Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of dry ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we would look at Him,
Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him.
He was despised and abandoned by men,
A man of great pain and familiar with sickness;
And like one from whom people hide their faces,
He was despised, and we had no regard for Him. Isaiah 53:1-3
Incarnation is a concept we tend to discuss more in the Christmas season, but I have been thinking about this incredible aspect of God’s love for us lately. And yes, Christmas IS coming sooner than we think!
The fact that God would intervene in his creation in this particular way is astounding to say the least. He sent his son into the world as a helpless human being, vulnerable and needy. Jesus came into a broken environment where a harsh and repressive world government, Rome, ruled with an iron fist. The people group he was born into, the Jewish tribe, was generally poor and mistreated, with no political power.
Yet we see that the message that God was giving was the idea of a movement that was not a top-down revolution, but rather a very improbable movement that was marked by the idea of changing the world through the power of love.
After the death and resurrection of Jesus, that movement grew among the poorest and least powerful groups on earth. Christianity literally changed the world from such humble beginnings. But we must remember that when Christianity became Christendom, it grew into a political and governing power. It was then that the humble message of Jesus began to become corrupted, and the message lost its power.
Yes, Christianity remains in this world, but its humble message has been overtaken by those who would use it in the pursuit of power. As we move into the Christmas season, I will bring more thoughts on the way that Christianity has struggled with governments and empire.
The true church will always remain, but the challenge of succumbing to the lure of power will always cause some tension.
Prayer: Lord, help us to discern how to live as servants to a broken world, Amen
