What Child Is This? (Part 1)

We are now in the season of Christmastide, the twelve days that stretch from Christmas to Epiphany, the conclusion to (in the modern age) a month-long celebration surrounding a certain story. The story of a baby born in Bethlehem; a baby who was born in a stable and laid in a manger; this baby who would be proclaimed by angels; adored by shepherds; sought out by wise men from afar. 

What was so special about this child? Why was his birth so important that thousands of years later it is still cause for joy and celebration? What was it that the shepherds and the wise men came to see? An old Christmas song puts the whole question in these words: “What child is this who laid to rest/On Mary's lap is sleeping?/Whom angels greet with anthems sweet/While shepherds watch are keeping?” A cliché of the church says: Keep Christ in Christmas. But who is Christ and why was He in Christmas in the first place? What child is this? In this and the following article, I want to look at the answer to that question, looking specifically at the names which are given to this baby as a revelation to who He was and who He is.

And the first name we have to look at is the most obvious; it was the actual name which He commonly used; it was the name on His birth certificate, if you will--the name given to both His father and His mother before His birth via angelic proclamation: the name “Jesus.”

And we have to keep something in mind. The name Jesus has for us taken on a special meaning because of all Jesus was and did. But when He was born, it was just a common, ordinary name. Jesus as a person was special and unique. But the name Jesus is not special or unique. There was some stir a few years ago because somebody claimed to have found the tomb of Jesus because it was a tomb inscribed “Jesus the Son of Joseph.” The problem is that Joseph and Jesus were both such common names among first-century Jews that there would have been dozens of Jesuses the sons of Joseph.

The name had a special meaning--it means Salvation of Jehovah and it was the name of one of Hebrews great heroes; Jesus is another form of the name Joshua--in that way, it connected to the nature and the mission of Jesus, but at its base, it was just an ordinary name. No one would have thought it odd that Mary and Joseph named their son Jesus. There was no need for that name to have been brought by angels. It was just a common name for someone who, from a human point of view, was just a common man.

There was another name given him which makes the same point, perhaps more so. Everyone remembers Bethlehem, the city of Jesus' birth. It was a city of great tradition, the birthplace of David, Israel's great king. But remember that Jesus didn't live in Bethlehem for very long. We don't know the exact chronology of events, but we know Mary and Joseph fled from Bethlehem to Egypt to avoid the wrath of Herod, and then, once that threat had been eliminated, they returned to their home town. Matthew 2:23 records this: “And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.” It was in Nazareth, in the area of Galilee, that Jesus grew up; it was here that he came to manhood. For something like thirty years of his life, he lived in this very ordinary, even backwater town in northern Israel. Because of this, he was called Jesus of Nazareth or The Nazarene.

Nazareth was not a well-known or respected place. It was not on the “Top Ten Places to live in Israel” list. By in large, the people of Judea, the area around Jerusalem, looked down on the area of Galilee; they were the less cultured, less well-spoken, less pure Jews, farther away from the temple and closer to the Gentiles; they were the country bumpkins of Israel. And there seems to have been some special reproach centered on the town of Nazareth, since when Philip told Nathanael about Jesus, Nathanael (who was from Galilee himself) responded: “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46) We don't know exactly why or how strongly this feeling was felt, but it worth noting that what little we know about Nazareth from the gospels do not put the town in a good light.

For Jesus to be called a Nazarene was to identify Him with an ordinary and even despised little town in Galilee. It was not a title of distinction or approbation. At worst, it was something like an insult and at best it was nothing special.

And that closely connects to another name of Jesus, one which He chose himself. Over and over, Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man. One famous example would be Matthew 8:20, where Jesus says: “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”

In Hebrew thought, to call someone the son of something or someone means to identify them with that. So, if you want to call someone worthless, you would call them a son of worthlessness; if you want to call them wicked, you could call them a son of wickedness. (Psalm 89:22) So, by the same logic, the son of man is another way of saying man; it is another way of expressing the idea of humanity. It is used in this way several times in the Bible, especially in the books of poetry.

It is the nature of a world that a thing can only naturally produce something like itself. A fish can only hatch a fish. A bird can only lay a bird's egg. The son of man is always a man. And Jesus was the son of a man, or at least of a woman.

All of which is to say that Jesus was human. He was a human being just like anyone else. Born in the same way (aside from his miraculous conception), given a common, ordinary name, growing up in an ordinary town, and living (for most of his life) an ordinary life. He was a son of man. There is a simple pathos in the verse I just quoted, where Jesus not only identifies himself as the son of man, but as sharing in common, everyday problems. Like all humans, He had the basic problem of finding shelter, of having somewhere to live. And because of His itinerant lifestyle as a traveling rabbi, He did not really have a place to live; for the years of His ministry, He did not truly have a home.

Not only was he a man, but the prophet Isaiah referred to him as the Man of Sorrows. (Isaiah 53:3) Jesus's life was not, from a human perspective, an especially happy one (at least the period of it that we know about). He had a more than ample share of problems and troubles. He went hungry and thirsty; He had sleepless nights and days of toil; He was rejected by his countrymen and betrayed by His friend. The people of His own hometown tried to throw Him over a cliff and His own half-brothers tried to get Him shut up as a madman. Even His own disciples never seemed to truly understand Him and they all failed Him at His greatest need.

Jesus was a special person, prophesied by angels and proclaimed by shepherds; and yet He did not live some sort of charmed life, free from the ordinary problems and troubles of mankind. In fact, the exact opposite is true. There are many people who have a much better, a much happier life than He had. He was not some kind of spirit, walking on earth in human disguise. He was truly human and knew all the grief and trouble that went with that. He was truly a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs.

And because of that, he has two special names.

St. Paul calls Jesus The Last Adam. (1 Corinthians 15: 45) At the beginning of human history, the first Adam, the head of the human family, the progenitor of all mankind, sinned and so brought death and destruction into the world. All those who are sons of Adam, all those who are sons of man, have known pain and grief and ultimate mortality, because that is the inheritance bequeathed us by Adam. He failed in his great test and so became the father of failure. Ashes and dust, the lingering scent of failure, is all that is left of the first Adam.

But Paul saw Jesus as a second Adam, as the Last Adam. He was, like Adam, a human being and bore all the trouble and frustration which all humans experience--made like us in all things except sin. But where Adam failed, Jesus did not fail. Adam disobeyed the command of God, but Jesus was obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Jesus was what Adam should have been. Jesus was the only man to ever live a fully sinless life, and so He was the only one to live a fully human life; He is what God intended mankind to be.

And yet, as grand as that is, it cannot be separate from another fact about Jesus, another name of Jesus. In Matthew 11:19 Jesus speaks of the criticisms which the people of his day gave to him, saying that they called him “A friend of publicans and sinners.” The name was given in insult, but it was a true name. Jesus truly was the friend of sinners.

Jesus lived a morally perfect life and He never was afraid to call out the sin and injustice of his world, and yet He was nonetheless a friend of sinners. He was willing to associate with the lowest of the low of his society. He was willing to be cast with the outcasts; He freely touched the untouchables. He was willing to associate with them and they were willing, even eager to associate with Him. He was the friend of sinners.

He did not come as an angel above men, calling out judgment. Nor did He come as a spirit within men, mildly and imperceptibly influencing them. He came as the friend of sinners; as a Man like them who could sit and talk and eat with them, and yet who was without sin.

He was the son of man, Jesus of Nazareth, an ordinary, commonplace man from an ordinary, commonplace town, fully sharing in the troubles and sorrows of mankind, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He wasn't a ghost or an angel or a spirit or a phantom, but somebody just like us. And so, He could be the true and final Adam, the true and final man, fulfilling in Himself the destiny of man. And so, by the same token, He could be the friend of sinners. He could share in their sorrows and griefs, even though He did not share in their sin. The writer to the Hebrews put it this way: “Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.” (Hebrews 2:17-18)

But for all that, there is another side to this. There are other names of Jesus which are also important. I mentioned that Jesus often called himself the Son of Man. But he had another name. The name “Jesus” connects to His humanity; but when the angel told Mary that name, he would go on to give Him another name, saying that He “shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35)

And He was called that—by His disciples, by His enemies, even by demons. At the moment of His death, a Roman centurion, a stranger (assumably) to Jesus and to the Jewish traditions, breathed out: “Truly this man was the Son of God.” (Mark 15:39)

During his trial, the high priest charged Jesus under oath to answer one question: “Tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.” And Jesus answered: “Thou hast said [or, it is as you say] nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” (Matthew 26:63-64) Notice what Jesus says there. Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of man, but in the same breath, accepts the title of the Son of God.

If the son of man is a man, then the son of God is God. If the term 'son of man' is synonymous with humanity, then the term 'Son of God' is synonymous with divinity. For Jesus to call Himself the Son of God was to put Himself on an equal footing with God. That was why the Jews accused Him of blasphemy and sent Him to death--because He had made this claim to be God. Even earlier in his ministry, this issue came up. After healing the man at the pool of Bethesda, Jesus had spoken of God as his father, and the Jews sought to kill him, because He said “that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” (John 5:18)

For Jesus to say that he was the Son of God and that God was His Father was to make himself equal with God. Everything that God has, Jesus has. Everything that God is, Jesus is. Any attribute or characteristic we can ascribe to God, we can ascribe to Jesus. Jesus was and is God, of one nature with the Father, true God of True God, light from light eternal. When we use the word 'God' in a sentence, we can just as well put in 'Jesus' and it would mean the same thing. Everything that God is, Jesus is. He was the Son of Man but he was just as truly the Son of God.

But the Bible gives him another name which testifies to this but from a different angle. We know the Christmas story from Matthew and Luke, but John also begins his gospel with his own version of that story: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-3, 14) John is quite clearly referring to Jesus as the Word of God.

This repeats the idea of divinity, for John clearly says that the Word IS God. But it is significant that John calls him the WORD of God. A word is an expression of someone. The only way you can really know what someone is thinking is by listening to what they say. What a person says (and does) is the revelation of who they are. It is an external showing of what exists internally.

And so to say that Jesus is the Word of God is to say that He is a revelation, an expression of who God is. John repeats this idea a few verses later when he says: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” (John 1:18) Shortly before his death, Jesus told his disciples: “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” (John 14:9)

God is a speaking God. The God of scripture is one who willingly reveals Himself to man, from the first moment when He walked in the garden with Adam. God has always opened the conversation. But His Word is not merely something abstract; not something just out there to be discussed and dissected. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus was the word of God.

And because he was the revelation of God, “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,” (Hebrews 1:3) any name of God is also His name. So, Jesus is often called Lord. The phrase “Jesus Christ the Lord” in some form or another is found over and over throughout the New Testament. The term 'Lord' in Greek means master or one in authority and it is equivalent to the Hebrew term 'Adonai', a common name of God in the Old Testament.

To say that Jesus is Lord means that He has the full power and authority of God. He has all the rights and prerogatives of God because he is God. We see this throughout the course of His life. Over and over again, we see Him exercising authority over mankind, over natural forces, even over evil spirits. In every situation, He was always in complete control. We see this even in the events of His death. Though from the human standpoint, He was a victim, yet in another sense, He was still Lord even in the midst of that dark hour. We see this in the moment of His arrest, as described by John: When the soldiers came seeking, Jesus asked them who they were looking for: “They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. ... As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.” (John 18:5-6) This is not a picture of a helpless man being overcome by insurmountable pressure. Jesus was still Lord, even in that moment.

But notice exactly what He said to them: who it was He said He was: I AM. Though it was a natural thing for Jesus to say under the circumstances, there is reason to understand it as having a great significance. That name 'I AM' was the most sacred name of God; the name which God gave to Moses at the burning bush. We translate it Jehovah, but nobody knows how it was truly pronounced, because the Jews in reverence would never say it. That was why the soldiers, these strong, brave, well-armed soldiers stepped back in terror before a single unarmed peasant. Because He calmly and with perfect dignity had claimed to be the I AM, the God of Moses, the eternal, self-existent God who made all things and by whom all things consist. It is no wonder they were momentarily scared.

Jesus was the Son of God, the revelation of who God is, the Lord and Master of all things, the eternal I AM. He was God walking upon the earth; the Word made flesh; in whom dwelled all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9) And yet He was also, just as truly, the Son of Man. He knew all the splendor and glory of heaven yet he also knew all the squalor and sorrow of earth. All of which brings us to one final name which Jesus has: Emmanuel.

When the angel appeared to Joseph to tell him about Jesus' birth, it referenced the prophecy of Isaiah of a baby called Emmanuel which means “God-with-us.” And that name was truly the proper name for Jesus for He was truly God-with-us. That is to say, He was truly God. He wasn't simply similar to God or a remote approximation of God. He was literally and completely God so that every name and attribute and prerogative of God is also a name and attribute and prerogative of Jesus. And He was truly “with us” He did merely appear to be man; He wasn't a symbol of mankind. He was truly man, born of a woman, with a specific human name and growing up in a specific human town. He was fully human.

That is who He was; that is who He is--and that is why Christmas is so important. That is what makes this story so special; that is what makes Jesus so special. The existence of God is a true doctrine but it is not especially exciting. The birth of a baby is a good thing, but it is not especially meaningful. But one night in Bethlehem, those two things conjoined. The Word which was in the beginning became flesh. God became man. Eternity entered time and Heaven was born upon the earth. Jesus truly was Emmanuel; God become man, without losing any of his deity and without losing any of humanity. He commanded men and demons with the authority of a king and withered trees and raised the dead with the power of the most high; and yet He ate and drank and slept like any other son of man.

Many people have pointed to one particular story as showing this contrast is full relief. There was a moment on the sea of Galilee where Jesus brought an entire storm to a sudden and complete halt with a single, simple command--the sovereign command of God. And yet brief moments before that, He had been sleeping in the boat, the tired sleep of man. For he was Emmanuel; God with us; God with man. God walking our streets and eating our food; living with us and dying with us.

Christmas is not about a platitude; not about some timeless truth decked out in tinsel to make it fresh. It is about an event; about a person like no person before or after; about a birth unlike any other birth. Christmas is about Jesus. But who was Jesus? Why should we try to keep Christ in Christmas? Because He was Emmanuel; He was God with us. If He had been merely God, He could never really have solved the problems of Man. God could never in a full sense have been a friend of sinners. Only man could fulfil man's destiny. If He had been merely man, He would have been no different from anyone else. A mere man could not have been the revelation of God. Only God could reveal God's plan. That was why they called Emmanuel; because He was God and He was Man. And because of that, he could be both the Lord of all things and the friend of sinners; He could be both the dying sacrifice and the resurrection and the life; because He belonged to both earth and heaven, He could build a bridge between them.

I began this article by talking about the carol “What Child is This?” It answers its own question in words which clearly paint a picture of who Christ was; both God and Man: “Why lies he in such mean estate?/Where ox and lamb are feeding?/Good Christians, fear,/For sinners hear,/The silent Word is pleading/This, this is Christ the King,/Whom shepherds guard and angels sing/Haste, haste, to bring him laud/The babe, the son of Mary.”