We’ve all heard the phrase “down to earth”. If we say that someone is ‘down-to-earth’, we mean that they are well-grounded in the reality of the situation around them, and concern themselves with practical ways of living and relating with others. That they understand what life is like and what it is like to walk in our shoes.
As we celebrate Christmas again today, we celebrate the reality that God came down to earth for us, and not only understand what life is like, but to walk in our shoes.
In today’s Gospel reading, John puts it this way: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The original word for ‘dwelt’ carries the language of ‘tabernacle’. It means to fix one’s tent, or one’s tabernacle, and live in it. We could translate: ‘The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”
Here John draws on the Old Testament imagery of the special connection between the Tabernacle and God’s presence among his people. God’s extensive instructions on how the Tabernacle was to be made and furnished are given in the book of Exodus. The Tabernacle was not an end in itself; it was to be the means for God to live with his people he had redeemed from slavery to Pharoah in Egypt. As God led them through the wilderness to the land he had promised to give them, he tabernacled with them—he camped with them, dwelt with them. Since rescuing them from Egypt, his holy presence had been with them and not left them. He led his people, veiled in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night while he walked with them.
God promised that when the burnt offering was made at the entrance to the Tent of meeting, he would consecrate this area with his own glorious presence for the purpose of meeting with his people. God said: “For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the tent of meeting, before the Lord. There I will meet you and speak to you; there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory” (Exodus 29:42-43).
In today’s text John says that the apostles have seen God’s glory: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Since Jesus was born, God’s glory has been revealed on earth in a greater way than to the people of old—not veiled by cloud, smoke or fire or housed in a tent, but veiled by the body of Jesus; the Word of God made flesh. It is through the Person of Jesus that the fulness of God now dwells with his people.
God is our down-to-earth God. He has come to relate with his people in real circumstances of human life. If God came down only as God, it would be no different to the days of him tabernacling with the Israelites in the desert. He would not be able to share the full experience humanity, being tempted in every way we are (yet without sin). He would not be able to redeem us unless he became one of us. He would not be able to walk in our shoes.
But wearing the flesh of the Christ child, God has come into the world in the midst of fighting, abuse, arrogance, rejection, segregation, pride, greed, hatred, and violence; a world which discriminates between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’, a world which shatters the lives of the vulnerable, and seeks to oppress good with evil. In the Word made flesh, God came to dwell among us despite the world’s strife, brokenness, suffering and death. In Christ, God came to welcome sinners and eat with them. With real human hands he reached out to people and healed those who were hurting, and blessed those who were spiritually poor, to give them true light and life.
The love and compassion of God is not just a concept but it is tangible and concrete as it is lived out by God in flesh and blood among us. The fulness of God’s love and compassion is present in Jesus, who reached out to people—even unlovable people—but not unloved by God. He comforted people who were hurting. He touched those who were ritually unclean, bringing their unholiness upon himself and sharing his own holiness with them. He brought wholeness to people by helping them hear the word of God and see him, the Word of God made flesh. He came to walk in our shoes. He brought forgiveness and grace where there was only condemnation. And he comes to us, to do the very same.
Some time ago, a song by a gospel choir “Jesus walks with me” hit the charts, and became a popular hit. The choir was the ARC – Addicts Rehabilitation Choir, started by jazz musician Curtis Lundy when he entered a treatment program for cocaine addiction. Drawing fellow addicts together and finding inspiration in an old hymnal, he wrote that chorus as a hymn of hope for those in rehab. “We were singing for our lives,” one choir member says of the song. “We were asking Jesus to save us, to help us get out of the drugs.” That choir wasn’t just singing words on a sheet but offering desperate prayers for redemption, trusting that Jesus would not abandon them but continue to walk with them[1].
Christmas means that Jesus walks with us. He walks with me and you, and anyone who cries out to him for help. He’s with us, offering hope for the future and salvation now. John says of Jesus: “In him was life, and that life was the light of humankind.” John says that the light that Jesus gives shines in this dark world, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Parents and Grandparents know that when children are afraid from a bad dream, strange sounds, or shifting shadows at night, putting on a light is one of the most helpful things to do. And the first thing that is usually said is “See there is nothing there!” The light washes the darkness away to bring comfort and peace.
That’s what Jesus has done for you. It is not just little ones that are afraid of the dark. The dark world is a scary place. I don’t know the deep fears you have. But God in Christ does. Fear is something we all experience. Fear of not being loved. The fear of what our future might hold. Fear waiting for the results from health tests. Fear over the impact of conflict on the world. Fear over climate change on the planet. Fear over financial future in the face of retirement and redundancy. The fear of reduced capacity and changed lifestyle that senior years bring. The fear of dying. The fear of whether God really does love us as we struggle against sin and our guilty conscience.
His light has washed away the darkness away to bring comfort and peace. It is as if God has turned on the bedroom light and said “Dear child, see there is nothing really there!” Isaiah foretold centuries before, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:2, 6).
In the depths of whatever life brings for you this day, Jesus comes to you with his light and life. He came that people might have life and have it abundantly. He is the resurrection and the life. He is the way, the truth and the life. He gave his life for the life of the world. He gave his life for you. The promise of God for you is “to all those who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (verse 12).
As God led his people of old through the wilderness to the land he had promised to give them, he dwelt with them, with the fulness of his divine power and mercy.
God dwells with us, his people of today, as we travel through the wilderness of this world to the heavenly homeland he has promised us. It is not at the entrance to the Tent of meeting that he welcomes you. But through Christ God invites you, welcomes you, meets with you and speaks with you here. This is where God now tabernacles with his people—in the tent of human flesh. This is where he comes, full of divine grace and truth for you, to consecrate this place and make it holy by his presence. The Word who spoke all things into existence speaks again to bring about a new creation, saying: “This is my body given for you, this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” He comes to make you holy by his presence in his own body and blood he gives to you. This is where you have seen his glory and see it again today.
And as you gather around our down to earth God with other lowly folk like the shepherds, and sing with the angels, this is a foretaste of the time you will share in God’s own glory in heaven. To see, with John and all of God’s people through the centuries, the true glory of Christmas is to recognise that God is among us in the person of Jesus, now and forever. This is what Christmas means. God in Christ dwells with you now and always. He is here for you now. And he is for you, forever. Amen.
[1] Voysey, Sheridan: ‘Walk with me’ Daily Bread https://odb.org/2022/11/28/walk-with-me, last accessed 11:52pm 24 Dec 2025.
