling to respect ourselves.  History is full of amazing human beings - men, women, and children from every corner of the globe who show us what it means to live a fully human life.  

“And the Word became flesh.”  This is the wonderful turn of phrase I invite you to take with you.  Take it not as an abstract and befuddling theological puzzle.  Rather, take it as a compliment given to all of us who are flesh.  Incarnation just means “enfleshment,” and refers to the story of God’s coming among us in Jesus.  This is the best compliment we human beings can get.  Incarnation is flattering, dignifying.  If someone really important stayed with you in your apartment, you’d be flattered.  If President Obama visited New York and asked if he could hang out with us, sleep on an air mattress on our floor -- I’d be flattered.  I would tell that story for the rest of my life.  Why?  Because important people dignify the places they dwell.  Now you might be thinking -- wait, the Word became flesh in Jesus’ body, not in my body.  That misses the point.  God’s dwelling in Jesus’ life dignifies all human lives and bodies.  All human lives are capable of being filled with God.

Jesus matters.  Yet strangely enough, he does not soak up all the light.  He is not a black hole into which all our energy escapes never to return.  He is rather like a sun that shines and illumines all else.  Everything else becomes brighter, more full of life, more interesting and real, when in his presence.   He is not an ancient and forgettable Jew, but rather that secret power and life deep in each of us -- calling us to our best selves, pulling us towards one another, towards love.

By taking on flesh, God dignifies our lives and bodies.  So go to the gym.  And eat less white flour.  Take care of your body this year.  God is pleased to dwell in you.  God loves our flesh.  Go out this week and live like God loves you and is pleased to dwell in you.  You will be among people who do not love themselves.  But you’ve heard the good news: it is a wonderful thing to be one of God’s creatures.  We’re “children born of God.”  Full of God, full of light.