The Glory of God in the Face of Christ: The Angels
An Advent Meditation
Last week, as we pondered what Mary understood about her newborn son and what she struggled to understand about him. We observed that Mary understood better than anyone that her little baby was exactly that—a little baby. She had just given birth to him. She knew he was the genuine article. What Mary struggled to understand, by contrast, was what else he was. Mary knew that her son would be called Immanuel, that he would be the Son of the Most High, and that he would be both Mary’s son and Son of God, but she struggled to understand what this could possibly mean.
The angels faced the opposite problem. As they looked down on that little town of Bethlehem and kept “their watch of wondering love,” they understood quite clearly that the baby in the feed trough was, in fact, the Son of God. They saw the empty throne at the right hand of the Father. They knew that the eternal Word of God had descended to earth to take on flesh. They knew this much very clearly. What staggered their imagination even as they looked on was that the one they knew well as the Son of God was now the son of a young Jewish girl named Mary.
They were having a hard time believing what their eyes saw. As the Apostle Peter would put it in his own reflections on these mysteries, the angels were gazing at realities that they longed to grasp more fully (I Peter 1.12).
The angels marveled as the “eternally begotten, not made,” Son of God, and Creator of all things became the son of Mary, a created being named Jesus—one whom the Apostle Paul would identify as the “firstborn of creation.” They puzzled over how the one on whom all creation depends could make himself dependent on that very creation. They sang praises to God in the highest as on earth the one who created vocal chords and tongue began to learn to use his own, as the eternal Word of God rendered himself speechless until he could learn to talk.
Surely the particular circumstances of Jesus’ birth, on top of the very notion of incarnation, staggered the angelic imagination still further. Where the angels might have expected to hear the sound of trumpets and drums they heard the snorting and grunting of livestock. Where they would have expected the silks and satins of royalty they discovered the course swaddling clothes of poverty. Where they would have looked forward to making a spectacular and very public introduction for the Prince of Heaven, they settled for sharing their secret with a few lowly shepherds in the fields near the obscure little town where the baby was born. Even from their heavenly, all-seeing perspective, they struggled to take it all in.
We do well to join them in their struggle, and in doing so to start where they started—with the eternal Son of God in the heavens, and then to try to take in what it meant for God to become “eclipsed in amniotic gloom” and take on flesh. We do well to let the angels push us past the familiarity of the story so that we can grapple with the very notion of incarnation. We do well to see this event through their eyes and to recognize how impossible it is for God to become man and then to realize with them that what is impossible with man is possible with God. We do well, finally, to join the angels in their incomprehension and to celebrate the fact that in Christ’s birth, what is impossible is made real.
Like Mary—and Joseph and the shepherds, the angels looked into the face of the baby Jesus and beheld “the glory of God in the face of Christ.” They saw the character of God revealed and they saw the same thing Mary did: the love and humility of God. They knew the heights from which the Son of God descended to become the son of Mary. They saw the measure of God’s humility and love as clearly as any being could see it. They saw the glory of God in the face of Christ as his mother laid him in that feed trough.
One reason I love singing Christmas carols is that, like the poets, the writers of these carols also struggle to grasp the ungraspable glory of God in the birth of Christ and so to join Mary and the angels in giving glory to God. Once again, then, I conclude this meditation as I have before by borrowing words and offering a few lines from some of some personal favorites.
“Angels adore him in slumber reclining,
Maker and Monarch and Lord over all.”(“Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning”)
“He came down to earth from heaven who is God and Lord of all,
and his shelter was a stable, and his cradle was a stall.(“Once in Royal David’s City”)
“Lo, within a manger lies he who built the starry skies”
(“See, Amid the Winter’s Snow”)
“For low he lay within a stall,
Who rules for ever over all.”(“A Boy Was born in Bethlehem”)
“Leaving riches without number, born within a cattle stall;
this the everlasting wonder, Christ was born the Lord of all.”(“Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus”)
“Infant holy, infant lowly, for his bed a cattle stall;
oxen lowing, little knowing Christ, the babe, is Lord of all.”(“Infant Holy”)
“Thou who wast rich beyond all splendor
All for love’s sake becamest poor;
Thrones for a manger didst surrender,
saphire paved courts for stable floor.”(“Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond All Splendor”)
“All praise to thee, eternal Lord, clothed in a garb of flesh and blood;
choosing a manger for thy throne, while worlds on worlds are thine alone.”“Once did the skies before thee bow; a virgin’s arms contain thee now:
angels who did in thee rejoice now listen for thine infant voice.”(“All Praise to Thee, Eternal Lord”)
And finally, to serve you in your own celebration of Christ’s birth today:
O come, all ye faithful, Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him Born the King of angels;
God of God, Light of Light;
Lo, he abhors not the Virgin's womb:
Very God, Begotten, not created;
Sing, choirs of angels; Sing in exultation,
Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above;
Glory to God in the highest;
Yea, Lord, we greet thee, Born this happy morning:
Jesus, to thee be glory given;
Word of the Father, Late in flesh appearing;O come, let us adore him,
O come, let us adore him,
O come, let us adore him,
Christ the Lord.
