The Incarnation and the Jesus Ethic
Understanding the full significance of Jesus’ birth is difficult because too many Christians have been inoculated against the startling applications of Jesus’ birth story. Christians often blame nebulous forces of secular appropriation for undermining the Christian practice of Christmas. However, it may be that the Church has been complicit—if not responsible for—the taming of the Incarnation.
While I love a Christmas pageant as much as anybody, the church pageant is a good example of how Christians have changed Jesus’ birth from a call to live a transformed life into a safe and sweet story. It is undeniably adorable when a six-year-old sings “Gloria in excelsis deo!” but all too often the cuteness is accompanied by a reduction of Christmas to a saccharine story of God’s love meant to make us feel warm and fuzzy.
When Christians dig deeper into the Christmas narrative, it is usually to underline just how much Jesus loves us. Why else would he choose to become a baby born into a lowly family in unsanitary conditions? And of course, God does loves us, so that is all good in so far as it goes. Too often, though, the warm feelings around Christmas obscure the radical implications of what the Incarnation means for how we live. Christians get as far as “Jesus loves us very much” and go no further
The issue is not that God’s love is a misreading of the Christmas story. Rather, the issue is that true love always costs something. In fact, the Jesus Ethic is built upon the foundation of Jesus’ love. Self-sacrifice is only possible because of love. Without love, self-sacrifice is merely manipulation.
A Christian who wants to fully understand the Christmas story must understand that the Incarnation reveals Jesus love and establishes an “upside kingdom” ethic, what I call the Jesus Ethic, that asks, How can I/we give from what I have or want so that someone else can experience life and goodness?
Jesus’s birth embodies this ethic. Consider how He took the form of a helpless baby, born to an insignificant family from nowhere in conditions that were unpleasant. Yes, we see Jesus’ love on display in his self-sacrifice to be become human. And in so doing, Jesus establishes by example that He is willing to give up everything for our good. Thus, the story of Christmas is one that should not only remind us of God’s love for us, but also challenge us that to be Christians is to live like Jesus who gave up everything to be born for us.
When Christmas celebrations focus solely on the love God has for us, the impact of Christmas is truncated. Christmas should be both a cause of celebration and a call to self-sacrifice as a part of our ongoing commitment to the Jesus Ethic.
This Christmas, a variation on St. James’ words in James 2:18 may be appropriate: “Show me your Christmas celebration without sacrifice and I will show you my Christmas celebration by my sacrifices.”