Eric's Beijing Diary

Christmas in China. Friday evening, Christmas was naturally the favored topic of conversation at the English Corner. Everyone asked me how I was going to celebrate Christmas. I told them that I was going to be going to a Christmas program at the church. I happened to have some of the little friendship cards from the church so I showed them the card. One of them held it up and tried to read the little verse that is printed on the card, but he got stuck. I took the card and tried to read it also, but it was just too dark. Several people used their cell phones as flashlights to assist me:

"For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life."

After I finished reading, someone said, "Now translate it."

"It's already in English."

"But what does it mean."

I said, "Well, you know, this really is the story of Christmas in a nutshell."

I guess I had never thought of John 3:16 as a Christmas text, but in a sense, it really is the most complete one. I explained to them that Christmas is about God giving his Son as a gift to lost humanity.

Saturday evening I attended a beautiful Christmas program put on by a local house church. They had rented an auditorium at a local hotel. The program contained lots of singing, with skits which portrayed contemporary themes in a Biblical context. It was very well done. The best part, I think was a little dramatization of the story of the Prodigal Son. Although this is not generally thought of as a Christmas story, it really added to the presentation. It was evident that the laobaixing around me had little or no religious background. The story was quite overwhelming for them. The audience was very moved by the final scene, when the devastated son returns to his father. After the play was over, the pastor invited people in the audience to come up to the front if they wanted to receive the forgiveness that God offers us through Jesus Christ. Many people left their seats and streamed to the front of the auditorium.

Sunday was Christmas. The big day. I went to Church in the morning. Fortunately, I have been going to the early service, so I was able to get a seat without too much trouble. It was a nice service, but I was a bit amused to see all the helpers dressed in Santa Claus suits.

Sunday afternoon I had a Christmas party at my apartment. I shared a brief meditation from Isaiah 9:6. This verse is perhaps the most comprehensive messianic prophecy:

"For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (NRSV--Standard English Bible used in Three Self Churches)

Jesus is a child born, and Jesus is son given. He is a child born because he is truly man. He is a son given because he is eternal God. In discussing the nature of Christ, and who He is, we say that Jesus had two natures, separate and distinct. We say separate, because Jesus was not half man and half God. He was all man and all God. And we say distinct, because Jesus was man, and man is not God. And Jesus was God, and God is not man. Jesus is man. This is his humanity. Jesus is God. This is his divinity. As to his humanity, he is a child born. As to his divinity, he is a Son given. Religious cults have trouble with the divinity of Jesus. They don't believe that Jesus was (and is) God. But Christians sometimes have trouble with the humanity of Christ. One went so far as to say that Mary was just an incubator. This, of course, is an extreme reaction to Catholic teaching--an attempt to say that Mary had no part in who Jesus was. Another preacher I heard, in trying to emphasize that Jesus was not sinful, made the comment that "Jesus did not have a human nature." This is well intentioned, but very wrong. Jesus was not just God in human form. He was also man in human form. The book of Matthew gives the genealogy of Joseph, showing Christ's authentic position as the legal heir to the throne of David. But the book of Luke gives the genealogy of Mary, showing that Jesus, as a human being, was a descendent of David. Romans 1 says that Jesus was "made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness." He was made of the seed of David, because man is created. But he was declared to be the Son of God because God is not created.

The second great truth in this text concerns the mission of Jesus. The government(authority) will rest upon His shoulders. Jesus was born to rule. In prophecy, we see two pictures of the Christ. One is as a man who came to save his people. A servant. A common man. A shepherd. The other is a picture of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Jews tend to focus on the second picture, and completely miss the first. That is why they do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Chaim Potok writes about the Hassidim (Jewish pietists) in New York. In one of his books, called My Name is Asher Lev, the main character, a child protege who is a budding artist, develops a fascination for the crucifixion of Christ as a subject for art. (I recommend this book, but if you read it, you should first read ,The Chosen and The Promise. You will need the background.) The book focuses around the scandal created in the Jewish community by a young Jewish artist (Asher Lev) who likes to paint the crucifixion. His fascination began one day when he was a small child walking down the street with his mother. He sees a painting of the Passion in a store window, and is transfixed by the image. He asks his mother who it is. His mother explains to him that this is Jesus.

"But who is he?"

"The Goyim (Gentiles) say that he is the Messiah."

"Is he?

At this point, his mother laughs, "Of course not! Would the world be in such a mess if the Messiah had come?"

This conversation epitomizes the classic Jewish perspective. The Jews are looking for a Messiah to come and "make the world right." They are looking for the second coming, but they have completely missed the first. Christians, on the other hand, focus on the first coming (especially at Christmas), but they sometimes miss the fact that in the end, the Jews are right. Jesus is coming to rule. Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The wise men rightly asked, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews?" Jesus was born a king. And though he came first in humility and lowliness, some day he will rule the world with a rod of iron. The Millennium will be an age of righteousness. Today we are not living in the day of righteousness. We are living in the day of grace. This is why God allows evil. And this is why we say, "Would you like to receive Jesus Christ into your life, and the forgiveness that is offered through Him?" But in the Millennium we will not ask people, "Would you like to accept the righteous authority of King Jesus?" Jesus will rule in righteousness, and sin and corruption will have to flee.

The last great truth presented here concerns the character of God that we see in Christ Jesus. The New Revised Standard Version, which is the version used in the standard bilingual bible in China, starts by referring to Jesus as a "Wonderful Counselor." I don't like this, because it implies that the word "wonderful" is merely an adjective that describes "counselor." This is incorrect. "Wonderful" here refers directly to Jesus. It is an attribute of Christ, and the kind of person he is, that deserves to be examined by itself. Jesus is wonderful. It's not hard, because the word means the same thing in Hebrew as it does in English. Everything that comes to your mind when you think of someone being wonderful applies to Jesus. The Scripture says that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made." Same basic word. Jesus is ultimate goodness.

Jesus is our Counselor. He is both willing and able to give us the guidance and encouragement we need in every area of our lives. So in the coming of Jesus, we see not only a perfect man who offered himself up for us. We have a friend who is always with us. There is no problem that is beyond His interest. There is nothing we could bring to Him that He would not be willing to give us advice about. Jesus is called "Mighty God." This means that He is not only willing to help us, he is able to help us. We have many counselors who can commiserate with us about our problems. Some of these "counselors" may be working through their own troubles vicariously by commiserating with us. But others are genuinely sincere friends who really feel sorry for us, but who are no more able than us to find the answer. Jesus always knows the answer. And He is always more than willing to guide us.

Sometimes we are tempted to think of Jesus as sort of a representative of Almighty God. But this text tells us that Jesus himself is "Mighty God." If He were not, he would still be able to commiserate with us. He might still be able to encourage us. But in the end, He would not be able to fix our problem. But in Jesus, we have a helper who has the power to move mountains from their foundations and put them in the middle of the ocean. And He has offered to do this for us if we just ask Him.

He is also called "Eternal Father," or more literally, "Father of Eternity." Sometimes this verse has been applied falsely to establish the position of Jesus in the Godhead. This is understandable (given the King James), but mistaken. What the Scripture is saying here is that Jesus is eternal by his very nature. His is not eternal by the action of someone else. That would be true of us. We are going to live forever because of God's mercy. But it would not be, and is not true of Jesus. Jesus is eternal in and of Himself. He is very God of very God. Eternity exists because of Him. In Bible we read that the devil is "a liar, and the father of it." In much the same sense, we can say that Jesus is eternal, and the Father of eternity.

And I really like the last part. Prince of Peace. In my college years, I studied Public Administration. Since those days, I have been a student of government. During the years that I was fighting corruption in the Social Service system in North Dakota, I was a lobbyist at the North Dakota State Legislature. Throughout all my experiences with government, I have noticed that no matter what kind of political system you may have, government enforces the Biblical statement that "the crooked way cannot be made straight." But Jesus is a Prince who will bring righteousness and peace. Righteousness because of His character, and peace because righteousness eventually eliminates the need for conflict and war. When Jethro advised Moses, he told him to choose men who "hate dishonest gain" (NRSV). Can you imagine how different this world would be if every political personality had this character quality? Righteousness produces peace. And Jesus, as a righteous ruler, will be the Prince of Peace. Amen and amen.