Little Hattie, determined to give her hero the highest image and magnify his achievements,
wrote the following in her history examination-"Abraham Lincoln was born Feb. 12, 1809, in
a log cabin which he built himself." Lincoln was indeed a great man but historians, I think,
are universal agreement that he did all of his building after he was born. In fact, you will find
this to be the pattern in all biographies except one. And that is what makes Christmas so
paradoxical. It is the story of one who is born into a world that he literally made himself.
John says, " through Him all things were made, without Him nothing was made that has
been made." Jesus made the very stage of history on which he played history's greatest role-
the Savior of the world. He who made the stars became the Star on that stage lit up by the
Star of Bethlehem. What this means is, Christmas began long before it even started. Dale
Evans Rogers wrote,
Christmas my child is always
It was always in the heart of God, It was born there
Only He could have thought of it.
Like God, Christmas is timeless and eternal,
From everlasting to everlasting.
Not only was Jesus crucified before the foundation of the world, He was also born then, for
Christmas like the cross is both historical and eternal. Christmas comes near the end of the
year and this is very appropriate because it makes it a climactic event. That is what it is in
God's plan for the whole of history before Christmas was in anticipation of it's coming.
I read of a woman who was caught up in the Christmas rush and when she saw some Christmas
cards on sale she grabbed them. When she got home she quickly got them into
envelopes and sent them off in the mail. With a sense of satisfaction at both her economy and
efficiency, she sat down and opened one of her bargain cards to read the message. It said in
bold print-THIS CARD IS JUST TO SAY A GIFT IS ON THE WAY. Haste makes waste is
often true and she blew it, but God did not. This was the message of the Old Testament-the
law was just to say God's gift of grace is on its way. Christmas was the divine event toward
which the Old Testament was every moving.
The paradox of it all is that this eternal divine event, in the heart of God, was so human.
The genealogy of the Christ child was human. It was a loin that came down through kings
and heros, to be sure, but it also was full of sinners. The paradox is that Jesus was the only
baby ever born who had a choice of His heritage. Nobody else ever choose where, when, or to
whom they would be born. But Jesus chose the time and place, the clime and race, where He
would show the world God's face. He not only built the stage He chose the cast for the
greatest story ever told.
An eight year old boy came home from school and thrilled his parents with the news that
he had been selected to announce the characters for the Christmas pageant. His father was
so elated he went out and bought him the finest suit he could find. To give his son some
assurance he pinned the names of the characters of the nativity on the inside of his new coat.
When the characters appeared on stage the boy announced, "this is Jesus in the manger and
Mary is nearby with Joseph standing next to her. The three men are..." His mind went blank,
he could not remember and so he took a quick look inside in coat prepared for just such an
emergency and he blurted out, "Hart, Shaffner, and Marx!"
He made a mistake and chose the wrong names but Jesus made no such mistake. He
deliberately chose the characters that are forever linked to Him in the Christmas story. The
three wise men, or kings, add some statue to the cast but most of them are rather
commonplace. If you chose your parents would you have chosen Joseph and Mary? Nice
people, but rather low on the totem pole of economic security. Okay for those who have no
choice but He who could have chosen anyone, chose them. Then he chose to have His birth
first announced to the shepherds, one of the lowest classes of people available. Plan before
the foundation of the world, and this is what He chose? The angels give it a touch of class but
let's face it, the Christmas cast is so humbly human. Conceived, planned, organized and
arranged by heaven yet look at how earthly and human a story it is-
1. The earthly need for taxes to keep the Roman government going led to Caesar's
decree that got Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem.
2. The earthly need to obey government law led them to risk going so near her time
delivery.
3. The lack of accommodations that led to Jesus being born in a stable looks more like
short-sighted human planning rather than eternal heavenly planning.
4. The wise men having to sneak out of town and head back home by a different route
to avoid the anger of Herod, seems so earthly and fallibly human.
I can think of no other event in history so full of paradox. It is so heavenly yet so earthly.
Consider these examples: The Word from which all wisdom comes could not speak.
The Power by which all exists was a baby weak.
He whom the heavens could not contain, lying in a manger.
Unto His own he came but was treated like a stranger.
For Him who made all space, there was no room.
For Him who made all light, there was gloom.
He who wipes all tears away entered flesh and wept
He who neither slumbers nor sleeps, became tired and slept.
The entire life of the God-Man was a series of paradoxes.
He made all the laws of nature but became subject to those laws.
He who cannot be tempted became subject to temptation.
He who is the bread of life became hungry.
He who is the water of life became thirsty.
He, the Spirit of Liberty, became a slave to the limitations of flesh even to the point of death.
No life ever lived has been so paradoxical.
1. He never enjoyed a Christmas but had He not lived there never would have been a
Christmas to enjoy.
2. He never wrote a book but more books have been written about Him than any other who
has ever lived.
3. He never wrote a song or painted a picture but more songs and art portray His life than
any other who has ever lived. Frederick Knowles said, "O Christ of contrasts; infinite
paradox, yet life's explainer."
The point is the whole story of His life is a mysterious combination of the human and the
divine. When you mix these two ingredients the result is inevitable-paradox. Let's look at
some specific examples from John's account.
I. THE INFINITE BECOMES AN INFANT.
John tells us that the Word became flesh. He has just made it perfectly clear that the
Word was none other than God and was with God from the beginning.
Who is this, so weak and helpless,
Child of lowly Hebrew maid,
Rudely in a stable sheltered,
Coldly in a manger laid?
'Tis the Lord of all creation,
Who this wondrous path hath trod;
He is God from everlasting,
And to everlasting God.
What a paradox that the Word, the ultimate source of all wisdom was reduced to the level
of an infant who could not say a word. The Word became inarticulate. The infinite most high
reduced to an infants cry. Was ever such a story told of an eternal son yet one day old?
If God wanted to communicate with ants He would take on the form of an ant and speak
ant language. This is a logical necessity. The infinite must become finite in appearance to
relate to the finite. This we see in the Old Testament when God appeared in the form of a
man. But Christmas is something new. The infinite no longer merely masks Himself as finite;
He actually enters into the finite and becomes a man. And not a man on the upper level of
his being as an adult but the lower level of his being, as a baby. The infinite becomes an
infant. You can't get any higher than infinite you can't get any lower than a man than an
infant. God took the paradox as far as it can be taken. From being the source of all life, Jesus
was reduced to the level of the least that human life can be, in the womb of Mary.
This is why Christmas is our most wonder filled holiday. It is based on an event that is so
mysterious and wondrous that man is compelled to celebrate it with more wonder than
anything else he celebrates. We strive to add the elements of mystery and surprise to
Christmas. We hide gifts and make sure there is the suspense of the unknown that helps build
anticipation. What can be more appropriate than mystery to magnify that day when the
Infinite became an infant.
As Christians, we know about the incarnation so well that we forget Christians struggled
for centuries to figure out how to state what happened when God became man. Samuel
Zwemer in his book, The Glory Of The Manger, describes some of the process of history in
coming to grasp more fully the mystery of the Incarnation.
At first, Christians stressed that Jesus was divine. He was the Son of God living in a
human body, but His mind was not a human mind. But this meant Jesus was not fully a man.
His humanity was incomplete. So they rejected this view. Then they said Jesus was God and
man. This sounded good but it led to the idea that God just took over the body and mind of a
man. This meant there were two persons, the Son of God and the son of man that coexisted.
This theory also came to be rejected. Then by the fourth century Christian theologians
developed a way of describing the Incarnation that has become the orthodox view ever since.
Jesus was the perfect combination of deity and humanity. He had both natures in one person.
He was not 50% God and 50% man but 100% God and 100% man. He was fully God and
fully man in one person.
The point I am making is that what we celebrate at Christmas is such a paradox of mystery
that it took centuries just to learn how best to describe it. Richard Crashaw wrote-
Welcome all wonders in one sight!
Eternity shut in a span,
Summer and Winter, Day in Night!
Heaven in earth, and God in man!
Great little One! Whose all-embracing birth,
Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth!
C. S. Lewis in The Chronicles Of Narnia, has Queen Lucy say, "In our world too a stable
once had something in it bigger than the whole world." That is the paradox of Christmas.
Next, look at-
II. THE INFINITE BECOMES INTIMATE.
John says not only did the Word become flesh but He dwelt among us. He not only became
one of us, He became one with us. Christmas is not only the celebration of birth but of
relationship. When a Jr. boy reads about romance his favorite word is probably ick. But
when he gets a little older his vocabulary changes when he meets a girl and discovers the
beauty of relationship. It is no longer a icky idea but an experience of intimacy. Words, ideas
and concepts become much more real when they are embodied in a person. When the most
high became most nigh, He became our neighbor and our friend and our brother. The
Infinite became intimate. Christopher Smart wrote,
God all-bounteous, all-creative
Whom no ills from good dissuade
Is incarnate, and a native
Of the very world He made,
This is a shocking paradox when you realize just how close and intimate God became with
man. The Word became flesh and the Greek word for flesh is sarx. The same word used in
other texts such as-
1. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
2. Paul said in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
3. Paul said we are not to walk after the flesh and live in the flesh .
4. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.
5. The works of the flesh are contrasted with the fruit of the Spirit.
6. We are not to glory in the flesh.
Yet with all of these negatives the New Testament makes it clear that Jesus has come in the
flesh. Incarnation means in the flesh. Jesus was God in the flesh. The paradox of a pure and
holy Spirit entering into the weakness and fallenness of flesh is so shocking that Dan Erwin,
professor of preaching at Bethel College, could even illustrate it with the story of
Frankenstein.
Mary Shelley, who wrote the story in the 19th century, wrote it as a sort of romance. Dr.
Frankenstein is the scientist who created the miserable monster who wandered in the forest
seeking friendship. But whenever he tried to develop a relationship people were repelled by
his ugliness. Finally, the monster returns to his creator and pleads with him to make him a
partner, he concludes his plea with these words-"I am alone and miserable; man will not
associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me.
My companion must be of the same species and have the same defects. This being you must
create."
Here was the pathetic cry for intimacy; the universal hunger of all intelligent life. It is the
endless cry of man and God heard that cry and answered that prayer when the Word became
flesh. Man in his fallen state is like Frankenstein with the image of God so marred that he is
ugly in his flesh and repulsive. But because he still has the need for love and acceptance, God
so loved this Frankenstein-the world-that He gave His only begotten Son to dwell among us.
The end result will not be the bride of Frankenstein but the bride of Christ; pure and spotless
and without one wrinkle left by the fall. He became like us that we might become like Him.
God went the limit; He gave the very best that He had-He gave Himself. This is the intimacy
we celebrate at Christmas.
This paradox is what sets Christianity apart from the great religions of the world.
Judaism and Islam are both Bible oriented and monotheistic and full of what is good and
noble. But there are limits to what God will do to save man in their theology. They refuse to
believe He could go as far as the Incarnation and become one with man. This kind of
intimacy of God and man does not fit their theology. Only the Christian has the Incarnation;
the celebration of God's love without limits. This is the simple message of the profound
paradox of the Incarnation.
W. B. J. Martain tells of an old missionary who finally got an assistant out of the seminary.
When he arrived he called the natives together to welcome him. The young man only spoke
English so the older man had to translate his message to the people. He began like this, "we
must always remember that there is an infinite and qualitative distinction between the eternal
Gospel and all the historical manifestations of it under the contingencies of human existence."
The old missionary just stood there dumbfounded as the young man paused for him to
translate. The old man just said, "he says he loves you and he's glad to be here."
The world is full of theological volumes which give profound and complex explanations of
the Incarnation, but when you come right down to it, the message God intends is very simple-
He loves you and is glad to be here. The Infinite became intimate. He did so because there is
just so much you can communicate with words. God had given a great deal of revelation
concerning His love for man in the Old Testament. But words have their limitations. So the
final revelation of God was not just uttered, it was born. F.W. Boreham put it-
The Word was made flesh-
soft, warm, live flesh that
throbbed and felt and developed
and matured, as all sound and
healthy flesh will. And this Word
-Jesus-is God; He is the
pronunciation of the
unpronounceable Word!
Jesus is the sweetest name we know because Jesus is God's fullest and finest Word. That is
why the angels could say to the shepherds- fear not. If God had come into the world in the
fullness of His Deity and not clothed in flesh, the shepherds would have plenty to fear. One
look and they would be dead. But in the Christ child they could encounter God and feel
comfortable. For in Christ God is approachable. There is no mention in the Christmas story
of taking off ones shoes even though they bowed and worshipped the new born King. It was
holy ground but it was also common ground where God and man could meet for in Jesus God
and man were intimately one.
Studies show that more than 65% of what we communicate is in body language. We say
much that is non-verbal by what we do. The Word did this as well. The Word became non-
verbal and by what He did He said to the world, I love you. Actions do speak louder than
words. There were plenty of words about the Messiah's coming but not until He actually
came and the Word became flesh did anybody dream of celebrating.
We are to respond to God's body language with more than just words. We are to have a
body language of our own. We are to so live and give that God's love in Christ becomes
embodied again in us. We are to perpetuate the paradox of the Word becoming flesh by
doing. Christmas is what God did; the Infinite becomes an infant, the Infinite becomes
intimate. You become the best Christian at Christmas by conveying to others the wonder of
the paradoxes of Christmas.
