in chapter two of The Jesus I Never Knew, yancey looks at the christmas story...it is a different look at the story...an intriguing look...
here are a few thoughts and quotes...
he talks again about images...images of Jesus...the images that we see at christmas time...
"Inside, the cards stress sunny words like love, goodwill, cheer, happiness, and warmth. It is a fine thing, I suppose, that we honor a sacred holiday with such homey sentiments. And yet when I turn to the gospel accounts of the first Christmas, I hear a very different tone and sense mainly disruption at work."
"If Jesus came to reveal God to us, then what do I learn about God from that first Christmas?
The word associations that come to mind as I ponder that question take me by surprise. Humble, approachable, underdog, courageous - these hardly seem appropriate words to apply to deity."
yancey then goes on to talk about each of these four descriptors...
humble...
"That God is little, that is the truth which Jesus taught man. The God who roared, who could order armies and empires about like pawns on a chessboard, this God emerged in Palestine as a baby who could not speak or eat solid food or control his bladder, who depended on a teenager for shelter, food, and love."
approachable...
"What can be less scary than a newborn with his limbs wrapped tight against his body? In Jesus, God found a way of relating to human beings that did not involve fear."
underdog...
"Growing up, Jesus' sensibilities were affected most deeply by the poor, the powerless, the oppressed - in short, the underdogs."
courageous...
"It took courage to risk descent to a planet known for its clumsy violence, among a race known for rejecting its prophets. What more foolhardy thing could God have done?"
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