Incarnation

23 December 2023

This is Christmas time. Some place no religious significance on these days while others quietly celebrate them with holy solemnity. For some it is gift-giving and getting together, yet for others it is of want and loneliness. What to make of this?

A few days ago, I drove passed an inflated fifteen-foot Santa Claus lightly swaying in the breeze, the tie-downs holding just fine. I briefly considered this colorful oversized Santa as a gaudy distraction from the true meaning of Christmas, and then I checked myself. Wait a minute, at least it is not hateful or violent, and it does bring a smile. But what of the true meaning? Well, it can vary. It might be joy filled with family and friends, or depressing isolation and loneliness. It may be the glitter of parties or the flicker of advent candles or so many other things. We each find our place. And for each of us, we celebrate it as we have come to know it. Many aspire to the old refrain peace on earth, good will to men hoping for some brief reprieve from the violence and hatred confronting us each day. And we have to say it’s just good to see people being kind and smiling a little more. These are all good things about Christmas and we need to appreciate them for the warmth and community they bring.

Yet there is a root to this season of gladhearted generosity. There is a staggering reality in Christmas buried beneath the hubbub and noise.

Christmas commemorates the Incarnation[1]. Jesus come to earth, God become man. Yes, yes, we’ve all heard the story, we know all about the baby in the manger. And perhaps we have found it somewhat charming, but maybe not. Although usually treated as almost fairytale, the event was anything but. A thin comparison can be found imagining an exceedingly wealth couple being shunted off to sleep in a dirty broken-down garage among the smell of grease and oil. For Mary and Joseph and the newborn child it was the rank odors of a stable. A rough dirty shed for animals, a lowly mean place of poverty and need.

I say a thin comparison for this does not begin to convey the ignobility of the moment. God’s own Son coming down from all eternity, divine in nature yet taking on human form as a baby. There is no way for us to imagine this. We confess it as inconceivable for we have no context, no real sense of this profound descent of God into man’s broken world. Christ left his glory in heaven with the Father and came to this sometimes lovely but more often violent and bent place called earth, came in the form of a helpless child. From highest glory with the Father in the heaven of heavens to a backwater village called Bethlehem, to a broken-down backyard shed for desperately needed shelter. From the height of glory with infinite wealth and influence in the chambers of heaven to abject poverty and disregard. Why?

Looking into the Incarnation is a wonderfully deep well exposing the very heart of God. It is much to unpack and too much for today.[1] I would like to focus in on a simple truth.

Where the Christ of God appeared says everything about who he was coming to. He showed up in rough circumstance among the poverty-stricken and helpless of the world. The King of the World showed up among the needy surrounded by wants and hungers unmet, showed up helpless and needing the attentions of his mother, showed up to a hard life to be lived out under Roman occupation surrounded by cunning deceitful religious leaders and a ragtag band of followers that never seemed to grasp who he actually was.. He showed up among need and he showed up because he loves us. It is all beyond measure.

This Christ of God, Jesus, the Son of God and very image of God’s pure ineffable glory came down to earth to serve others. More pointedly, he came to the broken and down-trodden, the destitute and hungry. He came to the lonely and forgotten, the indebted and helpless. He came to the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner in the land. Those people most often overlooked and discarded. He came to them. The God of Heaven came down to these people gladly embracing the shame and degradation of it all for the joy that was set before him.[3] And he has never changed, he remains the same. Ever coming to meet the needs of those unable to lift themselves, to all who have come to realize that they cannot do it. And if we are straight with ourselves, this is all of us. He came and comes every day of our lives. We have only to accept him.

Christmas is a most holy season. The Savior of the World has come. Rest in this and be glad.

Henry

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[1] Merriam-Webster, Incarnation is defined as “the union of divinity with humanity in Jesus Christ.”

[2] Athanasius, The Incarnation of the Word of God. If you are up for a thorough, scholarly study of the Incarnation, this early church father (293-373 AD) is just the ticket. I highly recommend it.

[3] Hebrews 12:2