Meditations on the Mountain

Silent Night! holy night! Son of God, love's pure lightRadiant beams from Thy holy face With the dawn of redeeming grace–Jesus, Lord at Thy birth, Jesus, Lord at Thy birth.

In 1818, on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, in a tiny village in the Austrian Alps, Joseph Mohr wrote a few stanzas appropriate for Christmas Eve worship.  The church organ was broken and could not be fixed, so an unknown musician (at the time) named Franz Gruber wrote a simple melody that could be easily sung and accompanied by guitars.  Unknown to these two men, their carol would become one of the most popular of all time.  One of the most interesting truths written in this Christmas carol is found within the last line, "Jesus, Lord at Thy birth, Jesus, Lord at Thy birth."  One of the fundamental doctrines of Biblical Christianity is the reality that when the Infant was born in that lowly feeding trough, He was already completely God.  The truth that Jesus was 100% God and 100% man (the hypostatic union) is a mystery and has been attacked since Christ's birth until today.  The fact that the Infinite became an infant is a doctrine that our natural mind repulses.  That an all-powerful, holy God who created this universe who humble Himself and confined Himself in a crying, undeveloped, soft-tissued body; to rely on humans as His source of nurture and nutrition appalls our sense of appropriateness. Did the eternal God, embodied in the form of a baby, need Mary to feed Him?  Did the Originator of the great deluge need to wrap His cloak around Him to stop the cutting wind and rain?   Did the One who wrote the Law with His finger need His step-father to teach Him how to chisel stone and plant crops?  The answer to all of these is an intriguing yes.  The humanity of Jesus was evident in the most simple duties and needs of life.  It is interesting that the Holy Bible gives us no information from infancy to the time when Jesus would have had his Bah-Mitzvah (12), but maybe Mary's words indicated the difficulty of understanding this mystery of complete manhood mixed with complete Godhood when Joseph and Mary temporarily "lost" Jesus at the age of twelve (Luke 2:41-52).  He had been missing a day before they realized that Jesus was gone.  When they find Jesus three days later, He was in the temple teaching the experts in the Law.  Everyone was amazed at His knowledge.  I can imagine the relief that flooded her soul as she ran to Him and said, "Son, why have you thus dealt with us? Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing?"  Mary said something that was not true, she claimed that Jesus' father was searching for Him.  But Joseph was not Jesus true Father, He was the Son of God, and he came as Lord while infant. Even His own mother struggled with this truth.  How did Jesus take human flesh with human needs and still retain His deity?  He chose to.  The only only one who could accomplish this great mystery is the eternal God who although He was Lord at birth, chose to be needy at birth.  Jesus remained Lord even as His mother nursed Him.  Even in obeying His adoptive father he remained Lord.  As He grew in His limiting body, He remained Lord.  What love, for the infinite Creator God to voluntarily become a needy baby.  Let us not forget this Christmas season, that He was the infant in the manger, but He was also to Lord of all creation in the manger.