Incarnation

Top Highlights

“The paradox of the incarnation is that God chose to subvert human preconceptions of authority by raising to the highest place one who was regarded as utterly inconsequential and insignificant by the authorities of his day. The incarnation is about the overthrow, even the inversion, of human values—not their endorsement.” (Page 80)

“The nativity, as seen by the eye of faith, is about God choosing, out of love and compassion, to enter the dark, distant and lonely place that we call human history. Rather than summon us to meet him in the heavenly places, God chose to encounter us where we are.” (Page 18)

“Contemporary rabbinic literature had much to say about people whose jobs made them virtually incapable of keeping the law of Moses. Two groups often singled out for special (negative) comment were carpenters and fishermen: carpenters, because they doubled as undertakers and were handling dead bodies all the time; and fishermen, because they had to handle and sort mixed catches of clean and unclean fish. Both groups were incapable of observing the strict rules about ritual purity which prohibited contact with anything unclean. Yet Jesus calls precisely such fishermen, men hovering on the fringes of Jewish religious life.” (Page 26)

“From the second century onwards, commentators on the birth of Christ linked the scene with Isaiah 1:3, which speaks of the ox and the ass knowing their true master and his crib. It seems that this prophetic passage was then linked with the birth of Christ, thus reminding us that the whole of the created order is involved in the birth of Christ and the new creation which will result from his incarnation, death and resurrection.” (Page 18)