Triumph Over Scandal

Recently, I was at a Christmas service where the preacher exclaimed something like this: “During this season, we celebrate Jesus coming to earth–where the Infinite became finite, where the Omnipresent became present, and the All-Powerful became weak.  I had all I could do to contain my theological sensibilities.

The Eternal God did not give up His divine attributes when He became man. Omnipresence does not mean God is everywhere–in stones, in trees, in chairs, and in clouds. That is Pantheism. Christians are not pantheists. 

Omnipresence means that everything is in the presence of God. When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, He did not abandon His perfections; He veiled them. Everything was still in His presence. 

God in Christ was still eternal God, begotten not made.  He became accessible, but He never yielded His omnipotence.  Allowing others to feed Him or kill Him, when in fact He had the power to crush them, is certainly not weakness. It is, in fact, veiled power in the clothing of restraint.

This and many other myths are perpetuated at Christmas time, especially as it pertains to the message of the first coming of Christ and who He was in His nature.  The basic meaning of Christmas needs to be clarified. 

I was speaking to my friend Carter Conlon recently. He said to me, “The New Testament begins with a genealogy, the message of which is pretty simple.  It lists many of the Old Testament figures, about which we are very familiar.  They teach us this simple lesson:  failure, failure, failure, failure, … Jesus.‘ 

Beyond this very clear truth, I would add a few more realities to the Christmas message that we often forget: teen pregnancy, dreams, local scandal, the political jealousies of leadership, infanticide, angelic visitations, poverty, sudden refugee status, and the song of the young mother, who obviously knew the scriptures.

The New Testament begins with failure, scandal, fear, supernatural communication, and scriptural stability, but we make it about a silent night. There was a wandering young mother, not going home to be with her own mother in Nazareth after giving birth to her first child, but someone in flight-recovery, having to go to Egypt to escape the psychotic Roman ruler that had a plan for a district cleansing of babies, the final solution.

There was noise, some pretty serious noise, a massive heavenly choir singing glory to God in the highest.  This was not the little town of Bethlehem, lying still “above the dreamless sleep as silent stars go by.”  It was the place of spiritual war, of conflict, and of diabolical intention to thwart the redemptive plan of God in Christ.

A divine revelation to a couple of old saints at the Temple Mount at the circumcision of Jesus confirmed the destiny of the God-man, that is, the rising and fall of many in Israel. A sword would pierce His own mother’s soul. Peace would come at a great cost. 

As good Americans, we focus on the gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gifts and the materialistic side of the story become the way we celebrate. Those gifts are probably what financially got them to Egypt.

How about the supernatural triumph over human, evil intention to kill the Savior? How about the clear intention of God to use the weak and vulnerable to triumph and crush the mighty?  How about the shameless identification of God with a poor couple, who could only offer some pigeons as a sacrifice at the Second Temple?  How about the love of God to answer the longing of man for a Second Adam?  How about the fearful groom who makes a hard decision to go with God in spite of public pressure? How about the forced refugee status, as we see Joseph, Mary, and Jesus flee to Egypt for safety, a country where they doubtless did not speak the language?

We have to be careful about our messaging during this season. The Savior was found to be “in the form of a bondservant and made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7ff), but He was every bit God. We need to crush the mythology and promote the real meaning of Christmas.

The Bible is not sanitized, and the New Testament opens with spiritual warfare, the triumphant choir of victory over scandalous rumor. We need to grasp the message of the scriptures, one that requires we see and live the obvious–born today, in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. 

There are some that say that the Bible is not relevant.  It seems pretty current to me, however.  The story resembles the world I live in, swirling with craziness.  However, the redemptive plan of God is executed within that chaos.  God still makes it happen today in our lives amid all the activity and distraction. We must believe this. We must live this.