Friday, December 15, 2017

Jesus Shows Us God

I remember watching a magician perform on TV.  I think it was David Copperfield.  He made the Statue of Liberty disappear.  I was amazed.  I don’t know what kind of trick he used, but it was impressive.  First, it was there, and then it wasn’t.  Just before he snapped his fingers, he said, “Now you see it, and now you don’t.”  Poof.  Gone. And then he said, “Now you don’t see it, and now you do.”  Poof. There it was again.

At Christmas, God the Father said, “Now you don’t see me, and now you do.  Poof!”  And then the God-child was born in a stable in Bethlehem.  It was not a trick, but more like a miracle of God’s great power.  He took his own divine nature and squeezed it down into the babe of Bethlehem.

The Bible says, “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.  He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation.” –Colossians 1: 15   Think about that!  The mighty God who has universe-creating power and stands above the universe came to us in Jesus.  The theological word is “Incarnation”, meaning literally “enfleshment.” 

Clearly this is a mind-boggling move on the Father’s part.  The disciples had trouble believing it.  In the upper room on the night before Jesus’ betrayal, our Lord said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”  That means that when we know Jesus, we know God.   

Isn’t this what we all long for—to know God?  And when Jesus came, he showed us who the Father was.  God did everything he possibly could to help us know him so that we might love him and receive his forgiveness.  His biggest and boldest move was to give us a visible image of himself. 

Colossians 1:15 uses the word “image”—Jesus is the “image” of the invisible God.  In the Greek language, “image” is “eikon.”  Icons are pictures which make ideas clear.  Pictures make difficult ideas easy to understand.  Jesus is the accurate picture of who God is. 

Pause a moment and feel the wonder of that.  Jesus is God in the flesh.  “No one has ever seen God.  But Jesus the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”  --John 1: 18

Prayer:  Thank you Jesus, for making God known to us.  Help us to believe that when we know, believe and love you, we know, believe, and love God.  Amen.

--Pastor Ken