the word in flesh - hearts exposed

This Christmas season I have been thinking about the effect of "God with us", the "Word in Flesh". Jesus' birth immediately shook the culture into which he was born. As He grew older, He became an increased threat to the religion system of His culture. I find it interesting to note that the Jewish religious system of His day was actually birthed from God. In the midst of that system we do find a few people who recognized the hand God creating a new way of worship. Simeon, an elderly man who the scriptures say was just and devout, recognized Jesus as the Son of God immediately. Anna, a prophet recognized Him as well. Some thirty years after His birth, John the Baptist recognized Him.

Yet most of the leading religious leaders did not recognize Jesus. Not only did they not recognize Him, they actively resisted Him to the point of attacking Him. What differentiated Simeon, Anna, and John the Baptist from the religious leaders? I think for Simeon and the like, their Jewish worship was an outworking of their devotion to God. For the religious leaders, their system of Jewish worship was their God. The system of worship birthed from the heart of God had become more important than God Himself. Perhaps more accurately, they were in love with themselves and God's plans for worship were hijacked by them to create an appearance of Godliness. In reality, their paradigms were anything but godly.

Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than the amount of scripture that they broke in conspiring to kill Jesus. For people who claimed to love the law and the scriptures, they sure displayed a great deal of disregard for those scriptures when it was convenient to do so. Their actions toward God's unfolding plan exposed their hearts. They did not care about the scriptures, they did not care about the work of God. They were deeply in love with themselves. Their professed love of the law and the scriptures gave them a veneer of respectability. Not only did they reject "God with us" they rejected "the Word in Flesh" However, the entrance of Jesus, the example of the scriptures in real life (the Word in Flesh) caused their hypocrisy to be seen. Is it any wonder that they so violently opposed Him?

I have discovered that the entrance of Jesus into our lives today still exposes our hearts. Additionally, active practical application of the scriptures discerns our motives quickly. Jesus' presence in my own life and the interaction with the scripture (the word becoming flesh in my life) has forced me to recognize my self-centeredness. At the point of recognition, I have been forced to choose whether I will reject His revelation and continue to act in a self-centered manner or whether I will embrace the revelation, crying out to Him for help.

It amazes me how powerfully the self-god is rooted in us. An e-conversation with a man who would call himself a Christian illustrates the deceptiveness of this self-god. When I pointed out a contradiction between his words and the way he was living, he became somewhat indignant. He left me know that he was moving ahead with God and his walk with God had nothing to do with me. He wanted me to stay out of his life. There was no mistaking the animosity toward me.

For a person, who would consider himself as a leader in church, that was a rather interesting statement. I had to think of the words of Paul - the eye cannot say of the hand, I have no need of you. This man's paradigm was completely opposed to the way of God. One cannot claim to follow God and then reject other believers. Furthermore, in John's first letter to the church, John made following observation - If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

While this man would profess to be following the scripture, his actions demonstrated that he rejected the scriptures. Like the religious leaders of Jesus' day, the scriptures are followed as long as they are convenient. The word has not become embodied in his life. The presence of or the lack of "word in flesh always reveals the condition of our heart.

There is a difference between an intellectual assent to the scriptures and the word becoming flesh in us. In an intellectual assent, we verbally agree with words of scripture. However, the verbal agreement does not necessarily translate in to actions. When the word becomes flesh in us, our actions reflect the words and the examples of scripture.