by CCW | 29 December 2024 10:00
The readings for the Sunday after Christmas provide an extended commentary on the radical meaning of the Incarnation. It is at once the redemption of our humanity and its restoration. Isaiah’s prophecy quoted in the Gospel about the Son born of the Virgin being named, “Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us,” finds its fullest meaning in Jesus as saviour. Note the emphasis – JESUS is printed in capital letters twice in this Gospel passage from St. Matthew.
The Gospel complements Paul’s theological reflection on the birth of Jesus Christ. While the Gospel gives the circumstances of his birth as being “on this wise,” particularly emphasizing Joseph’s dilemma and its solution, the Epistle offers a theological account of its meaning and purpose. It is “when the fulness of the time was come, [that] God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.” These are the two makings that illuminate the meaning of Christmas about the divinity and humanity of Jesus. “‘God sent His Son” – there His divine [nature]; ‘made of a woman’- here His human nature”… “That from the bosom of His Father before all worlds; this, from that womb of His mother in the world” (Lancelot Andrewes, Xmas 1609). The Son of God is not made of a Spirit but made of a creature, made of a woman, “made very man of the substance of the Virgin Mary his mother; and that without spot of sin” (BCP, p.79).
As Irenaeus so wonderfully puts it, Christ is “that pure one, opening purely that pure womb [meaning Mary], which regenerates our humanity unto God and which he himself made pure” (Adv. Haer. IV. 33.11). His conception and birth which are about his being with us in the truth of our humanity is through the purity of Mary, the emblem of our true humanity considered simply qua human. That purity of our humanity belongs to the sinlessness of Christ. It is “but ex muliere, and no more; of the Virgin alone by the power of the Holy Ghost, without mixture of fleshly generation. By virtue whereof no original sin was in Him, just born He was, … and no law could touch Him”(Andrewes). In her we were never the better for factum ex muliere, for his being made of a woman, made of the pure substance of Mary. The classical and orthodox teaching is repeatedly and constantly that Christ is like us in all respects save sin. All this belongs to the first making, made of a woman.
The second making is made under the law, which puts Christ under the conditions of the Law which convicts us necessarily of sin. Thus being made under the Law amounts to one and the same thing as factus in cruce, being crucified. Why? Paul explains the purpose of both these makings: the one pertaining to Christ who comes “to redeem them that were under the law” – us, ourselves; the other pertaining to what that redemption means for us positively, “that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Thus there is the double motion: redemption and restoration to the truth of ourselves as “son[s] and heir[s] of God through Christ.” Made pure of Mary; made sin under the law. This is the theological understanding that belongs to the birth of Jesus being “on this wise” via the perplexity of Joseph who “thought on these things.” Only by thinking on these things can we be open to angelic direction and guidance, our thinking raised up beyond a merely calculative and instrumental reason into the unitive reasoning of God.
What is this all about except a higher sense of our humanity and its truth as found in God? It is our redemption from all that makes us less than ourselves, in short, the whole pageant of sin and folly; and it is the restoration of ourselves to who we are in Christ, the sons and heirs of God. “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into [our] hearts, crying Abba, Father.” Is this not the great blessing and joy of Christmas, this awakening to a new birth in us through the birth of Christ, made of a woman, made under the law? A new and greater vision for our humanity.
Matthew’s Gospel makes it very clear that God’s being with us as JESUS belongs to the perfection and restoration of our humanity. What comes forth from Mary is first conceived in her by the Holy Ghost; it is another kind of making, but he is named JESUS, Matthew tells us, by Joseph. Yet as Luke makes clear in the account of the Annunciation to Mary, and which is reiterated on the Octave Day of Christmas, that which is conceived and brought forth from Mary shall be called JESUS by her, as Gabriel tells Mary. Named JESUS by the angel before he was conceived, named JESUS by Joseph today, named JESUS by Mary. They are namings that enter into the divine understanding and purpose of the one who is named. And yet the radical meaning of that naming is that the one who is made of woman is also made under the law.
Redemption and restoration are united in the transcendence and immanence of God with God and God with us. Emmanuel is JESUS. Let me end with a passage from Lancelot Andrewes, one who like Joseph thought so deeply on these things.
The transcendent division of good and evil is it that comprehendeth all. And here it is. Our desire can extend itself no farther than to be rid of all evil, and to attain all that good is. By these two, being redeemed and being adopted, we are made partakers of them both. “To be redeemed from under the Law.” is to be quit of all evil. “To receive the adoption of children.” is to be [established] in all that is good.
The fulness of the time is the mystery of Christmas that comprehends the whole life of Christ as a continual passion, a continual cross. The fulness of the time is the going forth and the return of all things to God in Christ’s holy birth. We are made partakers of his divine nature just as He is made man of our human nature. All this means another way of thinking that challenges and redeems our humanity by gathering us into the fulness of the time which is God with us, Emmanuel who is JESUS. We are made the sons of God, as Christ is made the Son of man.
Fr. David Curry
Sunday after Christmas, 2024
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