[To listen to the Message, click here][photo from www.thenativitystory.com]
SUMMARY
In her poem “First Coming”, Madeleine L’Engle writes:
He did not wait till the world was ready
till men and nations were at peace.
He came when the Heavens were unsteady,
and prisoners cried out for release.
He did not wait for the perfect time.
He came when the need was deep and great.
He dined with sinners in all their grime,
turned water into wine. He did not wait
till hearts were pure. In joy he came
to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.
In the mystery of the Word made Flesh
the Maker of the stars was born.
We cannot wait till the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
He came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!
- Madeleine L’Engle, Wintersong, Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, 2004
That poem expresses the wonder of the Incarnation: that in Jesus Christ, God came near - to share our grief, to touch our pain, He came with Love.
The Incarnation is the focus of Christmas, but it is also crucial to the mission of the Church. The fact that the Word, Jesus Christ, took on human flesh (while retaining His divinity), lived like us and with us, interacted personally with us and gave His life for us, is both the essence of Christmas and of mission.
So what is the INCARNATION? I want us to consider the meaning, motivation and purpose of the Incarnation.
What is the MEANING of the Incarnation? Incarnation means the “act of being made flesh” and refers to the second Person of the Trinity taking on human nature. The apostle John describes it in John 1.14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” But the Incarnation is not merely the birth of Christ, it involves the life, death and resurrection of Christ. It is the entire earthly ministry of Jesus. One of the early church fathers, Irenaeus, once wrote, “Jesus Christ, in His infinite love, has become what we are, in order that He may make us entirely what He is.”
What is the MOTIVATION behind the Incarnation? The motivation is love. Emil Brunner, when writing about the Incarnation, uses the idea of movement. He says that the Bible is basically the proclamation of the self-movement of God. In other religions and philosophies God does not move, for that would be considered a sign of imperfection. However, as Brunner states, “The God of the Christian faith, the Three in One, the Living God, is Himself motion, because in His very nature He is love.” Love requires movement, because love is always directed toward an object. God is love and therefore, in a sense, God is the motion of love – love within Himself and yet directed toward us. Again, Brunner writes, “The Bible is the book in which the ever-recurring theme is this strange assertion: that the God who has created the world and who fills all things, who holds all things within his hands, the Omnipresent and Almighty – comes.” “In the Son, as the Son, God is the self-moved, the God who Himself descends into the world.” (The Mediator, 286). What wondrous love is this!
What is the PURPOSE of the Incarnation? The purpose is found in the fact that God’s love is saving love. Jesus said that He “came to seek and to save what was lost”. He came to save. We see this in our passage: Luke 4.14-21. This passage expresses what that salvation looks like.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me.” The presence of the Spirit in Jesus’ ministry is a recurring theme in Luke. In 4:14 we read, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit;” in 4:1, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit returned form the Jordan;” and in 3:22, “The Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.” And so, the presence of the Spirit marked Jesus not only as a prophet, but as the Messiah. For the title Messiah means “Anointed One”.
“to preach good news to the poor.” To preach Good News is to proclaim the Gospel (Gospel literally means “Good News”). And He would share this Good News with the poor. Now, this did not mean that Jesus only spoke to those in a certain income bracket. Jesus had plenty to say about money and the difficulty that wealthy people have in coming into the Kingdom, but “the poor” in Scripture are not simply an economic category. The poor were not just people without cash, they were people of diminished status or disadvantaged conditions, those in the margins of society, even outsiders. The poor were also “poor in spirit” – those who were humble; those who were afflicted and unable to save themselves and therefore looked to God for help; those who had a humble dependence upon God. Jesus had compassion on the impoverished and calls His followers to care for the needs of the poor, but we must recognize that ultimately we are all poor - spiritually bankrupt apart from God’s grace. And so the Good News is for us. It is received by all who recognize their broken condition and need for a Savior.
“He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners.” Who are the prisoners and what are they held captive to? 2 Timothy 2.26 describes those attempting to live outside of Christ as being caught in “trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” Scripture also refers to every human as being a slave to sin. Apart from the life-transforming power of Christ, we are in slavery to sin. We are the prisoners and sin is what holds us captive. But Jesus came to “proclaim freedom”. Now, the word behind that refers specifically to the forgiveness of sin. And so, Jesus clearly had the fallen human condition in mind. Jesus came to proclaim the forgiveness of sins. But we may say, “What’s the big deal about simply proclaiming freedom? You can proclaim anything.” That’s true. But the difference lies in who’s proclaiming. In the beginning, God spoke and the universe came into existence. When God speaks, things happen. So when Jesus, who substituted Himself for us, proclaims the forgiveness of sins, they are forgiven. If Jesus declares that we are free, there is nothing in the cosmos that can hold us captive. We read in Scripture, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
“and recovery of sight for the blind”. Who are the blind? Anyone who has ever sung “Amazing Grace” knows the answer to that: “I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” Jesus literally healed the blind. However, throughout the Bible, blindness is used as a metaphor for the effects of human disobedience against God. God is light and therefore trying to live apart from God is the equivalent of living in darkness - in blindness. But Jesus was sent, according to Scripture, “to be a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” But how does He do that? I think C.S. Lewis says it best. He once said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it. But because by it I see everything else.” Jesus opens our eyes so that we can see ourselves for what we are, the world for what it is and God for who He is. Jesus is called the Dayspring, the Rising Sun. In Him we can see everything else. In Him we see what is true and good and beautiful and enduring. In Him we see God and His eternal plan and everything else is eclipsed by that vision.
“to release the oppressed.” The root of the word translated ‘oppressed’ means to be broken in pieces. The picture is of pottery broken on the ground or a spirit broken by oppression. As human beings, we know brokenness. We know psychological brokenness, emotional brokenness, physical brokenness, sexual brokenness, moral brokenness, spiritual brokenness. We look around and see the broken pieces of humanity scattered all about. We see the hurt, the pain, the disillusionment, the despair – broken marriages, broken families, broken children, broken lives. And these broken pieces cry out. Jesus came to heal our brokenness. He came to pick us up and, piece by piece, put us back together. Once again the word release, meaning forgiveness, is used, revealing that though we are broken by sin, shattered by our guilt, crushed by our shame, Jesus grants forgiveness bringing relief and release from the burden of sin and guilt and shame. And Jesus releases us not only from the oppression, but also from the oppressor. Satan does not want you to be forgiven or feel forgiven. Satan is the accuser who wants to shackle you to your past so that you can have no future. He wants you to be weighed down with a sense of failure and futility, so you can’t move. Satan delights in your despair. But if the Son has set you free, then you are free indeed. If Jesus sets us free, there is nothing in the universe that can bind us. And so let Jesus break your chains and throw off your burden. For He came to release the oppressed.
“to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” Jesus declared that the Kingdom of God had arrived – that salvation was at hand. The image is of the year of Jubilee in the OT Law. Every fiftieth year was to be a Jubilee year. During that year, slaves were set free, debts were forgiven and property could be redeemed by its original owner. Jesus has, in a sense, brought about the year of Jubilee. He has set us free. He has forgiven us. He has redeemed us. In Christ, we experience the year of Jubilee. For the apostle Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 6.2, “I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.”
Jesus came to save. That is the basis of Christmas, the hope of our lives and the core of Christian mission. He did not wait until the world was ready. He came when the need was deep and great. Jesus did not wait until we were ready or our hearts were pure or our lives were in order. While we were still sinners, Jesus died for us. He came into our unsteadiness and our prison, our need and our grime. He shared our grief and touched our pain. He came with love.
And He comes even now with love. He comes even now to save. He is ready to set you free and give you life. And the life He gives us involves a calling – a calling not only to receive His love, but also to share His love. We are saved from the brokenness of the world so that we will, as Christ’s ambassadors, re-enter that world and, like Christ, share its grief and touch its pain. Because we are so loved, we go with love – the love of Christ. That is our mission. That is our hope.
He came with Love. He came to save: receive the Good News and rejoice!
POINTS TO REMEMBER
“The coming God is the loving God, and only the coming God is the One who truly loves. For He only is the One who Himself goes forth to seek; the One who Himself moves in search of the beloved … This “coming down” of God, this condescension, this coming of God to men, is the proof of His unfathomable Love … It is the Love which gives its very self, the Love which pours itself out for the sake of the beloved. It is the Love which is all the greater the less claim the beloved has upon It, the less it is worthy of such love. Hence the coming of God as Love can only be fully known where it is the coming of God to sinful man, the seeking of those who have fallen away, of those who have been unfaithful. Here alone does the divine Love unveil its whole incomprehensible wealth and richness: in the Atonement - where God gives Himself to the sinful creature, in order that He may once more and indeed fully restore the fellowship which had been broken between man and God.”
- Emil Brunner (The Mediator, Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1947 p. 287)
“He who is reduced to nothing in himself, and relies on the mercy of God, is poor in spirit.”
- John Calvin
“To be poor in spirit is to acknowledge our spiritual poverty, indeed spiritual bankruptcy, before God.”
- John Stott
SCRIPTURE TO CONSIDER
Incarnation – John 1.1-14; 1 John 1.1-4
He came to save - Luke 4.14-21
Life apart from/in Christ - 2 Timothy 2.26; Romans 6
Our sin and Savior - Isaiah 59
Jesus the Servant of the Lord - Isaiah 42.1-8
Now is the day of salvation - 2 Corinthians 6.2
No comments:
Post a Comment