Reflecting on the celebration of another Christmas Day, my thoughts linger on the opening stanza of William Chesterton Dix’s 19th Century lyrics to the 16th Century ballad “Greensleeves.” Indeed, what have we here? Both Luke and Matthew reported the testimony of Mary, Joseph and other witnesses, all of which expressed wonder at what they perceived to have occurred. For the disciple, John, the truth simply stated was that “the Word became flesh and lived among us.” Jn. 1:14)
Yet the question of this child’s very nature occupied the Christian intellectual communities, principally in Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople, for over 300 years until finally in 381 a political council in Constantinople settled on a Christian Creed, modifying the one agreed upon in Nicea 56 years earlier. The matter is settled. We recite the Creed. The church moves on. The narrative continues. Nothing to ponder. I wonder.
For 300 years after the death of Jesus Messiah an endless effort was made by religious intellectuals to deny the reality of what had occurred. Jesus was not real, but only an apparition (docetism). Jesus was not God incarnate, but was rather adopted by God at his baptism, like Moses, Abraham and other mortals (Adoptionism, Ebionism). Jesus of Nazareth was human until God entered into him and occupied his rational soul, making him less than human (Apollinarius). There were also the finer points of whether Jesus was two persons in one body (Nestorius) and whether Jesus was not eternally with the Father but created at some point in time to mediate between God and humankind (Arius).
What would the church be if any of these theologies, among others, had prevailed? What would our faith be if we had not listened and taken to heart the testimony of witnesses, concluding that God had come to be with us as humble human servant? Is our annual ritual sufficient to sustain our awe in reflection? I hope so. For in my mind the miracle of the child proceeds to the miracle of the resurrection.