Within the Stillness is Emmanuel

We are in the third week of Advent. The word Advent comes from the Latin for “to come”. The symbolism of the season is our waiting, our expectation for Emmanuel (Emmanuel is Hebrew for "God With Us"). We are in the season of “waiting for God to come and be with us”. Contemplative Christians like to wait in expectation for God within us - to lead us. Many Christians believe this indwelling spirit occurred first at Pentecost when the spirit of God rested on the apostles.

The eight nights I spent in Israel was a great occasion for me to celebrate our contemplative manner of worship. Whether at the Mount of Beatitudes (where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount) overlooking the Sea of Galilee or the 1600 year old Church of the Holy Sepulcher which contained the traditional sites of Calvary and the tomb of Christ, I spent much time in silence. Whether I was standing in the ruins of a the synagogue in Capernaum where Jesus proclaimed he was the Bread of Life, or where I sat in a cave near a wide open sheep field in Bethlehem, the site that celebrates the Angel of the Lord delivered the good news of the coming Christ to the lowly Shepherds, it is near silent there. In these moments, I communed with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit...and found truth. Truth being holy silence.

We don’t all believe the same things. But, we just choose to concentrate on the what we have in common. One of those those commonalities is our pursuit of the truth as communicated to us by God (in scripture, contemplation, people, circumstances). But, between all those truths that we are taught, we find silence. Silence is the foundation from which all truth comes - stillness was there first. It is the blank page on which the words are written. The fabric that holds the pattern. Everything springs from, and is contained in, the stillness.

Creation itself came from the silence: Genesis 1:1 talks about “the Spirit of God hovering over the still waters”. Later in scripture, the Israelites waited in expectation for the arrival of the Messiah during a long period of silence lasting centuries - they were waiting for the Advent of Emmanuel. Emmanuel, the Messiah, our Christ, was born during the "silent night" after this long period of quiet waiting. Let’s use this season to remind us of the importance of quiet or silent anticipation of God with us, Emmanuel. But also let us celebrate the silence that exists within (and between) each of those within the body of believers.

Do We Know What Jesus Looks Like? (It May Not Be What We Expect)

The Old Testament Book of Isaiah is sometimes referred to as the "fifth gospel". The traditional Gospels of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John describe the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Similarly, the Prophet Isaiah spoke of Jesus, but he did so 600 years before the Virgin Mary gave birth to him.

Isaiah 53:2-7 

He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 

Understandably, we focus a lot of attention on the latter verses of this passage which describe Jesus' crucifixion and our salvation bought by it. Much of the foundation of our faith is summarized there. But, the first few verses describe some very important aspects of Jesus as well. Unlike the traditional Gospels, Isaiah included a brief physical description of Jesus within those first couple of verses. Here, Isaiah describes a Creator God that came to earth, not as a handsome and majestic man with whom people were in awe. Rather, it details a humble person without beauty nor majesty; One who has an undesirable appearance. How many of us would do choose this appearance for our Lord (or for ourselves) if we had that option? The challenge of reality seems to cause us to attempt a type of recreation of the Creator (see related post: Making God Fit). 

We get an idea of exactly how we desire to see Jesus merely by looking at the movie portrayals of him. Those images seem to reflect the misguided importance we place on physical appearance. Most of the actors portraying Jesus in these movies have physical attributes that are more acceptable to us: well proportioned, handsome, and without any significant physical flaws (separately, but just as relevant, why do we insist that Jesus was light-skinned? As a middle-eastern Jew, he was quite certainly dark complexioned). 

Clearly, we feel better when Jesus is portrayed a particular way. But, it is worth asking the question whether we would be as accepting of an uncomely Jesus. What if he was disfigured? Would we hide our faces from him? Maybe our response wouldn't be this apparent. But, is it any wonder that our misplaced emphasis on physical beauty costs us so much (personally, psychologically, monetarily, ethically, societally) when God himself shows us the way by placing the emphasis elsewhere?