The Great King comes for us.
The Holy Trinity may be honorably considered through the dynamics of “gift.” In other words, the Bible presents a “Theology of Gift” that presents the Perfect Giver (God the Father) who gave the perfect gift (who is God the Son) through the perfect means (conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary). The perfect One comes as perfection through perfection. God gives the gift of himself, and the Christmas narratives tell us both how and why that happened.
When the Creator of the universe wanted to make himself known as he is in himself and by his intentions and dispositions toward humanity, he translated himself into the very category that we understand best: the human category. He was made man. The Word became flesh.
God gives the gift of himself, and the Christmas narratives tell us both how and why that happened.
We know and understand the things of human beings because we are human beings; God comes, therefore, as a human being. It would have been pointless for God to communicate to us in a way that did not resonate with our abilities to perceive, recognize, and appreciate.
Indeed, it would have been equally pointless for the Creator to visit us outside the immediately familiar and meaningful metaphors and circumstances we know and experience.
For God to come as an alien species riding a meteorite or communicate to us through the sounds and oceanic experiences of a dolphin would be pointless. Since we are oi anthropoi, he comes as ó anthropos. But he also enters our very circumstances, namely those of creaturely obligations, covenant paradigms, and responsibilities to God and humanity. Saint Paul summed up God’s coming as Immanuel (God with us) within our circumstances like this: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5).
We live lives dependent upon the reliability of the senses and reason, as well as tacit knowledge and knowledge that comes from love. So does God. Through these familiar and deeply human means, he comes to us and communicates with us. Jesus of Nazareth, then, is the anthropological phenomenon of God with us. That’s the story of Christmas in the first instance. The Divine One perfectly translated into human categories so that he may be thoroughly relatable and sufficiently knowable. That makes sense. And he does so precisely so that he may give himself in deeply powerful and perfectly relatable ways.
The rehearsal of this epic narrative jolts our sensitivities and expectations when we are told to whom this perfect gift has been given — namely, to you and me.
All of that may sound quite benign and detached, though. In fact, the incarnation of the Eternal Logos—the Son of God—was far more intimate and beautiful. The Nicene Creed words it this way: “who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man.” That the Son of God was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, entails both virgin conception and virgin birth. What is more, that he was conceived of “the seed of the woman” (not the seed of a man), means that everything that makes us human — mind, will, emotions, and body — were deprived from (as the Lutheran Confessions put it) a “pure, holy, virgin.” [1]
Perhaps even more beautifully, Luke the Evangelist records that the Archangel Gabriel called the Baby a “Holy Thing” (1:35) who would be conceived in a unique way. The Holy Spirit would “overshadow” Mary. That same word in Greek is used in the Greek version (Septuagint) of Exodus 40:35 to indicate the presence of God in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle. It follows that Mary’s womb would become the Holy of Holies for the Son of God — Immanuel, God with us, as one of us, entirely within the bloodline of humanity, of the Jews, of King David.
This is the basis of what makes the Incarnation the greatest, most meaningful story ever told, not as a fable but as a reliable, corroborated fact. And yet, the Almighty Father giving the Eternal Son through the infinite power of the Holy Spirit of a pure, holy, virginal teenager still may not be the most astonishing part. The rehearsal of this epic narrative jolts our sensitivities and expectations when we are told to whom this perfect gift has been given — namely, to you and me. He was given to and for you, and me, indeed, for the likes of you and me here and elsewhere, then and now. That in fact may be the most unbelievable part of the biblical climax. The Great King comes for us. In the words of Isaiah, “For unto us a child is born; unto us a Son is given.” He is given for you.[1] Smalcald Articles I.4: “That the Son became man in this manner, that He was conceived, without the cooperation of man, by the Holy Ghost, and was born of the pure, holy [and always] Virgin Mary.
