Celtic Cross (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jesus’ Thoughts
Looking toward Being Born of Mary

Isaiah 49:4-6

† Jesus, Son, Savior †

May we be in awe of the love of Christ, demonstrated in His leaving heaven, to come dwell with us, even as He saved us.

The impossibility of the task:

It Is as difficult to picture Jesus in heaven before the incarnation, as it is trying to see what life will be life when we dwell eternally with God.  We are after all, talking about dwelling with God. We are talking about Jesus the Messiah, the one through whom all things were created.

And now through whom all things are recreated, in order that we do the good works planned for us since before the foundation of the world.

Even so, the exercise is useful, trying to imagine what Jesus thought and felt a few hours (however one experience that) in heaven.

Can you imagine Him and the Father, looking down at the world, knowing what was to come, having planted the seed of this even before Adam and Eve were ushered out of the garden for their own protection?

Even before the garden was?
What did he see?

As he looked down at their brokenness, as he considered the sing, the evil, the hardness of hearts that Jesus knew He was going to encounter, as He considered the beauty, the glory, the incomparable, indescribable, life He was going to freely give up…

How could He not be repelled?  How could the stench of sin, the overwhelming self-centeredness of mankind not turn Him away?  How could he not react as we do when we face making sacrifices for those that would rather not be helped?

How could He not hesitate, but for the joy that was set before Him, smile at the Father and with a sparkle in His eye, say, “It’s time” and in a moment, find Himself defenseless, in the womb of a young woman?

The mission was always bigger

As we travel through Advent, that is what we must see, this deep desire of the Father, of the Son and of the Spirit to rescue us from the death that is life apart from God?

We see this in the old testament reading – the absolute exhaustion that Isaiah prophetically sees in Christ.  He’s been born, struggled with our rejecting Him, dealt with people like the sons of Thunder, those people who act so brashly and loudly… he’s dealt with Pilate and Matthew, with Judas’s betrayal, and perhaps more painfully Peter’s betrayal.

He knows that those are just foretaste of ours, the days when our behavior, our thoughts and words do not reflect our love for God.  The days when our resentment and desire for revenge and our own self gratification seems to dominate.

He knows this pain – but the mission He was sent on by the Father, that they planned together – the time to that point is now gone… and the knowledge is seen.  Hear Isaiah’s prophecy about Christ’s attitude:

.” ⁵  Even before I was born, the LORD God chose me to serve him and to lead back the people of Israel.

He will go on..
 Now the YHWH – God the Father says to me, “It isn’t enough for you to be merely my servant. You must do more than lead back survivors from the tribes of Israel. I have placed you here as a light for other nations; you must take my saving power to everyone on earth.”

He comes – just as planned – to save Israel, and to save all nations.  Not just our friends and family, but our enemy.  Not just to forgive our sins, but the sins committed against us. To free us from all of that… for that was the plan, even before His birth.
Why?

The gospel, in its simple yet profound language tells us.

. ⁵⁷  In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me.

In the same way our meal over on that side of the room shows our life together, so this meal here does.  They are, in many ways, the same thing.  Our fellowship here with God, reflected there.

He came to give us life, to redeem us and return us to the Father, to bring us back Isaiah says.  To have life because His saving power, this love and mercy, this invitation to communion, to fellowship, to living with Him has been His plan since before He entered Mary’s womb.

For we live with Him, because we have died with Him.

As Jesus stood there, ready to enter time, ready to leave heaven, ready to be born of Mary and live among the sin and brokenness, the stench of sin and the horror of lives that are spiritually rotten.. He heard the Father’s voice… and loving the Father, loving us, became Immanuel

God with us… The Lord God Creator, Savior, Redeemer Re-Creator.. has come to us….

It was what they wanted.. it is what changes everything…

With Him, having been rescued from darkness, let our lives reflect His glory and mercy and peace to this world.  AMEN?

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• A Celtic Advent: The Trinity’s Look Towards Christ’s Birth (justifiedandsinner.com)