Hi First Presbyterian,
My children have a Christmas story called Goodnight, Manger. In the story, Mary and Joseph are trying to put sleepy baby Jesus to bed, but who knew stables were so busy? Between itchy hay, braying donkeys, visiting shepherds and magi, and singing angels, baby Jesus doesn’t stand a chance to get the sleep he needs.
It’s a cute book that is just telling the nativity story without a serious theological point, but I like the way this story emphasizes the humanity of Jesus. Jesus was a baby who was probably itchy and uncomfortable at times, who got overtired and overstimulated, who snuggled up to his exhausted parents, and who needed to be fed and changed and burped just like every other baby in the world. We don’t see a lot of images of the Holy Family washing first century diapers or struggling to prepare dinner with a toddler underfoot, but that’s what happened. Jesus is human. Jesus is also divine.
It took the early church a couple centuries to really argue out a precise position on the nature of Christ. Was he fully divine and just animating a human body like a puppeteer? Was he born a normal human and then chosen by God and made into some kind of demi-god? Was he half human and half god, and, if so, which characteristics did he have or which nature? Was his divinity so much more powerful that it essentially made his humanity irrelevant, swallowed up like a drop of wine in the sea? It took a few church councils and much argument to work out some answers to these questions. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 solidified the answer to some of these questions: Jesus was truly and fully human, AND he was truly and fully God.
Jesus is one with God the Father, is a creator rather than a created being, and, at the same time, he is as fully human as any of us. Jesus laughed and cried and ate and played and slept. We do not have a Messiah who is unable to empathize with us in any aspect of our humanity. Jesus knew the ache of hunger, the exhaustion of grief, the pain of loneliness, and the desperation of fear. Jesus knew the love of family, the thrill of travel, the satisfaction of learning, and the joy of friendship.
As we approach Christmas, I pray that you find peace in the knowledge that, whatever joy or sorrow you find yourself in today, you have with you a God who knows that feeling intimately, loves you unconditionally, and gives you the strength to carry on.
Peace to you,
Pastor Neff