Here the Word of God was Made Flesh

Encore Post: In Israel, an ancient inscription in set in the floor of a church. Verbum Caro Hic Factum Est (here the word was made flesh). Emperor Constantine had the church — and these words — built there in the 4th century. (300s). There his mother Helena was told God had become a man. It is not Bethlehem. It is Nazareth in the place thought to have been the girlhood home of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Ancient tradition identified it as the place where the Angel Gabriel had announced the incarnation of the Eternal Son of God in her womb. Here it was believed the impossible happened — the finite contained the infinite. The Author of Life became the child of a Jewish girl. To all Christians who confess the doctrines of the Nicene Creed, she is known as the θεοτόκος (theotokos) — the bearer or the Mother of God.

This event is known in theology as the incarnation — God taking on flesh and blood. We celebrate on March 25th — nine months before Christmas — right in the middle of Lent or early in the season of Easter. From the perspective of human logic it is backwards.

Religions invented by humans are all about people seeking God, going on a quest, doing one work after another, performing one ritual after another. Greeks and Eastern religion are all about getting rid of the flesh and the physical world, ascending into the heavens spiritually. The goal is to shed the body for what’s really important — the spiritual.

The incarnation is the first and greatest revelation — epiphany. We don’t seek God — God seeks us. We don’t strive to climb Jacob’s ladder — he comes down it. The Son of God is the Son of Man. He is in every way like us — except he didn’t sin. He brings to us grace after grace.

The incarnation tells more than about God. It tells us that flesh and blood are good, not to be despised and rejected, but celebrated and accepted. We are very good just the way God made us. We are male or female, short or tall, big or small-boned, a specific, unique combination of traits chosen by God so that none of us — even twins — are exactly the same. In baptism, he calls us by name, writing it in the Book of Life. What he wants is each one of us. It is for us he was born, lived a perfect life, suffered, died, rose and ascended into heaven. And it is for us he will come again, he will call our name when he summons us from the grave and transforms us for life everlasting. The truth is he became flesh to live with us — now and forever.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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