When I began this blog a little less than a year ago, I knew it had to be centered on the doctrine of the Incarnation. Maybe it was the fact that the idea came to me around Christmas, I don't know. What I do know is that the Incarnation, the fact that God assumed a human body without letting go of any of his divinity, is one of the coolest and most inexhaustible mysteries we can ponder as Christians. It can be a hard thing for our minds to understand, and like most theological concepts I've studied. I find it easiest to explain what the doctrine isn't saying instead of what it is.
The Incarnation doesn't mean that Jesus is just some sort of human costume God put on to walk among us. Jesus is 100% human while simultaneously being 100% God. If he wasn't human, then he couldn't die for our sins. If Jesus wasn't fully God, then his death wouldn't save us. The Incarnation also doesn't mean that the first moment of Jesus's existence was in that manger at Bethlehem. Because Jesus is fully God, he always has existed, he does exist now, and he will continue to exist forever. That first Christmas was just the beginning of his life as a human, NOT his life as a whole. Jesus is the only person I know of in human history whom everyone had a reaction to while he was alive.
Nowadays, most non-Christians respect him for being a prophet or a wise teacher, but that's not what the first-century Jews thought. The religious leaders of Jesus's day didn't like him because he called out their hypocrisy and declared himself to be the very Son of God. (Which to be frank, is kinda the whole point, but I digress.) Some Jews considered Jesus to be the key figure in leading a political revolution to overthrow the pagan Romans and restore the Israelite dynasty of their ancestor King David; but Jesus was much more than a rebel in both the theological and societal sense. We see this most clearly in how people like the tax collector Zaccheus (Luke 19) and the woman caught in adultery (John 8) respond to him.
First, Jesus approaches them. He was passing by Zaccheus and spotted him when Zaccheus climbed a tree. In the woman's case, the religious leaders were about to stone her to death, as that was the punishment for being caught in adultery. Second, he sees their sin: Zaccheus was known for being a tax collector, working for the Roman government and stealing hard-earned money from innocent Jews. The woman caught in adultery was clearly being condemned by the religious leaders of Jesus's day. Third, Jesus invites them to a new way of life, and their heart is opened. Jesus tells Zaccheus that he is going to visit his house today, and Zaccheus promises to pay back four times worth what he defrauded (Luke 19:8). After sending her accusers away for being sinners themselves, he tells the adulterous woman, "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again" (John 8:11).
So this Christmas, I invite us to encounter Jesus all over again. If we truly open your hearts, reveal our sins, and let God's love and grace change us, we will be transformed for the better. Come, Jesus is waiting for us.
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