The Theology of Christmas:
You may not have thought of Jesus in this way

When most Christians think of the suffering of Christ, they think about the crucifixion. And that is good and proper. But I think we overlook another time of suffering for Jesus and another time when Jesus sacrificed tremendously in order to bring salvation to humanity: His incarnation, when he lowered himself from only being God to become a human.

Christians get excited about Christmas because of the birth of Jesus Christ, meaning the human and divine being. And we should. All of human history has been waiting for this and it is the event that is pointed to many multiple times in the Old Testament. We know the rest of the story that the OT prophets only dreamed to see.

But let's look at this from Christ's perspective. What was he doing before he came to earth to be born? As part of the Trinity, he was in heaven and as God he was in charge. How long had he been in charge? Forever in the past. He had always been in charge, not only of the universe but outside our universe as God.

Then what happens? He is born as a human baby who can do nothing for himself. He has to cry when he is hungry or thirsty so that he will be fed. He has to be carried everywhere. He wee-wees on himself. We are talking about the same being who was just recently in charge in heaven. And now he messes on himself in different ways and cannot do anything about it. How humiliating for a being who only recently was in heaven and in charge of everything.

That is the point: In a short time he went from always being in charge everywhere and for always in the past to being totally dependent on the same humans that he created. Why would any being do that, go through such voluntary deprivation? Because “God loved the world so much.” He was willing to come to earth and endure so much ridicule because he had a higher purpose: The end of this story is bringing people back to a relationship with God.

To sum up: It is right that we honor Christ at Easter for the sacrifice he made for us. But it is also right to honor Christ as well on Christmas morning. We often see a newborn baby and get excited, but, from Jesus’ perspective, he was just in heaven in charge of everything and now he has been voluntarily demoted (if you will) and is not only not in charge of anything, but is totally dependent on humans for everything. So, On the day after Christmas, we move on with our lives, but Christ was just beginning a journey in which he had left his majesty (but not his deity) behind and had to be like me and you.

© 2024 Mark Nickens