“The Word Tabernacled Among Us”
Christmas Day, 2025
Text: John 1:14
In the name of Jesus, Amen!
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” “To dwell” is to reside as God did in the Tabernacle of Moses, who led the people of Israel in the wilderness toward the promised land. The literal translation should be “and tabernacled among us”. A tabernacle is essentially a tent. A tent is a dwelling place that provides warmth and shelter, that makes people feel comfortable at home eating and drinking, and protects people from danger of rain and storms. The first part of this verse, John Chapter 1, verse 14, is clearly telling us that the Word, who in the beginning was with God, and was God, became flesh. However, starting from “and dwelt among us”, the rest of the verse emphasizes more on the fact that this Word becoming flesh lived among us, and there were real people of flesh and blood including the Apostle John who had seen, heard, and touched God in flesh, and experienced His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Now, you TOO will see the glory of God in Christ Jesus with His grace and truth because He is the Word, who dwells among us, not only in the form of God’s words to be preached and taught, but also as He feeds us with His Body and Blood in His church, protects us from all harm and danger from the devil in real life, and eventually brings us to eternal life with bodily resurrection.
The Tabernacle in the wilderness is also called the Tent of Meeting. To tabernacle is to set up tent. You set up tent in different places as you move, especially for nomadic people like Abraham and the people of Israel. When the Bible tells us about Abraham’s faith when he heard God’s call and traveled towards the land that God promised to give him, the Book of Hebrews says, “By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.” When I was young, I moved to different places sometimes with my parents, sometimes not, because my parents were forced into hard labor during the cultural revolution in China. I had to learn to adjust to different conditions. I often felt unstable, sometimes lonely and afraid. The reason that I mention this is that I would like to challenge people to think, especially for those who haven’t moved much, to understand what it means to live in a temporary place like living in a tent as a sojourner. The Bible tells us that as Christians we live in this world “as sojourners and exiles” (1 Peter 2:11) for heaven is our real home. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t feel that way. They often see themselves as a permanent resident of this world. They call it home and don’t want to abandon worldly ways, and always have that tendency of wanting to go back. When the book of Hebrews talks about those exemplary people of faith, it says, “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were sojourners and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.” (Hebrews 11:13-16)
On the mountain of Sinai in the wilderness, God gave the people of Israel the Ten Commandments, which later resided in the ark of the Tabernacle. The Word of God came out from the Tabernacle through Moses, as the Gospel of John declares, “the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”. God’s glory dwelt among the people of Israel. He led them by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. They had seen His glory of striking Egypt with ten plagues, of the power of the Passover Lamb to set them free from Pharaoh’s reign, and of the saving grace of parting the Red Sea. They finally entered Canaan, which was the promised land that foreshadows the heavenly Home. They heard the Law and the warning, “Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. (Deut. 30:19-20)” They also heard the Gospel, the promises of the Prophet Who would be the Christ, Jesus. They also ate the “Spiritual Food” from heaven and drank the “Spiritual Water” from the Rock. Yet, most of them did not believe, grumbling against God and Moses, and died in the wildness. The Bible makes it quite clear that they perished because of their stubborn unbelief.
But thanks be to God! “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Torah and the Old Testament only foreshadowed Christ. Now, God manifests Himself in the flesh of Jesus and sets up tent among us. Knowing this, we are much more blessed than those Old Testament believers because “from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” Jesus came down from heaven, set up tent among us and became a sojourner in this world, as He says, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” He traveled in the area of Galilee, on the banks of the Jordan river, through Samaria, and in and around Jerusalem “so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.’” Finally, He set His face towards Jerusalem, traveling and striving towards the goal – the cross, and “for the joy that was set before him Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:2). From the throne of God, He came down in order to bring us up back to home of the Father. He sets up tent among us so that we can go to the heavenly dwelling that He has prepared for us. He became a sojourner in this world that we may become a citizen in the Kingdom of God.
The Psalm tells us that God is our “dwelling place in all generations” and He is “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Ps. 46:1) With God Himself becoming flesh and dwelling among us, full of grace and truth, our flesh and future dwelling place can be rest assured by the forgiveness of sins and bodily resurrection. St. Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:1-4, “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” Thanks be to God! Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us pray for the Holy Spirit to move us and to always receive Jesus, the Word together with His Body and Blood that once dwelt among us, but now feeds us and clothes us with His own Righteousness, and has prepared a better dwelling place in heaven.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen!
