Rev. Milad Selim| Telegram & Gazette
The incarnation of God has dazzled the minds of the most wise for over 2,000 years. The Unknowable becomes known. The Uncontainable is contained in a womb. The Omnipotent is now meek. How, or better put, why would God, the Creator of all things, take on flesh, be born of a virgin mother, voluntarily give Himself over to death for me and you?
The Triune God-Father, Son and Holy Spirit, existed in full unity before all times. Since creation, Gods only desire was to call His people to repentance and everlasting joy. Prophets, apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs and confessors were all sent by God throughout all generations to reveal His will and salvific plan. Similar to the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, one by one they were rejected, persecuted or killed for the sake of the Gospel. When all else failed, God the Father willed that His only begotten son take on flesh, be crucified and rise again on the third day to save His people from the captivity of the devil once and for all. It is important to remember that His incarnation and crucifixion are related and must always be viewed in light of His resurrection. Read this hymn from our Eastern Orthodox Church:
Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only Sinless One. We venerate Thy Cross, O Christ, and we praise and glorify Thy holy Resurrection; for Thou are our God, and we know no other than Thee; we call on Thy name. Come all ye faithful, let us venerate Christs holy Resurrection, for behold, through the Cross joy has come into all the world. Let us, ever blessing the Lord, praise His Resurrection, for by enduring the Cross for us, He has destroyed death by death.
Therefore, we can comfortably say that if we only had the birth of a child, Jesus would have been a mere Prophet or a miracle worker. If we only had the Cross, then a fallen world would remain irredeemable and death would continue to have dominion over us. But when His incarnation, crucifixion, death and resurrection are viewed as being part of Gods redeeming plan, we begin to comprehend His essence and why He did what He did.
So who was Jesus? This is a fair question as I often hear people completely mischaracterize Him, even to the point of uttering heresies. I attribute this to their lack of theological knowledge rather than deliberate denial. In short, the answer is He is God! He is not just a man, but God incarnate who took on flesh for our salvation. His humanity is beyond our worldly understanding of true humanity. The humanity we know is fallen, the humanity he came to reveal to us is free of all sins, untarnished and unpolluted, one that is created in Gods image and according to His likeness. Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, was the perfect human and because of Him, we now can become human through the process of deification, also known as theosis - brought about by the effects of catharsis (purification of mind and body) and kenosis (self-emptying).
With all that said, His incarnation did not jeopardize or diminish His divinity. At no point in time during His earthly ministry did He separate His dual natures divine and human. These two natures were united hypostatically. St. Athanasius the Great, a 4th century father of the Church, defended this Christian dogma against heretics by saying, For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ.
People who focus on Jesus the man and ignore the fact that He was also fully God diminish His divinity. Jesus was fully human and fully divine, never divided or disunited (For further reading on this, look up the Fourth Ecumenical Council that took place in Chalcedon in the year 451 AD). Jesus came to show us the way towardholiness. We often fall into the temptation of minimizing His divinity to somehow make Him more relatable to our fallen humanity or perhaps to justify our actions, but remember, God is outside of our worldly desires of the flesh. He came into this world to call us out of our fallen humanity. We read in 2 Timothy 1:9-10, [Jesus] has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And again in Galatians 5:24, Those who are Christs have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
This is the Savior whom we now celebrate. The redeeming God who became a new-born child for me and you. The Lord of hosts, the Author of creation and the King of peace. Let us embrace Him with hymns of joy. Let us open our hearts and allow Him to enter. He is our hope in times of despair. He is our joy in times of sadness. He is our rock during a storm. While we may not be able to fully comprehend His essence, we know that He took on flesh in order to save me and you. Do not lose hope. Do not put your faith or trust in anything or anyone else.
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
The Rev. Milad Selim is pastor of St. George Orthodox Cathedral in Worcester
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Opinion/Keep the Faith: Who is this child? - Worcester Telegram