very boy of very boy

The Word for today:
Isaiah 50:4-51:16

mark this: Isaiah 50:4-7 --

The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue,
to know the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning,
wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.

The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears,
and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back.

I offered my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.

Because the Sovereign LORD helps me,
I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
and I know I will not be put to shame.

We are nearing chapter 53 of Isaiah, when Jesus will be crucified.
And thus in chapter 5o, despite knowing what awaits him, Jesus resolutely turns his face towards Jerusalem:
I offered my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face
from mocking and spitting. Because the Sovereign LORD helps me,
I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
and I know I will not be put to shame. (Isaiah 50:6-7)

On some levels, I can't relate to Jesus. Jesus is "very God of very God," the creed (1) states. I have no capacity to understand him on that level.

So that, Charlie Brown, is what Christmas is all about. God knew he had to express himself in terms we can understand, so he became one of us. The incarnation--the Word made flesh--is God expressing himself in the language of "us."

So under the wide and starry skies of Bethlehem, very God of very God became very man of very man. (Well, first he was very baby of very baby!)

As Jesus, God made the connection. He put things in terms we can understand:
Looking at his life, we understand what a heart is for: it was made to give away.
Looking at his life, we can picture what love looks like: it's shaped like a cross.
Looking at his death, we understand what sin is, when we see what it cost him to defeat it.

How did he get from Bethlehem to the cross? There are hints in our passage today.

We are told that every day in Nazareth, morning by morning, the boy listened to God's Word. He listened so attentively that he developed an ear to hear (Isaiah 50:4-5). And so day gave way to day.

Came the day when God's Word pointed to him. Then came the day it pointed him to the cross. He obeyed, and he never looked back (Isaiah 50:5), though he knew what awaited him; the beatings, the spittings, the disgrace. (Isaiah 50:6)

But the baby from Bethlehem, the boy from Nazareth, the man in Galilee set his face like flint for Jerusalem (Isaiah 50:7; Luke 9:51).

And--this can be hard to understand--he did it for the joy of it:
For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame. (Hebrews 12:2)

What joy?

You. His joy is to see you, redeemed and forever alive with him.

And he's getting a big kick out of you--"standing in the rain," morning by morning, your ears ever more open to the Word of God.

Sort of reminds him of those unclouded Nazareth mornings, when he was very boy of very boy.
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(1) from the Nicene Creed, 325 A.D., Christendom's most widely accepted statement of faith