THE ASTOUNDING CLAIM OF CHRISTMAS
At Christmas, Christians make the totally unique, utterly astounding, claim that a Jewish maiden gave birth to the Creator of the universe.
To be sure, the idea of gods and goddesses making appearances on earth is not unusual. In the centuries around the time of Jesus’ life, Greeks and Romans told lots of stories about gods and goddesses appearing to people on this planet and doing lots of strange things. Hinduism (the third largest religion today) has thousands and thousands of gods and goddesses, many of whom have allegedly appeared on earth.
But that kind of polytheism is not at all what Jesus and his earliest disciples were talking about. They were all devout Jews. The most important part of Jewish belief was and is that God is one. They were all monotheists. They knew there is just one God, the Creator of the entire universe.
There are three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Judaism makes strong statements about its founder Moses – – but never a hint that Moses was more than a human being called by God to do special things. Muslims revere Mohammed as their founder to whom God allegedly dictated the Koran. But they are very clear that he was just a man.
In fact, none of the founders of today’s great religions claimed to be God incarnate. Siddhartha (also called Gautama) lived about 560 to 480 BC and was the founder of Buddhism. He became known as the Buddha (the enlightened one) but he made absolutely no claims to being divine. In fact he denied the very existence of the gods! Only many centuries later (sometime between the third century BC and the first century A.D.) did one branch of Buddhism come to believe that Buddha was a divine being.
Among today’s great religions, including the monotheistic religions, Christianity is the only one that makes the audacious claim that its founder was God in the flesh.
We know from the historical record that a Jewish Carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth, became an unusual teacher in the years around 30 AD. He was kind and loving and taught his disciples how to live – – even to love their enemies. He claimed to be the long expected Jewish Messiah. But he also claimed to have the authority to forgive sins – – which infuriated the Jewish religious leaders who said that only God can forgive sins.
And then Jesus got crucified. The Jews of Jesus’ day expected that the Messiah would lead a successful war against the Roman imperialists. Every Jew knew that anyone who claimed to be the Messiah and then got killed by the very people he was supposed to conquer, was obviously a false Messiah. On the day after the crucifixion, the disciples probably thought that Jesus was a fraud. He was finished.
The only reason Jesus’ disciples continued to believe in him after the crucifixion is that the resurrection happened three days later. They met the risen Jesus! (For the historical evidence, see N. T. Wright’ masterpiece, THE RESURRECTION OF THE SON OF GOD.)
After Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus’ disciples started calling him more than just Messiah. When Thomas met the risen Jesus, he blurted out: “My Lord and my God.” At Pentecost, Peter said “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36.) The Greek word for Lord is Kurios. That is the word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to translate the word Yahweh, the name of the one God.
And that is the word the highly trained Jewish monotheist, Saul of Tarsus, applied to Jesus after he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. In Philippians 2:9-11, Paul takes words from Isaiah 45:23 (where the one monotheistic God mocks the idols and says that He alone is God) and applies them to the Carpenter from Nazareth. Paul says: “At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord[kurios]” ( Philippians 2 9-11.)
The prominent New Testament scholar, N. T. Wright, puts it this way: “Paul knows perfectly well, in quoting Isaiah 45:23,… just how enormous a claim he is making. In that passage, one of the most fiercely monotheistic statements in the Old Testament, YHWH declares that he is God, and there is no other; to YHWH and him alone every knee will bow and every tongue swear… Paul must have known exactly what he was doing“ (THE NEW TESTAMENT IN ITS WORLD, pp. 372-373).
Jesus is kurios, Lord, God!
It took time for Jesus’ monotheistic disciples to understand the best way to talk about that reality. They were entirely clear that there is only one God. But they were equally clear that the Carpenter from Nazareth was also God in the flesh. And after Jesus ascension, they experienced the presence of God powerfully in the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the Trinity – – there is one God in three persons – – emerged to help them articulate both their strict monotheism and their belief about Jesus.
So at Christmas, we Christians proclaim a belief that no other major religion claims. Our founder is a real historical figure, a Jewish carpenter from Nazareth. And he is also true God. Only when we ponder how unique that is in the history of religions, do we understand how astounding is this central Christian belief. God – – the one God!-- became a human baby in the womb of a virgin and then lived for 30 years preaching, healing and teaching in a Jewish colony of the Roman empire.
The Christian belief that the one monotheistic God became flesh in the carpenter from Nazareth is either the most colossal mistake in the history of religions, or it is true. And if true, it is the very center of Christian faith.
I think the historical evidence for Jesus’ resurrection strongly supports this audacious Christian claim. And if it is true, then this Christmas, and every day, we must not only worship Jesus, but also seek to submit every part of our lives to his Lordship.
My Lord, I believe you are true God as well as true man. This Christmas and always, please help me live more and more in a way that reflects that amazing truth – – and obeys your command to your disciples to live all that you taught.
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