Hebrews 11:9-10, 32-40; Matthew 1:1-25
In spite of what we may like to
think, the story of our lives did not begin on the day of our birth, but
extends back across the generations to those from whom we have inherited so
many traits that make us who we are.
Knowing about the heritage of our families can give us a sense of
rootedness, a healthy acceptance that we are not our own creators. Ultimately, of course, we trace our origins
back to the Lord Who created us in His image and likeness by breathing life
into our first parents.
As we all
know from personal experience, not everything passed down in families is
healthy or holy. That is because we all
participate personally in the consequences of humanity’s refusal to become more
like God in holiness. Due to their
disobedience, Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise into the world of
corruption that we know all too well. We
have followed them in serving our own self-centeredness instead of God. We have followed them into slavery to the
distorted desires that we call the passions.
Instead of freely becoming more like God in holiness, we suffer the
consequences of being held captive to sin and death.
On this Eve
of Christmas, we must remember that Jesus Christ “is born now to raise the
image that had fallen aforetime.” In
other words, He is the New Adam Who fulfills our original calling to become
like God in holiness. Indeed, He is
truly God and truly human, and thus able to restore us to the sublime dignity
for which He breathed life into us in the first place. In Him, we inherit the blessedness of
Paradise, for He comes to heal every dimension of our corruption and to unite
us to Himself in holiness.
We may
wonder, however, if there really is healing for us who suffer the effects of
our own sins and of the brokenness of others.
We may despair of ever experiencing the fulfillment of our calling to
become like God because pride, anger, lust, and other passions seem so deeply
rooted in our souls. We may lose hope of
ever finding peace amidst the battles that rage in our minds, hearts, and
relationships.
If our
struggles were simply about us as isolated individuals left to our own devices,
we would have good reason to despair. Today,
however, we remember that God worked across the generations from Abraham to the
Virgin Mary and Joseph, her betrothed, to prepare for the birth of the New
Adam. Since King David served as a model
for the Messiah, he figures prominently in the Lord’s family tree. Remember, however, that he was guilty of
adultery and murder, which the genealogy indicates by listing Bathsheeba as
“the wife of Uriah.” Along with this
reference, the names of Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth are surprising because they are
all women who bring to mind scandalous episodes involving matters such as prostitution
or intermarriage with Gentiles.
Our Lord’s
family heritage was certainly not comprised of perfect people. They experienced all the spiritual and moral
brokenness common to humanity in our world of corruption. Nonetheless, they looked forward in faith to
the coming of the Messiah. Despite their
sufferings and imperfections, God worked through them to prepare for the Virgin
Mary to become the Theotokos when she accepted the outrageous calling to become
the Mother of God, the living temple of the Savior. In a manner beyond understanding and not
tainted by passion of any kind, she conceived and gave birth to the Son of God
as a virgin. Joseph, her elderly
protector, turned away from his earlier doubts and faithfully played his unique
role in caring for both mother and Child.
In the God-Man born at Christmas,
we have received the fullness of the promise for which the Old Testament saints
longed in faith. By becoming one of
us, He has raised the fallen image and made us “partakers of the divine nature”
by grace. The disciplines of the Nativity Fast have helped us to know why we need
a Savior Who comes to us in this way. By
devoting ourselves for forty days to intensified prayer, fasting, and
generosity to the needy, and by preparing conscientiously for Confession, we have
come to see our own spiritual brokenness a bit more clearly. These practices have shown us that we need
more than a set of rules or a good example to follow. Like all those enslaved by the fear of death
and our own distorted desires, we need to be born again in the New Adam. We need to be healed from the spiritual
maladies that have taken root in our souls so that we will participate personally
in the fulfillment that Christ works when He becomes a human being for our
salvation.
None of us, however, is yet fully healed. We all have a long way to go—an infinitely
long journey—in order to become like God in holiness. Instead of becoming discouraged at how far
we are from fulfilling this high calling, we should remember that we fit right
into the Lord’s family tree. Those who
prepared for His coming often fell short, even to the point of committing
murder, adultery, and idolatry. If He can
work through such people to prepare His way, then it should not be surprising
that the Savior came to call, not the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Who needs to be reborn except those
who are spiritually dead? Who needs to
be set free from captivity except those who are enslaved to sin? Who needs a New Adam if not all the children
of the first Adam, all human persons who have fallen short of the glory of God
and earned the wages of sin, which is death?
Christmas is not a feast focused on rewarding the righteous, for who
could possibly have merited or deserved the unbelievable miracle of the Son of
God becoming a human being? He fulfills
the ancient vocation of all people to become like God in holiness not because
any of us have somehow earned that astounding blessing, but instead on the basis
of His love for sinners.
Even before the Incarnation, King
David found forgiveness for committing murder and adultery. If already before the promise of the coming
of the Messiah was fulfilled, God was so gracious to a repentant sinner, how
much more must we trust that the mercy of the Savior born at Christmas will
extend also to us? Many people struggle with a prideful form of shame that
paralyzes them when they catch a true glimpse of their own spiritual
state. When they do not live up to their
own illusions of perfection, they cannot accept that—like everyone else—they have sinned and need the Lord’s healing
mercy. So instead of humbly repenting
and trusting in His grace as they stumble forward in obedience, they insist on
relying on their own power and ability.
That results in worshiping a god of their own imagination, not the Lord
Whose family tree included scandalous sinners of all kinds.
The Son of God was born “to raise
the fallen image,” which means to restore our beauty as living icons radiant
with His holiness. No matter the present
shape of our souls, the New Adam makes it possible for us to be fulfilled in
His likeness, to become truly human as He always intended us to be. Nothing but our own prideful will has the
power to keep us from entering into the divine joy of Christmas for our
salvation. In Christ, we have all
inherited by faith the fullness of the promise passed down for so many
generations through the children of Abraham.
As we prepare to celebrate the Nativity of our Savior, let us all
receive Him into our hearts with humility, knowing that He came to save us who
were lost. If you think that you do not deserve
that great blessing, then you are absolutely right. No one does. That is why the Savior was born.
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