X-Marks the Spot

by

Rev. Steven D. Spencer

Christmas in July

John 1:1-14

1 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 were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Grace, peace and mercy from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ - Amen

X marks the spot. What type of image shows up in your mind when you hear that statement, X marks the spot? Perhaps the image of swashbuckling pirates with their buried treasure, marked out on old yellowed oilskin map with crude writing and an X to show where the treasure lay. If that’s the picture you have you’re not alone. Evidently Hollywood thought that vision was worth reproducing when they released The Pirates of the Caribbean again this summer.

As kids we loved to play treasure hunter. We would make up crude pirate maps with an X marking the spot. We then would exchange maps with the other neighborhood kids and start the hunt. We used to talk about what we would do if we ever found a real treasure map. X always was the spot where something uncertain; something unknown lay deep beneath the sand. What we knew was that, whatever it was, it must have been of immense value. It was a time, of great joy, of laughter, and lot’s of fun.

Soon the X on that treasure map grew dim. The game was no longer played and we found a new X. It was called Algebra. X marked the unknown number in an equation. 12 x “X”= 356. X was no longer a fun symbol on a map. X was no longer hours of joy and entertainment; it was work!

A few short years later the X in math was replaced. The course was science, chemistry to be exact. X was the unknown factor in chemistry. The X-factor they called it. It’s the X-Factor for which scientist look. Those factors, which can heal cancer, prolong life, grow hair and bring great joy. It’s interesting all the way from childhood to adulthood X has stood for the unknown. It always represented something that was hidden, that must be discovered. Therefore it must have been of great value.

At Christmas we see the X-Factor once again, on windows and signs, Merry X-Mass. The first time I saw that I thought someone was taking Christ out of Christmas.

When someone prepares to enter the Seminary, that is the Lutheran Seminary, you must have some language background, in particular Greek. The first thing you learn when you learn Greek is the alphabet. The X as it looks like in our language is actually the Greek Chi. So what it says is Chi-Mass. Chi is the first letter of the title Christ. That X is an abbreviation for Christ. Not an attempt to lessen the value of the title. Here again we have the X-Factor. To some the Christ is hidden.

Our Gospel lesson today deals with the X-Factor of Christ. Who is He?

One of the striking surprises when you read John's Gospel is that there is no Christmas story.  No mangers or shepherds, no angels or wise men.  No heavenly choirs.  No doubtful Joseph and his dreams.  No risky flights to Egypt, no visits by Magi bearing gifts.  John leaves that for Matthew and Luke to tell.

Matthew anchors the Christmas story deep in the lineage of Israel.  He paints a decidedly Jewish picture of Jesus - the son of Abraham, son of David who started out a carpenter's son from Nazareth and turned out to be the Messiah, the official successor to David's throne, the Jew who saves the world in His dying and resurrection.

Luke anchors the Christmas story in world history, against the backdrop of Politics and Religion.  His picture of Christ is not promoting the kinship of Abraham or David but as the son of Adam and therefore the son of God, born in time and place, in Bethlehem of Judea when Augustus was Caesar and Quirinius was governor of Syria and the whole Roman world was undergoing a tax census.  Luke doesn't accent the Jewishness of Jesus so much as he underscores the all-embracing humanity of Jesus.  Jesus is the second Adam, the new head of humanity who embraces all in his life and death and resurrection.  This is the Jesus who draws close to women, to Gentiles, to outcasts, to those the religious had no use for.

John assumes you already know those important details of the birth of Jesus.  And if you don't, you can consult Matthew and Luke.  John also assumes that you know what Jesus did and what He said.  And if you don't, you can consult Matthew and Luke, or if you're in a hurry and want the Reader's Digest version, Mark.  But simply knowing what Jesus did and said, may not help you know who Jesus is.  That's John's burden. He's less interested in telling you what Jesus did and said than He is describing who Jesus is.  John recognized that you could recite all the fact about Jesus, as can the demons, and still not understand who He is.  That's why John has no birth story, no parables, only seven select miracles, and no institution of the Lord's Supper.  That's why John has all those "I am" sayings of Jesus. They tell us who Jesus is.  John deals with the X-Factor. You see: “if you believe in any other Jesus than the true Jesus of Scripture you are in a most precarious situation.” That’s so important let me say it again in another way. If you believe in a Jesus other that the Jesus Christ of Scripture you’re not saved! 

John wants complete clarity in whom this person of Christ is. When John put pen to paper, it almost sounds as though he were trying to rewrite the Bible starting with Genesis, that’s actually what he was doing.  He was rewriting the Torah in terms of Jesus.  In fact, John borrowed a couple of images and pressed them into use.  From the Jewish rabbis, he borrowed the notion that the Torah was the divine Word.  The rabbis said that the Torah was in the beginning with God. And John also borrowed from the Greek Gnostics of his day who were saying that the "Logos," or divine spark, was the light and life of all.  John bundled these two together - Torah and Logos - and wrapped them up in the flesh and blood humanity of Jesus with this theological dynamite passage: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, and we have beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. The eternal Word, the Torah of the Jews, the Logos of the Greeks, the ordering Power and Principle of the Universe, the Second Person of the Undivided Trinity, however you wish to describe Him, became flesh, a human being born of a human mother, and dwells among us in the fullness of God's glory.  Wow! To drive this important message home I read to you now Hebrews chapter 1 verses: 1&2 In the past God spoke His Word to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. In the past God spoke to the Israelites through a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night, a burning bush, the cloud of glory that filled the tabernacle when God was present. But now in these last days, these end times, God speaks His last Word, which is His first Word, through His Son, the Word through whom He created the world.

And so, the Word who has been with the creation since the creation, the Light and Life of all, who appeared in various times and manners, now in these last days has taken up residence in the tent of our humanity to dwell among us as one of us.  That's Christmas in a nutshell.

For a moment let your minds absorb that.  The baby lying in the manger, drooling, sucking, soiling his diapers, nursing at his mother's breast, burping, spitting up, doing all that terribly human baby stuff is God of God, Light of light, very God of very God, the only-begotten Son of the Father by whom all things were made.

A few moments ago you sang

Of the Father’s love begotten, Ere the worlds began to be, He is Alpha and Omega, He the source the ending he, Of the things that are, that have been, And that future years shall see Evermore and evermore.

The eternal Word has fingers and toes and a nose and two eyes and hair. Just like us, but without the interference of sin, without our inborn blindness to the Light of light, without our deafness to God's Word, without our self-centeredness.  He's like us as God intended for us to be.  He re-creates our humanity in God's image.  In Him is life, our life.  We are in Him - conceived by the Holy Spirit, in His birth, we are re-born in Him. You see; we're not simply celebrating the birth of Jesus at Christmas.  We're celebrating our own re-birth, the re-birth of our humanity in Christ Jesus.

Mary could hardly contain these things in her heart.  Shepherds were hard pressed to understand it.  Theologians have struggled with it, councils have argued over it, churches have fought and divided over it. You yourself may be filled with doubt.  How can this be?  How can God be man and not cease to be God?  How can man be God and not cease to be man?  How can the infinite Word become finite flesh?  How can the fullness of God dwell bodily in Jesus?

John deals with that X-Factor and reminds us that we don’t need to understand a person in order to relate to him. In fact, the mystery is what makes it fun. You never know what to expect. You don't need to explain how the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, any more than you need to explain how water can be a Baptism of the Holy Spirit or bread can be the Body of Christ or wine His Blood.  You need only take the Word at His Word and enjoy the company.  The darkness need not understand the light to receive it; it only needs to be darkness.  And the darkness can't keep out the light or overcome it.  Light always fills the emptiness of the darkness, as it did on Day One.

The dead don't need to understand the life in order to receive it; they need only be dead.  Life always fills the emptiness of death.  We who sit in the darkness, in the shadow of death, need only trust that the Light that gives light to all people shines on us in the Person named Jesus.

Our unbelief doesn't keep Jesus from being our Light and our Life and our Salvation.  He is that whether we believe it or not - Just as He is the Word that creates us and holds us together, whether we believe it or not.

The Mystery of the universe has shown us His face and told us His Name. The One whom the physicists probe for, and mathematicians calculate, the One whom the mystics seek by the searching, the Secret to the universe, the Light that enlightens all men, the Life that gives life to all - you know who He is.  You may not fully understand Him, but you know who He is.  Jesus

X-Marks the Spot, where in the little town of Bethlehem “The Word became Flesh.”  How wonderful it is to be human today!  How honored we are, that the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us!  His birth and life, His suffering and death, His burial and resurrection, His body and blood.  All are yours. 

The X in X-Mass in no longer unknown, it’s the Christ in Christmas. He is yours and you are His. For He is the Glory made known, evermore and evermore. In the name of Jesus, - Amen and Merry Christmas in July. In Jesus Name, Amen!