Remember the verse we've been looking at as the quintessential verse on the incarnation of Jesus.
John 1:14
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Last week we covered this at length so I'm just going to touch on it here in brief. Here, John says the Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us. The word for dwelt is the word used in the Greek translation of the OT to mean the tabernacle or tent. Remember, this implies both transience and permanence. It was the location that housed the presence of God to be taken with the Israelites throughout their wilderness wandering.
In the mystery of incarnation we see this in Jesus. He, the second person of the trinity, comes to earth and lives among us for 33 years. Of course, we love to speculate as to the other ways God could have redeemed the world. Appearing as an adult and leading a Jewish rebellion to overthrow the Romans would've been a much faster way to the cross. Instead, Jesus comes as a baby, lives almost a full life (accounting for the shorter life span of that day) on this earth. In doing so, he spends tons of time here. This he does, not just to teach us about God, which he could've done in a weekend seminar, but to show us who God is. As John says of his witness through his time with Jesus,
1 John 1:1
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—
Through his time spent with Jesus, John heard him teach, saw his actions, and touched his real human body (contra the Gnostic teaching which taught that Jesus only appeared to be human).
Remember in this series we are looking at Jesus' incarnation as a model for how we do ministry. Last week we saw how location is so important—Jesus came here to us and so we should go to people far from God. This week we are going to consider time. Through his time spent with his disciples Jesus taught them how to live as members of God's kingdom, he showed them who God was, and ultimately gave himself as the once and for all sacrifice for sin. This he did in real time in history. If Jesus did this perhaps we should focus on investing in time with people as well.
Additional Content
Bible Project Podcast: God's Word, Spirit, and Wisdom
Reflection
Spend some time thinking about the incarnation. If you were God how would you have chosen to redeem the world. Most likely you could come up with some faster options. But Jesus came and lived among us for about 33 years. In doing so he built deep relationships, most notably with his disciples. In these relationships the disciples discovered who Jesus really was and the true nature of his identity.
Audio
ff to 3:15 for additional content