Jesus is the greatest musician you can imagine. He can compose, play and sing so well that He makes the best talents sound like a menagerie.
Jesus is the greatest author you can imagine. His prose make Shakespeare and Wordsworth look like so many monkeys with so many typewriters.
Jesus was born in a small town where nothing ever happened. Maybe five hundred people lived in Nazareth in those days, and it's not mentioned in any extant history until four hundred years later. Jesus was born, not in first world comfort, not even in the meagre comforts of the first century, but in a stable, next to farm animals. He worked and lived in total obscurity for most of His life. Never wrote a book, never commanded an army, never won a war.
The Christmas story demands that we hold these things in tension, demands that we are amazed by the beauty of Jesus the God-man. Perhaps the most amazing thing is that these attributes were hidden for so long. When He preached in Nazareth He was treated like a blasphemer. The Gospels record no one saying 'well Jesus was pretty good at sports, so it makes sense that He'd be the Messiah.' In fact they tried to kill Him.
If it had been me born to Mary, things would have been different. There might have been an orchestra following me around, i certainly would have made my sporting prowess known. But not Jesus, just quiet, obscure obedience until the time came.
We should spend time this advent thinking about these things. Isaiah captures it well. Broadly speaking, the LORD of Isaiah 1-40 is coming in judgement, and the (same) LORD of 40-66 is coming in comfort. Which God can carry these apparent contradictions if not God incarnate?
Yes, Jesus is strong, mighty and powerful, He sits and rules at the right hand of the Father, He defeated death, amen and amen. He is glorious But He is also incarnate. Born in the middle of nowhere, and growing up there. He didn't come as the son of the Emperor's daughter, but to Mary.
This has to inform the way we think about ourselves, our faith, our church life, our interaction with culture...everything. We don't have to be first, best, cleverest. We don't need the lights to come up when we walk on stage, we don't need to 'win' the culture wars. That the God-man was a helpless baby, born of a virgin, and that He did it for you and me is a subversive and ridiculous idea outside the church, but for Christians, it changes everything.
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