Is God Revealed or Hidden in Christ?

John 1:1-14; Luke 1:46-55: “The Unassuming Presence of God”

As I was thinking about the Birth of Christ in Bethlehem, and how nobody would have suspected it. And, as I thought about the final day when Christ comes in the glory of God, I couldn’t help but think: nobody will suspect it either. Of course, we are told he will come in glory, but knowing God, it will be understated the way God does everything. Probably most of the world, and even God’s devoted followers will miss it. God is like that – very subtle.

We don’t have eyes and ears to hear the deep truths of God so often, nor are we able to suspect the unexpected ways of God in this world.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem,but who knew? Who would have known? And, he grew up among his people as the son of Mary and Joseph. His father was a carpenter. Not an important man in Israel. The wise men who were not Jews lucked into it, and found him. Besides that, just a few shepherds and animals saw the glory of the birth of God’s Son.

Sometimes we might wonder, “why does God make such subtle appearances? Why doesn’t God make his appearances real clear so that nobody can be mistaken? If God really wanted to be known, why didn’t he choose Rome or Assyria or Egypt – some great nation as his chosen people, instead of choosing the Hebrew people? Why does God make such subtle appearances, so that you might perceive it is God,but then again you might miss it altogether.

And, what about the resurrection appearances? Weren’t those clear? Well, really. Jesus is walking right beside two of his followers on the Road to Emmaus, and they don’t recognize him – and, they don’t even realize who they had been talking to until he has broken bread at the table with him and he disappears. And, what about Mary thinking he was the gardener when she was right beside his empty tomb?
All I can answer is that God is like that. As Karl Barth once said: “God reveals himself in hiddenness.”

I know that you can tune into many channels and go to many churches in which preachers will tell you how plain it all is, and how God makes himself known as clear as day, but the truth is: God doesn’t seem to be that way at all. Or, at least not the God we know in Jesus Christ.

Jesus thanked God that he hid himself from the wise and revealed himself to the simple. Jesus also told those he had healed not to spread the word about being healed by him.

And, for a religion that claims that the ultimate revelation of God is in the crucifixion of Jesus, we ought to wake up to the strangeness of that revelation, and that it has something real important to tell us about God. Because, no one would guess or think that an instrument of torture would be a symbol of God’s ultimate revelation on earth.

I have to confess: I love the strange ways of God, even though I get turned around and confused by it at times. I love that God honored above all humans the one who was humiliated by the powers of the world, because that one human, Jesus, was true to God and truly loved human beings. To me, it just strikes a chord so deep and assures me that it is the story that is really true – so strange it must be true – nobody could have made this one up.

And, I have to confess I give thanks everyday that God chooses to stand with the weak and the poor and challenges the ways of the strong and the rich.

God reveals his truth in a quiet kind of way. If you are wanting a big show and all that, well, God will probably not appeal to you (lots of brand of religion might, but not the true God), because God is simply not that way. Our God is just so humble. It is almost ridiculous how humble the Creator of all is. But, God is. He came among his own and his own received him not.

What more can I say about this than that it makes me so thankful, so happy to be a creature of this God. This God, who thought so much of us and well, didn’t think too much of himself, that he gave of himself to bring Jesus, his Son into the world in Bethlehem just over 2,000 years ago and gave and gave and gave of himself even unto the death of his Son on the cross, and continues to give of God’s very self to sustain and heal the world today. God has come among us, and though we tried to cast him out, he has found a place among us, a quiet and unassuming presence – imagine that, the living God, who is with us in such a humble way.

I ask you to bow prayerfully as you listen to the song of Mary, words from the Apostle Paul, and words from John’s Gospel, about the mystery of God coming in Jesus, the Christ.

Mary's Song:

My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden,
For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm:
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree.
He has filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich He has sent empty away.
He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy;
As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His posterity forever.

Paul's Words to the Corinthians:

21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

From the Gospel of John:

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and yet, the world did not receive him. He came to his own people, and his own people did not receive him. . . The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

“He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and yet, the world did not receive him. He came to his own people, and his own people did not receive him.” I can’t get any closer to the heart of the mystery of God’s humility than that. I can’t say it any better than John did so long ago. “He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet, the world could find no place for him and cast him out. He came to his own people, the Jews, and they could not find a place for him, and cast him out.”

This one is our Christ, the Christ of the world. This one is the Word made flesh, who dwelt among us full of grace and truth.

And, to come to celebrate this subtle appearance of the living God; to come to celebrate what surprises and defies human calculation and expectation, is to welcome the Christ and claim a place for him on this earth and in our midst and in our hearts. And, to come and celebrate the humble ways of our God that defy the ways of human power and pride, is to claim not just a place for Jesus the Christ, but to claim the best place for him in our world, in our homes and in our hearts. For, he is the opposite of kings and presidents and prime ministers and generals and dictators and corporate executives – thank God. And, his ways are ways of peace in a violent world; his ways are ways of humility in an arrogant world; his ways are ways of mercy in a world that loves to blame and condemn. And, we have to confess: “his ways are not our ways,” but by God’s grace maybe day by day, our ways will become more like his ways. Amen.