We often are puzzled by events that take place in our lives, or by the actions of others and even ourselves. Try as we might to gain some understanding of what has happened or what somebody has done, we often must finally admit, “It’s a mystery to me.”
Don KirklandBy definition, a mystery is something that is beyond our understanding.
The Christmas season offers an excellent example of this. Think about the incarnation, that union of divinity and humanity in Jesus of Nazareth that is the basis for our praise, worship and thanksgiving throughout the year, but especially in December.
The term “incarnation” comes from a Latin word that means “taking flesh.” It was used frequently among Latin Christian authors from approximately 300 A.D on. The word is derived from the Latin version of John 1:14. The Good News Bible of our day translates the verse this way: “The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory , the glory which he received as the Father’s only Son.”
How to express this idea of the combination of divinity and humanity in Jesus emerged — not surprisingly — as a major concern for the first 500 years of the Christian era.
Ecumenical councils convened in Nicaea (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451) in attempts to deal effectively with this issue. They failed, as should have been expected, to solve the mystery of the incarnation. They only preserved it. And so it remains to this day. Jesus was one person with two natures. He was divine and human. As amazing as the divinity of Jesus is the Christlikeness of God.
Any attempt to reduce the incarnation to a simple doctrine or creed will fall short of satisfying the most thoughtful among us. To do so would imply that somehow we understood it, that we could, as one writer has suggested, “get our intellect around it.”
If the incarnation baffles the head, however, it can be understood — at least in part — by the heart. My church, Earle Street, recently had its annual presentation of Christmas music by the sanctuary choir. At the end of the presentation, during a time of Christian commitment, associate pastor Stephen Clyborne said, “There is something about the truth of Christmas that can only be captured in words. But there is something about the beauty of Christmas that can only be captured in music. This morning, we have heard both the truth and beauty of Christmas, and now we have an opportunity to respond in faith to what we have heard, because there is something about the mystery of Christmas that can only be received in the heart.”
At its core, however, the incarnation is best viewed as a mystery of love which the human mind cannot fathom. The mystery is why God would demonstrate such love to mankind engulfed in sin. It is a mystery that is couched in the language of grace that speaks of healing and redemption, of reconciliation, of the peace of God, and of the harmony and balance in all of creation, and particularly among people in the relationships we have with each other and with God.
The mystery is about a God who shows so much compassion for a creation gone bad. I would like to better understand it all. If not completely, at least more. The glass through which you and I get even a glimpse of the eternal is indeed dark.
Understand it or not, the incarnation is — or should be — uppermost in the minds of all believers during this sacred season of the year. We must give it serious thought and come to grips, as best we can, with its implications for the world in general and for you and me in particular.
This is all well and good. The intellect is a gift of God well suited for grappling with ultimate truths and striving for understanding of the spiritual and eternal.
And yet it is only in the heart that the mystery of Christmas can be received with adequate appreciation for its importance and confidence in its truth.
The mystery of the incarnation, the fleshing out of the astounding truth that “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life” can never be solved even in a mind determined to sort it out. It can only be embraced in the heart, where its truth will be revealed and where understanding is neither possible or necessary. Thanks be to God.