“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.” ~ 1 John 1:1-2
Christmas is an interesting time of year because we spend all sorts of energy as Christians celebrating the birth, life, and death of a person we’ve never met. It seems very odd to do this, but we actually tend to celebrate this about other people as well. For example, we celebrate Presidents’ Day, Martin Luther King Day, and Columbus Day, but I’m fairly certain most of us have never met any of these people.
Still, there’s something very odd about the celebration of Christmas because Jesus wasn’t, at the time of His earthly life, a very influential figure. Furthermore, He lived thousands of years ago, and died the death of a criminal. It seems odd that we would celebrate Him in such extravagant ways.
However, as with other famous men from history, what we know about Jesus comes from those who were eye witnesses of His life and death. One of the closest of those eye witnesses was the Apostle John. He was a dear friend of Christ during His earthly life, and spent time with Him during His ministry years.
Many decades after the death of Jesus, John looked back fondly on those times with Him, but not simply remembering a lost friend. John understood who Jesus truly was—not simply a man who was born, but the revelation of the second person of the Trinity—the Son of God, the eternal life of God, entering the world.
Amazingly, he looked at Jesus, saw Jesus with his eyes, heard Him, and touched Him—Jesus was a person to John. But when John proclaimed this reality to his readers, he didn’t just explain the person of Christ, but the gift that Christ brought—eternal life.
John spoke of the person of Jesus whom he knew well as the eternal life, manifested from the Father. True eternal life, for John, was Jesus. He was, and is, the person in Whom all of life exists, and He is the One being in the universe who could offer eternal life. And, remarkably, John met Him, was His friend, enjoyed meals with Him, saw Him.
The stunning thing about this truth is that through John’s account, though we have never had these experiences, we have eternal life in Him. This life isn’t through the physical presence of Jesus, but through the spiritual presence of Jesus in the hearts of His people. We know and see Him, the One who has come into the world and was manifested to us from the Father.
Perhaps you come to Christmas this year, and don’t know if you know Him. If He is eternal life, He is the most important in the universe for you to know. And the promise of the Scriptures is that, through the Gospel and the teaching of the Apostles, you can know Him!
This is the glorious reality of Christmas—the man, Christ Jesus.
