“Tented for Us”: The Mystery of Christmas
Introduction
Recently I stated that the renewal of Western Christianity depends on a “tent dwelling” spirituality “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” (Heb 11:9-10). Since most Australian believers are “in love with this present world” (2 Tim 4:10) they have lost a sense of biblical proportion and have become ineffective for the kingdom of God. Such short-sightedness (2 Pet 1:9) can be healed by a deeper meditation on the Christmas miracle. Meditation not on the sweet cushy familiar nativity scene but upon the bodily reality of the newly incarnated Son of God.
Pitching a Tent
The event of the Incarnation is described in scandalous language. Literally, “the Word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us. We looked upon His glory, the glory of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 TLV). We are accustomed to the idea that the eternal God became “flesh”, a substance of itself weak, mortal and useless (John 3:6; 6:63). “Tabernacled” however literally means that God “pitched a tent” in our midst. This sounds very unspectacular because there is nothing quite so impermanent and perishable as a tent. The Old Testament tent=tabernacle was a mobile shrine in which the glory of Israel resided temporarily (Num 14:10; 2 Sam 7:6). Only later would a coming son of David build the Lord a house which would never perish (2 Sam 7:13, 16). The transition from tent to Temple is the Way in which creation reaches its ultimate goal. A purpose intimated by the Lord walking in the midst of Eden (Gen 3:8) but fully unveiled in the final visions of Revelation. ““Behold, the tabernacle of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” (21:3). The transition from fragile tent to eternal Temple is the revelation of the history of the residency of Jesus for us.
The Mystery of the Great Exchange
The secret of how dust-made creatures become members of God’s “forever” household is symbolically laid out in the holiness-creating rituals of the old covenant. The pinnacle of Israel’s calendar is the Day of Atonement when the house of God is cleansed by bloody sacrifice (Lev 16) and the people and the land are made holy (Lev 17-27). Sacrificial death is how the ordinary becomes “holy” and habitable by the eternal holy God (Lev 11:44). Within the Old Testament framework this is a return to Edenic like state of the divine presence, but through Jesus something much more dramatic comes. The wisdom, love and power of God will transform the Son’s tent-body into an eternal dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Eph 2:22; 2 Cor 6:16) through self-willed destruction. God will build himself a house by an act completely incomprehensible to the natural mind, he will destroy his original residence.
Not Made with Hands
After Jesus’ first visit to the Jerusalem Temple and his vigorous cleansing of its unholy practices (John 2:13-16), Christ’s disciples remembered the prophecy, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” (John 2:17; Ps 69:9). The Lord himself explained what his bodily destruction would bring about, ““Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”….he was speaking about the temple of his body.” (John 2:19, 21). In recording the mockeries at the cross Mark expands Jesus’ testimony, ““We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’”” (14:58). The revelation of the mystery of God’s saving plan is that Messiah will ascend to God’s holy place (Ps 24:3) within the heavenly temple (Rev 21:3) by the cleansing blood shed on the cross and through the glorification of the tent of his body. Jesus flimsy mortal tent-body became an eternal house “not made with hands” because the eternal God now dwells without limit in a human being of supreme lowliness and humility (Isa 57:15; 66:1-2). Christ’s humility embraced self-willed destruction for our glorification (Phil 2:5-11).
Paul understood this Way as he speaks of final judgement on deeds “done in the body”, when he says, “if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor 5:1, 10). Peter’s life-direction was likewise framed through an understanding of the form of present bodily life as temporary for future glory. “I know that the putting off of my tent will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me” (2 Pet 1:14). Tent minded men and women experience the supernatural resurrection power that transformed Jesus lowly body into a glorious body fit to be the eternal dwelling of the Father (Phil 3:10, 21). Choosing to enter humanity’s lowliness for the sake of a later miraculous transformation is the mystery of God’s ways that shine through Incarnation. Few willingly embrace this difficult Way.
Seeing through Inversion
The Christmas illumination typifies the upside-down ways of God with his people. Those chosen first to sense the measureless incarnational glory were the adoring shepherds. They saw with Elisha that those with us vastly outnumber those against us (2 Ki 6:16). (See the stunning cosmic image at https://bonnellart.com/ .) The shepherds were not clean and tidy well-dressed but “tent-dwelling” people but typified the poor in “shabby clothing” who are given to be “rich in faith” and heirs of God’s kingdom (James 2:2,5). The Lord typically chooses folk at the bottom of a social hierarchy of power and privilege (cf. 1 Cor 1:27-29.) to lead them on the way of his Son. On this Way we become more what Jesus became through his earthly journey, mobile priests and living sacrifices (Rom 12:1; 2 Tim 4:6) destined to be temples of unlimited eternal glory (2 Cor 5:1). I sense we will soon see an outstanding elevating move of the Lord in the days ahead amongst disregarded young people, refugees and Indigenous Australians.
Conclusion
A theologian memorably said, “The virgin birth was not a breath-taking cosmological event but a partaking of the way of lowliness.” True, but the mystery of Christmas is that through God’s power and wisdom tents turn into Temples. Fragile impermanent human dwellings become eternal gloried dwellings of the Spirit (1 Cor 15:42-44). Incarnational lowliness destines us to resurrection glory. COVID19 2020 was a limited temporary sign of human fragility and impermanence, but the tenting of God amongst us offers a lens onto a glorious eternity for which, like the apostles and saints of old, we will be willing to suffer the loss of “all things” (Phil 3:8). May through wisdom and self-willed sacrifice the Spirit stretch our tents in this coming season of grace (Isa 54:1-3).