Who is this Baby?

Advent. A wonderful season of waiting. We live in a time where we are blessed to be able to look back in the Bible to the time when Jesus arrived, turning BC into AD, even as we live in a time of Advent waiting for the return of Jesus Christ at the end of time.

Israel was in advent…. awaiting the coming of their Messiah. When we turn the pages of our Bibles from Malachi 4:6 to Matthew 1:1, we need to realize that there was approximately a 400-year gap. 400 years wherein the people of Israel had no direct word from God; no Prophet preaching to them.  Those years were tumultuous, with oppression, scattering, the rise and fall of empires, the rebuilding of what would be known as Herod’s temple, the institution of the synagogue and more.  

But the Jews had not forgotten their coming Messiah. Many were devout, and likely many mothers were wondering if they would be given the honor of being the Messiah’s mother.  They had the writings of the prophets who spoke of the coming Messiah – what they were to look for.  Samuel, Isaiah, Micah are just a few who spoke of the Son of God. We look back on these with 21^st century eyes and wonder why they didn’t recognize Jesus when he started his ministry.  There’s a really good chance that WE wouldn’t have recognized him either. 

In Luke’s gospel we read of 2 individuals who had kept the faith all their lives – and were blessed by God to recognize their Savior – even as an 8 day old baby! 

Simeon – “who was righteous and devout, looking forward to Israel’s consolation and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple. When the parents (Jospeh and Mary) brought in the child Jesus to perform for him what was customary under the law (circumcision), Simeon took him up in his arms, praised God, and said, ‘Now, Master, you can dismiss your servant in peace, as you promised. For my eyes have seen your salvation. You have prepared it in the presence of all peoples – a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel.’” Even to just realize that he spoke of Jesus’s coming as for the Gentiles, not just Israel would have been astonishing!  

And Anna – a prophetess, daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.  She was old – I mean old.  We are told she had been a widow for 84 years. It’s pretty rare today to make it to 80 years of marriage! She had only 7 years with her husband before he died – meaning 91 years since she got married.  Perhaps she got married at 16.  She would have been approximately 107 years old. And what had she been doing for 84 of those years? She basically lived in the temple. Serving God. Praying.  As she heard Simeon speak, she came to Mary and Joseph with Jesus and had her own words to speak – “she came up and began to thank God and to speak about him to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.”  She spoke of the redemption of all the people of Israel – through the Messiah. What a testimony Simeon and Anna would have been for Joseph and Mary!

This Jesus that many would have come to know while he was growing up was no ordinary boy. A sinless toddler.  A sinless 7-year-old…13 year old…19 year old.  Oh, just imagine having a sinless child! What a joy he must have been to his parents – and I’d wager a guess that he was likely resented by his brothers and sisters. Jesus knew suffering from the start – and I wonder if part of that suffering would have been as a child – a teenager – who would have been very different from the others, and perhaps even the object of ridicule at the hands of his peers.

I think what stuns me the most, and I’m sure many people who believed then and now, was knowing that Jesus wasn’t just human.  He remained God.  When we consider his dual nature – as God and as man, our minds may only allow us to think of Jesus as an adult, especially during his ministry. We have 4 inspired gospels where we can read and see how he taught the truth – and how he revealed himself.

The eternal Son of God – who always existed within the Godhead with his Father and the Holy Spirit, this Son in his glory and majesty, this Son who was omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, immutable – this God took on humanity.  And when he became flesh in Mary’s womb, he did not give up any aspect of his God-ness.  Did not give up any of his divine attributes. As God, he remained God.  But how? How do we reconcile that all that can be said about God – his holiness, eternality, infiniteness, unchangeability, his very being as the all-knowing, all powerful, always present everywhere, all wise God – with his humanity?  Jesus was a person like you and me.  He was limited, bound by time and space as we are.  He couldn’t be everywhere present.  He likely didn’t know everyone’s thoughts of all people around him.  We can understand that he would have been all-knowing – but also knowing that he had to grow in wisdom and understanding.  He had to learn just like children today do.  So what do we do with this?

The incarnation of God the Son is a mystery we cannot fully comprehend. Yet, we can understand it to the degree that we’re given and so believe it with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Geoff Thomas, in his article “Who Is This One Lying In The Manger?” says that Jesus veiled many of his divine attributes in his flesh and blood. Because he added humanity to his divinity – he limited himself.  Or we can say that he limited the expression of his divine attributes in his humanity.  But those divine attributes themselves were not diminished. 

We confess that God is Spirit. The eternal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were not physical presences in eternity past.  God, in this view, did not have the physiological characteristics that we do.  God created us in such a way to reflect his image – his image as determined by WHO he is in his character.  When the Son became man, he added on all that we have.  All the physiological aspects of human nature – the circulatory, digestive, reproductive, skeletal, muscular, endocrine, urinary, lymphatic and nervous systems – became his. The neural pathways, the nerves initiating from the spine, brain waves, heart beats, blood flow to and from the lungs and the heart – all of it. Because he was conceived by the Spirit in Mary’s womb, half his chromosomes were of Mary and half of the Holy Spirit. He had his own set of DNA. Every aspect of his physical characteristics – eye color, hair color, a cleft in the chin or a dimple in the cheek, every whorl of his fingertips – all predetermined in his genetics and formed in the womb.   

Then consider that in all the regular aspects of middle eastern life as a Jew – learning all that was in the Torah, going to synagogue, observing the Sabbath day rituals, celebrating the Jewish festivals, speaking Aramaic (and perhaps other languages of that time) – all of it he did AS GOD and as man.  We know from his ministry that he was all knowing – at least during those years. Yet, he also said that he did not know when he would return!  (Matt 24:36) He said only the Father knew that.  When the woman who had the issue of bleeding touched his garment, Jesus asked who touched him. (Mark 5:30). Did he really not know?  But here we must confess that Jesus didn’t cease to retain the aspect of his omniscience – but his human nature limited the expression of it. So clearly, some aspects of his divinity were veiled.  He was all powerful in his ministry – for we see the stories of miraculous healings, calming the storm, multiplying the loaves and fish.  He showed his deity when he claimed to be one with the Father and forgave sins.  As he grew up from a little boy to an adult, his power and knowledge then would have been limited by the very human nature he took on.  Jesus would have had to learn to walk, talk, cross a road, build things, cook things, read, write etc.  Yet, in his divinity, he knew it all.  What a mystery! What a magnificent mystery!

The Bible tells us that in Christ, the fullness of God dwells.  (Colossians 1:17).   Even as a baby, Jesus, the eternal Son remained co-equal with the Father and the Spirit – three in One God. Because Jesus is God, all that God does, Jesus does and vice versa.  We confess that God upholds the universe by his hand.  So, it is right to say that Jesus as a man on earth was still upholding the universe!  How? Because he is one with the Father and the Spirit. 

When we consider the incarnation – and we think of Jesus as a baby lying in the manger, we need to know and believe that he was, at that time, fully God – upholding the universe, all knowing, all powerful, infinite and everywhere present! As a helpless, completely dependent baby, fully human.

Let the wonder of the incarnation fill your minds and hearts this Advent season.  Take time to meditate on who Jesus was as a baby – fully God and fully human.  Take time to consider that the baby born in Bethlehem was the eternal Son who created the world.  That the baby suckling at Mary’s breast was the God who was in need of nothing – completely independent of everything.  Think about Mary, holding her beautiful newborn, kissing his tiny head as looking at the face of God made flesh.  Let the joy of Jesus’s coming bring a song of praise to your lips and let your prayers be filled with amazement at the gift of our Immanuel!

Grace and Peace