Pondering Jesus at Christmas
By Phil Broersma
Christmas season is upon us. Lights on houses, trees in windows, snow on your sidewalk, all indicate the pending celebrations in the weeks to come. The commercialization of Christmas of course has altered our perception of it purpose. What historically was a religious holy day (our English word holiday comes from an Old English word meaning, ‘holy day’) has become the climax of our materialistic culture. Ads, sales, deals, the search for the perfect gift divert our gaze from the sacred to the secular. The cultural forces working to wrest the center of the Christmas holy day from our grasp seems all to potent leaving us little mental space to reflect upon the Son of God incarnate. As an antidote to this, our church’s teaching focus during the month of December turns intentionally toward contemplating the truth of Christ’s incarnation.
In keeping with this goal, I want to direct your contemplation to the little Epistle of Jude and consider just how wonderful the reality of the incarnation really is. As the year concludes, you are likely approaching or have recently read through Jude’s postcard size correspondence. The book just preceding Revelation, Jude consists of twenty-five verses and is packed with Old Testament allusions and promises of judgment. Though brief, Jude gives us valuable insight into the value of sound doctrine and the responsibility we have to maintain the truth in the face of error. With this in mind, I want to draw your attention to Jude’s view of who Jesus is which is especially relevant as celebrate the incarnation this month.
Jude identifies himself in the first verse as the brother of James. Conservative scholars believe that the most likely candidate for this James is James the prominent leader of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 12:17, 15:13, 21:8; Galatians 2:9) and author of the epistle of James (James 1:1). This being the case means that Jude is the same Jude mentioned in the Gospels (Matt 13:55; Mark 6:3; John 7:5) as the half-brother of Jesus (cf. Carson and Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament, 2nd ed., 690–91). Just consider this fact for a moment, the writer of this brief epistle grew up with the incarnate Lord. The beginning of John 7, John tells us that Jesus’ brothers challenge Him to work His works in the open and then John tells us, “For even his brothers did not believe in him” (John 7:5). A striking note to consider in Jesus’ early days of ministry.
Sometime between John 7 and the writing of Jude, Jesus’ half-brother underwent a massive shift in thinking, or should we say faith in Jesus. Notice that Jude calls himself a “servant” or better a “slave” of Jesus Christ in verse 1. This underlines Jude’s allegiance to Jesus as the explicit fulfillment of Old Testament expectation (i.e., the Messiah). Jude goes on to describe Jesus as “the only Master and our Lord” (v. 4). Here the two appellations given to Jesus undeniably assert His sovereign preeminence. Hardly just an unbelievable brother now, Jude sees Jesus for who He clearly is. Jude affirms the basic Christian confession, “Jesus is Lord.” And if we wonder just what Jude means by this, we ought to pay careful attention to the verse immediately following, where he states, “I want to remind you…that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe” (ESV v. 5). Did you catch what Jude just said? Jude understands his half-brother to be the God of the Old Testament, the very God who orchestrated Israel’s exodus from Egypt in keeping with the promise made to Abraham!
I’m going to digress just a bit in order to give a brief lesson on textual criticism, because depending upon which translation you read from, verse 5 may either be rendered as ‘Jesus’ or as ‘the Lord.’ There is in this verse manuscript evidence for both of these readings, so the discipline of textual criticism is required in order to determine which is the most likely original reading. Don’t fret here because God’s providential preservation of His Word is demonstrated in the thousands of manuscripts, which we possess of the New Testament (far more manuscripts exist of the NT documents than any other piece of ancient literature). The job of the textual critic is to weigh the evidence and see what proves to be the reading that most likely accounts for the other readings. In this case, the manuscript evidence, versional witnesses, and testimony of early church fathers actually favor the reading of ‘Jesus’ (cf. Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed., 657). Now I would just point out that even if ‘Lord’ is the reading in verse 5, Jude’s basic meaning is not changed. Because in verse 4, we see him unequivocally call Jesus “Master and Lord” and so the Lord in verse 5 could hardly be anyone other than Jesus (cf. Bowman, Jr. and Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Jesus, 98–99).
Don’t let passages like this pass you by. Consider the significance of what Jude is saying. Theologically Jude is explicitly affirming Jesus’ pre-existence and equating Him with Yahweh in the Old Testament, the One whom both rescued Israel and meted out judgment on the unbelieving generation. The upshot of all of this is the incredibly high view of Jesus that Jude, the brother of our Lord, gives to us. Jude beckons us to see Jesus for who He truly is, God incarnate. As we approach the hurried and busy season of Christmas, make an effort to slow down and ponder the wonder of God’s condescension in the incarnation of the Son.
Oh, Great God, what love You have shown to poor wretched sinners to give the gift of the eternal Son. Grant that I would this Christmas season know more of the awe of what it means that the Word who was with You in the beginning, took on human flesh, to be Savior of the world.
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, from the Liturgy of St. James, 5th century
Let all mortal flesh keep silence
and with fear and trembling stand;
ponder nothing earthly-minded,
for with blessing in his hand
Christ, our God, to earth descending,
comes our homage to command.
King of kings, yet born of Mary,
as of old on earth he stood,
Lord of lords in human likeness,
in the body and the blood
he will give to all the faithful
his own self for heav’nly food.
Rank on rank the host of heaven
spreads its vanguard on the way
as the Light from Light, descending
from the realms of endless day,
comes the pow’rs of hell to vanquish
as the darkness clears away.
At his feet the six-winged seraph,
cherubim with sleepless eye,
veil their faces to the presence
as with ceaseless voice they cry:
“Alleluia, alleluia!
Alleluia, Lord Most High!”
Phil Broersma serves as discipleship pastor at Kaysville Bible Church in Kaysville, Utah. He loves serving the people of Utah and exploring Utah’s beautiful places alongside his wife, Becca, and their four children.
Feature Image by Wallpaper Access
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