We want transcendence and eminence. All at once we desire to be suspended and swallowed in greatness, while being closely and intimately known. Nacho Libre said it well when he asked, "Don't you want a little taste of the glory?" And later he says to his pretty nun friend Incarnacion, "Let's get down to the real nitty gritty- who is this Inarnacion?" And 'who' is the right question. The sun has not took on skin; the earth has not grown veins from its teaming rivers. Our greatest material treasures have not taken in breath. Something greater has.The fact of Jesus' life breaks in with a great interruption and sets itself in great contrast to other claims. Instead of spirits inhabiting statues of gold, or idols mediating communication; and instead of our broken human relationships (even our best ones) fulfilling the deepest needs of our souls; instead of seeing our identities shaped in cloth, or electronics, or vehicles- the Great Spirit (Yahweh) takes on flesh, blood, and bones. He breathes. He speaks. He loves. His heart beats to bring us into relationship with Him through His life, death, and bodily resurrection (John 1:1-18).
In Yeshua (Jesus) He claims to be the Only One through whom the cosmos was made, manifested, sustained, and will one day be renewed. In all this transcendent power He limits and humbles himself to the poverty and dependence of a baby. He walks as a man- dirty, frustrated, elated, glad, sorrowful, sleepy, hungry, and infinitely longing. He has stepped into our story to raise us up into his (Colossians 1:16-18).
As a community of One- (the Trinity) the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have loved and enjoyed each other before time began. When God started the clock and got his hands dirty in the material world He knew it would be at the cost of coming not just down, but quite literally into this 'killing floor'. In His making of the world, He knew He would be buried beneath it(Colossians 2:9).
At Christmas there is the foreshadowing of a burial. Though the scripture does not explicitly say, history and the geography of first century Palestine indicate that mangers were not usually free standing structures like barns or tents, but were instead caves. Usually livestock were housed in dugout-type structures in a hill or in a cavern in the rocks. Whether or not this is so, it is certain that God not only dirtied his fingertips when he miraculously formed our flesh, but when He wrapped himself in it at birth. While kings kept their thrones and Caesars measured their kingdoms, the true Son-King left His divine position, His throne, to be an infant (Luke 2).
Far from licking the silver spoon, he grew up indistinguishable in his humanity from latter born brothers and sisters. No halo crowned him. No glow emanated from his form. Still the more He grew the further down he went, until subjecting himself to torture and death- even his own divinely-designed spiritual hells (Psalm 22) The irony is immeasurable.
The distance He traveled from Godhood to manhood is proportional to the distance He has brought us close to Himself (Colossians 3:1-4). Through trust in His substituting life, death, and resurrection we are united to God. We are brought into relationship with Him (Ephesians 2:4-9). Through his eating of death for us, we taste the glory that we long for(Hebrews 2:9). All the car commercials, sexual appeals, and material obsession of US culture speak to this. Even the off-handed comments of a young girl I met yesterday, "I can't wait to get off work so I can just get drunk!" confirm that we were made for transcendence and pleasure. By Jesus' being swallowed up by our skin, our death, our grave, and our hell we are decked in His glory, clothed in His beauty, showered with approval, and wrapped in His eternal life.
Far from inciting arrogance this teaches our deepest heart that the core of understanding this reality is wonder, joy, and behavioral reflection of humbling ourselves to serve. How can we embrace the 'other'? From whom are we alienated that we need to be reconciled? Where can we follow God in humiliating sacrifice, love, and service to people who need it- even if they don't want it? The Christmas message is first receiving this word of what God has done for us in Jesus. And secondly, embracing the same mission exemplified in Jesus. It is more, but it is not less than giving up your 'God-given' rights, your self-wrought riches, your innate dignities in exchange for sharing in a more transcendent reality. Where can we dirty our hands and go into the darkness to come out resurrected with more people sharing in God's indestructible life? See that infant-Universe-Maker and join his everlasting and greater-joy-embracing Mission.
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