What does camping have to do with Christmas?
John 1:14, Hebrews 11:9, 2 Corinthians 5:1, 2 Corinthians 5:4
John 1:14 is one of the most theologically rich verses in the Bible, and it has a long and significant history in the development of the Christian conception of the incarnation—the central truth we celebrate at Christmas. Athanasius, the great 3rd century scholar who fought against the doctrine that Christ was God’s first and greatest creation (a heresy known as Arianism and taught in our day by the Jehovah’s Witnesses), based his greatest book on John 1:14: On the Incarnation of the Word. The idea of Jesus as “Word” and his “becoming flesh” usually takes center stage when Christians ponder John 1:14. But I want to look at the second half of the verse: “and made his dwelling among us.” The Greek word translated “made his dwelling” comes from a root related to tents—skene. That was the word used of the Tabernacle in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. So, John 1:14 literally says, “The Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us…”
“…when John speaks of Christ pitching his tent among us, he was alluding to his willingness to take on a mortal body and submit to death’s tyranny to rescue us from death for all eternity.”
The theme of God’s people dwelling in tents is a very rich one. The author to Hebrews discusses how Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all tent-dwellers in the Promised Land. They confessed that they were “aliens and strangers” in the land that God had sworn to give them, and they died in faith, not having received that promise. Their tents were symbols of impermanence, and their tent-dwelling mentality was a testimony to their faith in a “city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). Impermanence. That’s what a tent is all about.
So, also Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:1-4, pondering the resurrection body, speaks of the impermanence of the mortal bodies in which we all are living. He calls his mortal body “this tent,” saying he is deeply aware of its destruction by aging and death. Because of that, he feels effectively naked, unclothed, longing for a permanent “home,” the resurrection body.
Therefore, when John speaks of Christ pitching his tent among us, he was alluding to his willingness to take on a mortal body and submit to death’s tyranny to rescue us from death for all eternity. The moment Christ rose from the dead, he took on a permanent “dwelling place” for his soul—a resurrection body. He no longer lives in a tent but in a permanent home. And because he was willing to “pitch his tent” among us dying people, someday so shall we.
