Merry Christmas all! Hope you have a wonderful time with friends or family over Christmas. And I hope that Christ is all the more beautiful to you at this time.
Paul Helm has written a great post about the incarnation this Christmas which I’d highly recommend. With his typically brilliant biblical and philosophical presentation I really do like the way he helps us understand Christ! Here’s a sample:
“Take the case of Jesus’ embodiment. Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, sat on the side of Jacob’s well at Sychar. (John 4) Jesus is God. Jesus is weary. Is God weary? No, God is not weary, nor can he be. So maybe we should say: as God Jesus was not weary, but as man he was weary. Similarly, with the passion of Christ. In Mark’s gospel we have ‘And he said, “Abba, Father, all thing are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will”’. (Mark 14) Does Jesus, who is divine, have a will that is even fractionally at odds with the will of the Father?’ No, not possible. So should we say, perhaps, as God his will was entirely at one with that of his Father, for he has the same will as his Father, God’s will. But as man his will could deviate from that of his Father, and that (though for only one dense, intense, moment) on this occasion he had it in mind to deviate from the will of his Father? (We might then go on to discuss how it can be that such a deviation is possible in one who is without sin.) As God he was one with his Father; as man his will could deviate from that of his Father; it was not perfectly aligned.”
The full article is at: http://paulhelmsdeep.blogspot.com/2008/12/taking-line-iv-time-to-keep-silence.html
Merry Christmas!
