Manifest

“God was manifest in the flesh.”
-I Timothy 3:16

“The world is not an easy place for anyone,” Annie Sullivan said in reference to her famous pupil Helen Keller, but she could have been speaking for all of us.

Life down here means wanting so much, while running into so many walls; eternal longings blocked by human limitations. It traps you in a body which gets weaker as you get wiser, a cruel joke for sure, because just when you’re finally learning to manage the instrument properly, it starts giving out on you! And there’s protest, loud and despairing, coming from us regularly as we mourn and complain. We protest death, decay, injustice, and loss, but unlike folks marching and (sometimes) looting around the country, our complaints go largely unnoticed.

And into this place of cruelty and imbalance comes Sovereign God, not just as its Creator, but as one of its citizens, clothed with all its limitations. That’s amazing to think of, really, because look at the difference between Him and us. We had nothing to say about coming here; we didn’t vote Yes or No to birth, it just happened. We didn’t graciously consent, and when we came, we arrived blind to all the downsides this life holds. So there’s no virtue, no moral achievement on our end, in having been born.

Not so with Jesus. He fully knew what was waiting for Him when He consented to human form. During some divine counsel between Father Son and Spirit taking place centuries before anything was anything, a decision was made in answer to the human condition which was to come. Before adjourning, He said “yes”, first to condescension, then to agony. We’ll focus on the agony at Good Friday; now’s the time to appreciate the condescension while we sing Mild He Lays His Glory By. That’s what I’m really referring to every time I casually wish someone
a Merry Christmas.

Of course, Born That Man No More May Die has to follow, since Christmas is just part of the chain of sacrifices He was born to make. So that sweet baby immortalized in countless porcelain editions will go on to be bloodied and battered to the point He won’t even be recognized as human. Not a nice thought, and it certainly doesn’t suit the season’s images, but it’s the outcome of all we’re celebrating, and it’s a truth we remember – agony following condescension – raising our Carols from sweetness to earnest, grateful passion. Because this is not just a holy night; it’s part of a plan:

God was manifest in the flesh, not thinking it robbery to be equal with God but still coming in the likeness of men, because God so loved the world that whosoever will may come.

Oh, my Lord, I love this season! I’m unapologetically a sucker for everything that goes with it, and I can out Tiny Tim anyone when it comes to being an oversized kid at Christmas. But help me know what I’m saying when I mouth this holiday’s clichés. You were manifest. You came, You saw, You conquered. So mixing Amazing Grace with Fall on Your Knees works just fine for me.

Merry Christmas, then. Glory to the newborn King, and joy to the world.
It is finished.