“When the fullness of time had come…” (Gal 4:4-5)
Beloved Fathers, Brothers and Sisters,
This is one of the mighty texts of the Holy Bible. Here is sublime language that links earth with heaven. The text tells us what God has done. The tremendous fact is declared in five simple words. God sent forth His Son. That is what Nativity means.
That is why throughout the world today companies of men and women meet together to worship God. This is why we keep a holiday which is also a holy day. This is why our mouth is filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. This is why Nativity is the happiest time in all the year. Because God sent forth His Son.
Nativity began with God, God acted. God took the initiative. God sent forth His Son. All begins with God. We cannot go up to Him. He must come down to us. And so, God revealed Himself. He has come down to earth in Christ His Son. God was in Christ. God sent forth His Son. Our text also tells us, while thus stating in categorical language what God has done, now tells us also when He did it. "When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son." These thrilling words bring to us a new conception of ancient history, for they make it part of the purpose and plan of God. The pre-Christian centuries were a preparation for the advent of God's Son.
God had been preparing the world for His coming. He had been making ready for that one divine event to which the whole creation moved. God sent forth His Son; and He did so at that hour in the world's history when everything was ready for His coming. But how did God do it? Our text tells us: "God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law."
In other words, God chose a moment a method simple yet sublime, the way of our humanity. God sent forth His Son, and there came to earth a little child. God might have chosen other methods, of cause.
He might have sent forth His Son trailing clouds of glory from the opened heavens and with a legion of angels for His bodyguard. But no! A baby is born of a humble girl and love has set forth on its mighty redeeming work. The Word became flesh and, in that act of self-limitation, assumed the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.
And, lastly, we ask "Why? Why did God thus send forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law? Again, our text supplies the answer: "That we might receive the adoption of sons." God became subject to the laws of our humanity in order that He might deliver us from those laws that He might set us free from the law of sin and death. God became Man so that we might become sons of God.
Think of it! Jesus, the only begotten Son Whom God sent forth, will share us His privileges. This is where language of the brain and of the intellect breaks down. We are in the realm now not of logic but of love. We can no longer reason about these things, for they are matters not for the mind, but for the heart.
We can only lift up our hearts to God in thanksgiving for His unspeakable Gift.
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
With love in the Newborn God-Child, †Metropolitan Joseph
No comments:
Post a Comment