Christ and his cross

Christology: The Mystery of

Incarnation as the first act

of Crucifixion.

John 1: 1-2 “Before the world was created, the Word already existed; he was with God, and he was the same as God. From the very beginning the Word was with God.”

Christology is about the revelation of God through the incarnation of the Son - Jesus Christ. The mystery of incarnation is indeed unfathomable. That the eternal God became temporal; that the spirit assumes flesh, and that eternity entered into time and space. Soren Kierkegaard calls it as the “absolute paradox”, that the maker of Mary was formed in Mary’s womb. The event of incarnation was the biggest shock in human history where mystery became known and eternity entered time and made history. The eternal God was made flesh, born of a woman, lived among us and became one like us except sin. That is why even his own people did not accept him, instead, persecuted and killed him by hanging him on the Cross.
The incarnation of the Son is the kenosis of God. In Jesus the Trinitarian God assumed human reality (nature) for the sake of salvation. There were two genuine natures in Jesus as true man and true God (hypostatic union).
The difficulty of acceptance fell on the belief that God would never be confined into matter and form. Now, here is Jesus, being one like us conceived in matter and form claiming to be the Son of God, is truly unacceptable. Having a God with history, was a great scandal to a mentality and belief that has been lived and observed thousand years ago before his coming. As consequence, he was loved by the powerless and helpless but hated by the greater majority of educated Pharisees and scribes. He was rather considered by the lowly as one of the prophets of old like Isaiah and Jeremiah. By his preaching and teachings, he offered hope and new perspective of the future things like the kingdom of God. He projected and exercised authority and power over creation, sickness, and death by curing the sick, the lame, the blind, expelled demons and raising the dead into life. He made miracles and even commanded the wind and the raging sea, he walked above the water of Galilee, multiplied loaves and fish and fed thousands of people. He was indeed admired, loved and adored. But when he speaks of his being the Son of God he was called a blasphemer and a fool. At the end, however that very claim of him as the Son of God brought him to trial and finally to his death. In other words, the Jesus of history was never understood even by his close friends. His disciples who were with him, eating, walking and sleeping with him had failed to understand who was this man whom they called master, teacher, and lord. The proof of this were the admonition of Peter upon hearing his imminent fate in Jerusalem (Mt 16:22), their arguments about whom to sit on the right or on the left side which was clearly expressed with the favour being ask by the mother of James and John (Mt 20:21), and finally the disciples deserted him, leaving him alone to the road of passion until crucifixion manifested in the denial of Peter (Lk 22: 54-60). In his dying moment, Jesus recognized his being misunderstood when he speak “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing (Lk 23:34).” Therefore, I can say that in his life time, the Jesus of history was never understood. But his efforts were not put in vain. Jesus is the God of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the Son of God who reveals the identity of God by entering into history. He is the God of history and the God of eternity. After his death, his words began to murmur in the ears and in the hearts of the believers. At first they were afraid but the event that took place that early morning after three days clears all the doubts and remove all fears. The disciples went into the open and preach far more strongly than before for by this time things are as clear as the crystals to them – indeed Jesus is the Son of God. What happened then during the third day is know to us as the day of truth which is the Son triumph over death – the mystery of the Resurrection. The strength of the disciples was made possible because it was an effect of the fulfilment of the promise – a revelation of the Spirit.
Coming back again to his incarnation, his act of becoming man or by having flesh and blood is a form of dying from being God. St. Paul says to the Philippians that “He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to become equal with God. Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like man and appeared in human likeness. He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death – his death on the cross (Phil 2:6-8).” Jesus knew it very well even before the incarnation that denial and disbelief were the response of the people for him yet his obedience was done all through because of love.
His death on the cross which was perceived and believed by the people of his time as failure became in itself the victory. The life of Jesus did not end up there hanging on the cross. The suffering and pain that he underwent and even his death were all necessary for him to reveal the truth about himself. It was only through his resurrection that indeed the Jesus of history was recognized as the same Jesus of eternity, the Christ – meaning, the Son of the Father who existed before time and outside time and space. The divinity of the historical Jesus was then fully attained in his resurrection.

As for my experience of Jesus as the Son of God in history, it is clear through an experience of pain and suffering of death. However, the event of incarnation become more meaningful when I see it through the eyes of resurrection. It is just that when I speak of Jesus, I speak of his earthly existence as already God. I have this belief because I perceived Jesus as he is from his incarnation to passion, death and resurrection. It is not hard for me to believe in him because of the position where I am coming in - from the eyes of the Pascal Mystery.
The death of my father occasioned me to learn more about his story and history. I began to cherish every single memory. I kept remembering his words especially his thoughts and principles in life. Then I came to realized that I gained so many learnings from him. I also realized how especial he was to me. I began appreciating the years of his life and through his death I learned how necessary it was for him to die. Dying is a necessary part of living. But it was a death filled with meaning.
Looking at myself, there is also the sense of inner drive to find the desire of my heart. It’s about the search of meaning of my existence, of why I am here – my purpose driven life. Growing up as a normal creature of God, it is but natural for my emotional, psychological, and sociological nature to seek my place about where I really belong. The understanding of oneself is like discovering the identity of my existence. It is indeed very difficult but not impossible.
The pain of death as I experienced through the death of a loved one deepened my understanding of Jesus. It was through him that I have found a greater appreciation of life and it was through him that I have found the meaning of death. Indeed, pain was real but this pain was in itself a consolation. While it’s true that death is being into the deepest state of agony, there enters this higher level of hope and transforms pain into Christ’s cross. Agony became the reason for ecstasy. Ecstasy here means, a deeper sense of joy and peace being brought about by the very event of Jesus’ resurrection. Through the resurrection, the death pangs became birth pangs. Death became a necessary event in one’s life in order to reach a higher level of life.
However, while it is true that in resurrection the death pangs became birth pangs, in the incarnation, the birth pangs became death pangs. It means that in everything that enters in history and in time and space, there is limitation and the reality of “end” is but one of the characteristics of “time.” But in Jesus’ incarnation, he conquers time by entering into time. In his resurrection, he elevates our time-bound existence into eternal and timeless reality. Thus, it is through death that we enter into this elevation of human existence to divinely existence. His resurrection is therefore our resurrection and his life is our life. We are destined to God as it was manifested to us by Jesus Christ himself in the event three days after his death.
My heart is consoled when I think of my future destiny with Jesus Christ. His glorification and return to the Father are realities that I have to await until they will come in due time. What happened to him will also happen to me provided that I live a life according to his will and example.