“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14 (NIV)
Jesus once said something astonishing to those Jews who objected to him clearing the temple in Jerusalem that had become a chaotic scene of money changers and others buying and selling rather than a place of reverence, sanctity and prayer. In response to their retort: “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” (John 2:18), Jesus said:
“Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
John 2:19 (NIV)
This confused those who confronted him but Jesus was speaking not of the physical temple in Jerusalem but that he was the temple as Immanuel: God with us.
“They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body.”
John 2:20 (NIV)
Jesus referred to his death and resurrection as the symbol of his authority that would tear down the barrier that had separated God’s holiness from mankind’s fallen, broken nature as seen in the physical temple in Jerusalem and build God’s kingdom and presence in the temples of people’s changed hearts.
It can be easy to take for granted or become too familiar with something so significant and profound that Jesus ushered in at his coming to earth as God made flesh. As the scripture says he, God, made his dwelling or temple/tabernacle among us in flesh and blood.
The Holy presence of God would not just be confined to the Tabernacle of Moses’ day or the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem but would as was prophesied, embody a living temple in which God would make his tabernacle; the perfect living embodiment of the glory and presence of God that is Jesus Christ. This was unheard of.
“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and you will call him Immanuel, which means, God with us.”
Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23 (NIV)
Jesus rightly and beautifully owns this title of Immanuel, God with us. This very title speaks powerfully of the rich and loving heart of God? That to save humanity whose once purity in likeness to their divine creator was now a fractured mess and lost beneath the mire of immorality, God himself would step into such a broken rebellious world not only to dwell among such a morass but to reach out to rescue and restore all including the very worst of the world without exception.
Jesus is the outpoured expression of God’s heart for each of us. None of us were ever a lost cause to him and instead of giving up on humanity God gave up the most precious thing of all, part of himself, His son to the point of death to draw lost sons and daughters back to their creator in restored union and intimacy that had not been seen since the dawning of mankind! Such is the love of God for us, how can our hearts not be moved to worship him in joy and astonishment at his goodness?
©2021, Benjamin Trowbridge
Abba's Dearly Beloved 