The Incarnation that leads to other incarnations...

Pastor Tim Keller explains in a past Christmas sermon that truth without tears is cruel and tears without truth is unhelpful. What we have in the incarnation of the Son of God, however, is a perfect blending of tears and truth. Jesus came as a complete human, totally vulnerable, subject to the same fears, pain, and anxieties as us. But, he was not only vulnerable, he was also fully God, full of truth, fearless in the face of evil. An event that depicts this clearly is Jesus before the burial site of his friend Lazarus. In almost the same breath, Jesus proclaims to the crowd, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Christ will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26), and then just moments later he weeps before a crowd of mourners. Emmanuel, God with us, God the Son in human form, perfectly blends truth and tears. He faces death down and wins, and yet the reality of death breaks his heart. This is why Jesus took on flesh. This is why he bore our sins on Calvary. He wept at death, and He knew that He alone could stop to tide of death from wiping out His people. Let us worship the God-Man this Christmas not only for His perfect power, but also for His intimate love for us. But let our worship not only be in songs, but also in the giving of our lives for others. Let us enter into people’s suffering not as cold, truth-telling stoics. Let us incarnate ourselves into the world we live in. We need to befriend the hurting, mourn alongside the despondent, and walk with those who can only crawl. But let us also be bearers of truth, who stand in the face of evil and proclaim that its defeat has been accomplish on the Cross.

You can download Tim Keller's full sermon, "The Furious Love of Jesus" here: http://download.redeemer.com/rpcsermons/tragedy/The_Furious_Love_of_Jesus.mp3

From my recent Pastor Post for Cornerstone Church.