On 12th April 1961 the world stood in awe of Russia.
Yuri Gagarin was supposedly the first man in space… I say supposedly because Israel beat Russia in the space race!
To understand this crazy claim, we need to go back in time, just over 2000 years to the small city of Bethlehem, which is jam-packed with pilgrims. A distressed husband has tried all the local inns for accommodation without success. Eventually a kindly inn-keeper allows Joseph and his heavily pregnant wife to sleep in his stable, and that night a baby boy is born. Once a year, on the 25th December, the world remembers this momentous occasion, not as the birth of the first astronaut, but the birth of the saviour of humankind.
Unfortunately, the birth of the God-Child is a once a year celebration to many, and remembered for all the wrong reasons (please dont add the first man in space to your reasons for celebrating his birth). Trees are decorated, cute little mangers are displayed alongside toy donkeys, children are dressed up in bed sheets for nativity plays, and for a few days, God is acknowledged. Then the trinkets are safely packed away again till next year. And our thoughts of God get buried in the junk-heap of life along with them.
In my opinion, this can only be because we dont fully grasp the importance of the Incarnation, God entering the realm of humanity, at the same time fully man and fully God.
In the first chapter of John we read that Christ, who made his dwelling among men, is the One who created the entire universe in all its intricate glory! Those stars, twinkling brightly on a moonless night, a million light years away- created by him; the fiery sun, at just the right distance to provide us with enough warmth to maintain our planet in perfect balance – set by him at exactly the right distance away in space; that warm soft hand tucked snugly into your own as you walk along an idyllic beach – wonderfully designed by him; the song of each bird sung sweetly from leafy cathedrals, perfectly written by him. Yet he gave up all his power and creative glory, emptied himself and walked among his creation.
Philippians 2:6-7 He had equal status with God but didnt think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave and became human! (Message)
Fully God, fully human
Yes, God himself, born a helpless babe, totally reliant on his human parents, suckling at his mothers breast, learning to walk, falling and scraping his knees, blistering his hands as he worked alongside his earthly father, weeping
at the sight of human tragedy, being tempted just as we are, then finally succumbing to the ultimate torture, beaten and spat on, then murdered on a cross; Fully God, yet at the same time, fully human.
The real tragedy is that so many, like Bette Midler in her famous song From a Distance think that God took on humanity for just 30 years or so, then returned to his former state, again aloof, watching humankinds drama unfold, from a distance. Not so!
As once again we approach the Christmas season, Id like to share some really good news with you. God loves you so much that not only did he come to reveal himself to us, and walk among us as a human for three decades, he kept his humanity, and now sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. Yes, when Christ ascended into the heavens, he was the first man in space! In his letter to Timothy (1Timothy 2:5), Paul reveals For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (NIV emphasis mine).
A mediator needs to be totally unbiased. If Christ had returned to his fully God-state, how could he ever mediate for us mere mortals? – We would cry foul! But because Jesus maintained his humanity, who better to be mediator between humankind and God than Christ, fully God, and yet still fully man? Not only has he maintained his humanity, but he has taken up our life, and is living in and through us, and us in him.
Why did God perform this greatest of miracles? Why did he enter time and space and his own creation? He did it so that when he ascended, he could lift us with Him, and that we could be seated with him at the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1-3).
So not only did the man Christ Jesus ascend into the Heavens, but each one of us ascended with him. Sorry Yuri Gagarin!
This year, as we again celebrate his birth, remember that God will never pack us away in some dusty closet to remember us perhaps once a year on our birthday. He keeps his humanity as his constant commitment and reassurance to us. He has never left us, and never will. Not only has he remained human, but he has taken up our life, and is living in and through us. Let us then hold fast onto this amazing truth, and rejoice in this amazing miracle, the embodiment of Gods love, the Man and God, Christ Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us now and forever.
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