I am sure I had read the particular passage of Scripture before, but it never hit me as it did that day over fifty years ago. It penetrated to the deepest core of my being, enveloped my soul, and has been a part of me since. Every year, during the Advent/Christmas season, I spend time reflecting on it. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6 KJV).
I don’t know another text that gathers up the essence of the Gospel as this one. Here is the core meaning of Christmas, “The radiant glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ.” Incredible! God’s ultimate revelation in Jesus. We call it incarnation.
See it in contrast. There are a few men in the twentieth century who seemed as immortal as Mao Tse Tung. Chairman Mao became the incarnation of a movement, a system of thought, and a revolution that impacted nine hundred million people (that was the population of China when he died in 1976). He lived to be 83 and was China’s leader for over three decades. It was difficult for even the most casual observance to imagine a China without Chairman Mao. Yet, he died. An admirer wrote shortly after Mao’s death: “He conceived of the Chinese revolution, then helped cause it to happen, and in the process, every thought of Mao’s became the primary thought of almost every Chinese. The word almost literally became flesh.”
Note the conditional word “almost”. The word “almost became flesh.” In his Gospel, John, writing of Jesus, said, “The Word became flesh.” No reservation – no conditional definition. And Paul wrote, “The light of the knowledge of the glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ.” I was in China two years after Mao’s death. His likeness in picture and his statue was still everywhere. The little red book of quotations was still in all the bookstores. Though only two years after his death, the magnificent mausoleum that had been built for Mao was closed. The official word was that it was closed for repair, but the informal word passed on among the guides was that it was a deliberate effort to diminish Mao’s presence in the minds and hearts of the people.
In Mao, powerful man that he was, the word almost became flesh. But with Jesus, “the Word did become flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld His glory – the glory of the I only begotten Son of the Father” (John 2:14). This is the incredibility of the incarnation, Jesus Christ. If you miss this, you miss Christmas.