Jesus

The Veiled Incarnate Deity

Philippians 2:5-11 NIV

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:  6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, [“emptied himself” NASB][“stripped himself of all privileges and rightful dignity” Amplified] taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! 9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

1)   Introduction – “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”

This week we are again looking at the Incarnation through the eyes of Charles Wesley.  Last week we sang his Christmas Carol – “Come, Thou long expected Jesus” and reflected on Jesus as the long expected joy of every longing heart.  We looked at how God has built “longing” and delayed gratification into the very fabric of this world.  As Peter said, even angels have to wait for good things.  And wait we do – but God is calling us to an expectant and believing kind of longing – not longing for things that can never satisfy, not looking for God to come in any particular way, but expectantly looking for Him to come.

This week, we sang another of Wesley’s great hymns and we are going to look at another aspect of the Incarnation.  When I first became a Christian, the words of the Christmas carols came alive to me that first Christmas.  These were songs that I had known from my childhood – but now the words were pregnant with meaning for me, for example:

            Born to raise the sons of earth

            Born to give us second birth.

I thought that I had never heard of the second birth until I became a Christian.  Here it was etched in an old standby which I had sung for years – but had no clue what it meant while growing up.  It helped me realize that my new found faith was rooted in a long history and not just some passing fad or fashion.

The verses of this carol are filled with powerful theology.  In the third stanza when we sing:

“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.”

This morning we are going to look at the Incarnation from the perspective of Jesus as the Veiled Incarnate Deity and how that relates to St. Paul’s description in this morning’s scripture of Jesus as one who emptied himself of His divinity.  Wesley would say that Jesus so emptied himself that the very deity of Christ / the 2nd person of the God was veiled.

2)   Veiled in the Old Testament

Last week we looked at how prophets and righteous men and women of the Old Testament had glimpses of the Incarnation – but searched intently and carefully in vain to find out what this was going to look like.  Old Testament Messianic prophecies describe the coming Messiah in three basic ways:

·        Daniel and Isaiah prophesy the Messiah’s divinity and Micah alludes to pre-existence[1]

·        He would come as a King and a Priest[2]

·        He would suffer and be rejected  and be lowly [3]

 

There is one Old Testament prophecy where these are combined. Turn with me in your Bibles to Zechariah 6:11-13.  Zechariah is the second to last book of the Old Testament right before Malachi.

 

I have to tell this story while you are turning to Zechariah.  Shortly after I became a Christian, I went on a weekend retreat with a number of other Christians.  After arriving, most of them went ice skating on the pond out back.  I am a lousy ice skater and stayed back and started reading my Bible.  I had not read any of the Old Testament, so decided to read it from back to front.  Thus I started with Malachi.  As I was reading, one of the older Christians came back from the skating and asked what I was doing.  Feeling very spiritual for studying my Bible – especially such an obscure and little known OT passage, I remarked – “O just reading Ma – lach – chi.”

 

He very graciously responded – “O you mean Malachi?”  It was my first, but unfortunately not my last experience of my “pride going before my fall.”  So turn with me to Zechariah 6:9-12

 

Take silver and gold from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah who have arrived from Babylon.  Go the same day to the home of Josiah son of Zephaniah.  Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the high priest, Joshua son of Jehozadak.  Tell him that this is what the Lord Almighty says.  “Here is a man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD.  It is he who will build the temple of the LORD, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne.  And he will be a priest on his throne.  And there will be harmony between the two.

 

I want you to see several things in this passage.  First, from the context Zechariah is clearly prophesying of what is going to happen.  He is not anointing Joshua, the high priest, to perform these functions now because later in this chapter he takes the crown away and puts it in the temple.[4]  But rather, this Joshua is symbolic of the coming Joshua who would be Priest and King. “He will be a priest on his throne” and “there will be harmony between” these roles.

 

And of course the New Testament unveils to us Jesus our High Priest and King who would build the temple of Holy Spirit.

 

But there is one more aspect of the coming Messiah that is revealed – He was to be called the “Branch.”  This must have been most puzzling to the Old Testament saints.  Calling one of such importance a name of such diminutive status must have been very jarring.  So jarring in fact that God had to reveal this name of the Messiah five times (twice in Is. and Zech. and once in Jer):

 

In Isaiah 11:1

            A shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

 

In Isaiah 53:2 the Messiah is described as a tender shoot.

 

What was the Holy Spirit trying to communicate to His people by giving the Messiah such a name?

 

I believe the Holy Spirit was foreshadowing what Paul so clearly lays out in this morning’s passage.  The Messiah was to a person of both high and low estate.  A shoot or a twig or a branch (and there are three different words used here all conveying the same meaning).

 

Imaging trying to wrestle with these images of High Priest / King / Almighty God / Everlasting Father / Prince of Peace / and twig.  For much of Jewish history, the rabbinic scholars have looked for two Messiah’s – because they could not reconcile these.  But therein lies the truth in tension concerning the Incarnation.  Therein lies the mystery of the manger.   We sometime glamorize the manager – but remember that the manger was just a feeding trough.    And God decided to begin his days on earth sitting in a borrowed feeding trough.

3)   What it meant for Jesus that he “emptied himself.”

So let’s think a little more about what it meant for God to become man.  For Jesus to empty himself / to become nothing / to strip himself of all dignity.

C.S. Lewis graphically helps us imagine God so lowering himself:

"The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a fetus inside a woman's body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab." C.S. Lewis

Oooh!  Not a very pleasant picture.  Think how limited you would be as a slug.

Jesus was there participating with God the Father when they sang creation into being.  He enjoyed perfect and intimate communion with the Father.  And now he limited himself /  emptied himself of his power and his dignity / became nothing.

God could have become incarnate in a man of pomp and circumstance – of a high estate and importance.  But He chose to come as twig / a small and tender and vulnerable shoot.  God could have come to earth and brought all of his power and dignity and majesty with Him.  But He didn’t.  He came and emptied himself of those things and took on human flesh.  His deity was veiled by our frail humanity.

I don’t know about you – but the Incarnation is almost un-imaginable.

Let’s look one step further.  Paul says that Jesus “emptied himself.”  What did He empty himself of?   Historical and orthodox Christianity has held over the years that Jesus emptied Himself of His divine attributes while retaining the essence of His divinity.  So what went?

  • His Omniscience - He did not know everything.  He had to learn.[5]
  • His Omnipresence – He no longer could be everywhere at once.
  • His Omnipotence – all powerful.  He had to do everything only with the same power that is available to you and I

And that raises an interesting question.

When Jesus did miracles on earth, did He do them as God or as man?  In other words, did Jesus walk on water using his divine power?  Did he heal the sick using his Omnipotence?

The answer to this question is very important to for us.  If Jesus did all of His miracles as the Son of God, then we are off the hook. We cannot possibly be expected to do the things that he did.

But if Jesus did these miracles as the son of man – meaning He did not rely on any of his attributes of divine power –then we are on the hook.  We should be able to do the same – heal the sick – raise the dead – preach the gospel to the poor.  In fact, this is that what Jesus said:

“I tell you the truth.  Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.[6]

The miracles Jesus did, walking on water, raising the dead, healing the sick, were an integral part of the disciples lives after the resurrection.  And that truth challenges us.  We are called to do the things Jesus did – to walk as He walked – to go where He goes.   He has shown us the way.

4)   What it means for us that Jesus “emptied himself.”

But, there is a catch.   Before we can begin to do what He did, we need to become like him. Your attitude and my attitude should be the same as that of Jesus. 

Here is where the meaning of Incarnation hits home.  What was Jesus attitude?  Do you want to do the work that Jesus did?  Do you want to see the power of God manifested in your life?  I believe you do.  Then Paul gives us three attitudes that Jesus had: faith, humility and obedience.

Where is God calling you to “empty yourself?”  To willfully choose to appear weaker than you really are?  To appear wrong when you are right?  To choose the path of obscurity?  To take the road less traveled? To become servants?

The more we think about the Incarnation, the more it takes our breath away.  But the Incarnation has a hook.  Because Jesus was able to do all of His miracles using only what he obtained from the Holy Spirit   we know that we can do the same.  And if Jesus was able to enter into our low estate – exemplified by the manger - surely we too can do the same.  Amen.



[1] Isaiah 9:6, Daniel 7:13-14, Micah 5:2

[2] Psalm 110, Zechariah 6:9-13

[3] Is 53, Psalm 22, Daniel 9:26

[4] Zech 6:14

[5] Jesus learned obedience from what He suffered – Hebrews 5:8

[6] John 14:12