Advent Reflection 1 - The true humanity of Jesus Christ

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. – Hebrews 1:1-4

“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” - which means, “God with us.” – Matthew 1:23

In advent we wait. But wait for what? In short, the answer is easy. We wait for the coming of the Christ child. And in Jesus Christ we wait not for who we wish Him to be but who He is in himself, who He has revealed himself to be. We wait for person Jesus Christ, who in full humanity and personhood is still yet one substance with God the Father and God the Spirit. We wait for the coming of God in the form of a human without substituting either his divinity or humanity. In Jesus Christ we are confronted with true humanity and true divinity. In Jesus Christ we see with the eyes of faith what it means to be human and who God has shown himself to be. In Jesus Christ we find a co-mingling of two natures in one person. As the Nicean councils so forcefully put it: Jesus Christ is of one substance with God. God of God. Light of light. Yet to clarify any potential confusion, a century later the Council of Chalcedon clarified: while never forfeiting his divine nature in becoming truly human, in Jesus Christ the two natures rest perfectly and paradoxically in one person without confusion or division.

The danger then as it is now to bifurcate Jesus Christ into one or the other. Rather than approaching Christ through how he has revealed himself to be, we divide Jesus into a man or a God, one or the other.

Keeping with the spirit of Hellenistic philosophy one early challenge to the Christian faith was to deny the sufferings of Jesus Christ. Inconceivable that he could be fully God and fully human, the docetists argued that Jesus Christ only appeared to be human. And since it is inconceivable and impossible for God to suffer, in life and in death Jesus Christ only appeared to suffer as you and I might. For the docetists, Jesus Christ is very God and yet not very human. The Jesus of which Scripture bears witness only appeared to be fully-functioning biological human. Some said the body was like a ghost that only seemed human. Others suggested his body was “spiritual”. What was certain was that although Jesus seemed human, he was not.

A good proof-texting docetist might sight a passage such as Hebrews and ask “how could Jesus Christ, whom Scriptures designate as ‘the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being’ be human?” Clearly, the Hebrew Scriptures make it clear that God is God and we, to put it mildly, are not. How then could this Jesus, the radiance of God’s glory, be human? To the Greek philosopher this was truly inconceivable.

As someone who has not witnessed many debates about Jesus Christ framed in terms of Hellenistic philosophy, I have not met many, if any, docetist evangelists. However, amongst those who profess faith in Jesus Christ there is an acute temptation to deny the true humanity of Jesus Christ. We exalt the divinity of Jesus Christ at the expense of his humanity. We lose sight of human frailties that characterized the man Jesus. We forget that this Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us. And by “with us”, I mean that in every possible manner of the word. In Jesus Christ, God became one of us by becoming human. This was no sleight of hand. There was a birth, a human birth. And through this birth God entered the world in the person of Jesus Christ. This is what Karl Barth calls the mystery and miracle of Christmas. And in this birth, Jesus Christ confronts us not only with the very nature of God above, but confronts us with true humanity. We know what it means to be a person through the incarnational activity of Jesus Christ.

Karl Barth on the 40th Anniversary of his Death

40 years ago today, sometime during the night Karl Barth passed away peacefully in the downstairs of his home. Barth's life and work is monumental and people the world over devote literally their whole life studying it. As such, I would be ill-advised summarizing it in any curt fashion. However, I believe Eberhard Busch's re-telling of Barth's final night serve as a good introduction to the man and his work. From Karl Barth - His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts:

On Monday 9 December he spent the day working on his lecture again (for a forum
of Catholic and Reformed Christians on the theme of 'Setting Out - Being
Converted - Confessing.' ed.) He was still at work in the evening when he
was interrupted by two telephone calls, about nine o'clock. One was from
his godson Ulrich Barth, to whom he quoted a verse from a hymn which spoke
comfortingly about the Christian hope. The other person who wanted to
speak to him so late at night was his friend Eduard Thurneysen, who had remained
faithful to him over sixty years. They talked about the gloomy world
situation. Then Barth said, 'But keep your chin up! Never mind! "He
will reign!"' When the telephone rang he had been writing a few sentences
of the draft for his lecture in which he was saying that in the church it is
always important to listen to the Fathers who have gone before in the
faith. For '"God is not a God of the dead but of the living." In him
they all live' - from the Apostles down to the Fathers of the day before
yesterday and of yesterday. Barth did not go back to the draft which he
had left in the middle of a sentence, but put it aside until the next day.
However, he did not live that long. He died peacefully some time in the
middle of the night. He lay there as though asleep, with his hands gently
folded from his evening prayers. So his wife found him the next morning,
while in the background a record was playing the Mozart with which she had
wanted to waken him.

Above all Barth was a person of prayer. This was a matter of personal piety but more so it is demonstrated in his own theological work, which as we see never ended. Theology is a matter of worship, reflection, and witness. He liberally borrowed from Anselm's famous dictum: fides intelectum - faith seeks to understand. Theology starts with God and how God has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit. The theologian responds in faith by testifying to how God who this God is in being, action, and being in action.