“Immanuel.” God-with-us. The coming of Jesus to earth as a newborn baby manifests His presence with us, even today. “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and you shall call Him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). The use of this name highlights the Christian belief that Jesus is the physical embodiment of God dwelling on earth. But, how so? And so what? In what way does Jesus’ dwelling with us make a difference? In our advent sermon series, we will be looking at the comfort of God, the revelation of God, the indwelling of God, and the love of God—all possible because… Immanuel!
“Verbing” is a phenomenon which tends to ruffle my formal, grammatical feathers. As you could probably figure out, “verbing” is the term for taking a noun and using it as a verb. Sometimes there are cues that this is happening—take a nice, normal noun, like “terror,” add “-ize” to it and you create a word that terrorizes a rigid mind like my own (nouns are nouns and verbs are verbs).
But what is really disjointed is when we take a noun and simply begin to use it as a verb. “I just Googled it.” Wait. Google is a thing, not an action! “She friended me on Facebook.” She what? “I chaired the meeting at which she voiced opposition, so we tabled the discussion and texted everyone.” Stop it!
It probably shouldn’t surprise you to learn that American English is not the only language that “verb-if-izes” things. A key concept, a central theological principle, and important scriptural verse is built around taking a key biblical “thing” and using it as a verb. When the Apostle John is speaking of the Incarnation, the coming of Jesus to the world, he describes Jesus’ presence as “dwelling among us” (John 1:14). But the word John uses is a verb-ized form of “tabernacle.” The tabernacle was the mobile tent of meeting or temple constructed by the Israelites at God’s direction, so that God’s presence might be tangibly experienced by the Israelite people during their wandering in the wilderness. This image of a tabernacle is simply too rich and full to miss. So, John uses it to describe what Jesus has done in the incarnation.
Jesus has tabernacled with us… He is dwelling here in our midst, just like a tabernacle, a place of worship, a place of meeting with God Himself. And as followers of Jesus, by His Spirit, He tabernacles with us today!
In preparation for worship this week, read John 1:1-14.
- Verse 9. Is there any other possible identification of “the Light” other than Jesus? Is there any other reference that John might have in mind here? Why would he use the symbolism of “light”?
- Verses 10-11. What are all the implications of Jesus “making the world?” Why is it so shocking, so offensive, that the world “did not know Him.”
- Verses 12-13. What evidence is there for being “born of the will of God?” How can you tell if that is so or not?
- Verse 14. Notice that the word, “Word,” is capitalized. The reference again is to Jesus. What is behind the metaphor of calling Him, “the Word?” What characteristics of Jesus is the author highlighting here?
- Verse 14. List out the actions mentioned in this verse—how are they all related? How is God dwelling with us connected to our seeing His glory? How is becoming flesh linked with the Father, full of grace?
The Lighter Side of Verbing
Calvin: I like to verb words.
Hobbes: What?
Calvin: I take nouns and adjectives and use them as verbs. Remember when “access” was a thing? Now it’s something you do. It got verbed. Verbing weirds language.
Hobbes: Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding.
(Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes)
By Henry Knapp