Word on Christmas Day

“You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that through His poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9) Once Jacob, on his way from his father’s house to Harran, calmed down at night, “saw in a dream: behold, a ladder stands on the earth, and its top touches the sky; and behold, the angels of God ascend and descend on it. And behold, the Lord stands on it.” (Genesis 28:12-13) Now, Christians, not in a vision, but in an actual event, we see something more wonderful. It is no longer Angels, “ministering spirits sent to serve those who are to inherit salvation” (Heb. 1:14), who ascend and descend over the head of the righteous, but the Lord Himself, who hitherto remained at the top of the ladder connecting heaven with earth, favored and descends to the sinful human race. And this ladder is not established on the earth, but deeper, in the very “heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). The Omnipresent descends when, in an image, voice, or sign, he reveals the closeness of his formidable or gracious presence to the people standing below. – Now He approaches people incomparably more. It is not the voice, but the Word of the Father itself that is clothed with flesh—it takes upon itself not only the image of man, but his very being, and unites it with His own. And this union of humanity with the Divine, not for a short time, but for all eternity, is a constant, everlasting miracle, exceeding every created mind. You see, listeners, how deeply the Lord descends now. But this is still the beginning of His deepest descent even to the gates of hell. The apostle understands this humiliation of the Lord, now revealed in His incarnation, and explains its purpose when he says: “He, being rich, became poor for your sake, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” Let's delve into these words! "He, being rich, became poor." – As much as the richness of the Divine being is unsearchable for us, His descent is so incomprehensible. Have we ever immersed our minds in the contemplation of innumerable and immeasurable Divine perfections? Has a reverent desire ever kindled in us, in the midst of prayer or reverent reflection, as was once fulfilled by Moses, the Seer of God: Lord, “show me Your glory” (Ex. 33:18)? And didn’t our thought disappear before the immense fullness and incomprehensible greatness of the highest perfections? He is all love, all wisdom, all truth, all power, all life, all everywhere and always. – It is this fullness of Divine perfections that the Son of God has now hidden, having become the son of man. The mystery of the Divine is covered by flesh, eternity by birth, omnipotence by the powerlessness of infancy, omniscience and all-perfect holiness by wisdom and grace, which increases with age (Luke 2:52). Thus, “He, being in the image of God, made Himself of no reputation, becoming in the likeness of men, and becoming in appearance like a man” (Phil. 2:6-7) "He, being rich, became poor." – After many years spent in obscurity, the time has finally come for the Son of Man to enter into the great ministry for which He came to earth. God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power (Acts 10:38); everything was delivered to Him by the Father (Matthew 11:27). Many signs and wonders, “such as no one else did” (John 15:24), the power of teaching, which had never been heard on earth, showed that He was truly “rich” - But at the same time, in what a wretched form He appeared to the world, having renounced the greatness not only of heaven, but also of earth! Not Angels, not even the nobles of the world, were His interlocutors, but tax collectors and sinners; His first friends are fishermen. The rich, the powerful, the learned were tempted by Him; His compatriots rejected Him, evil enemies pursued Him everywhere; They repeatedly raised stones against Him to beat Him; secretly sought His life. - And He endured, evading the persecutors, as if not having anything to defend himself with. “He will not contradict, he will not cry, and no one will hear His voice in the streets” (Matthew 12:19). “He, being rich, became poor.” – But who can depict the degree of Divine humiliation when the Son of man, “having loved His own who are in the world to the end” (John 13:1), gave Himself up for them all to the justice of the Heavenly Father? He Himself begins His feat in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the purest of the righteous, burdened with the sins of the entire human race, had to cry out “with a strong cry and tears” (Heb. 5:7) to His Father, as if a sinner burdened with his own sins. Sold by an infidel disciple for the price of a slave, abandoned by everyone, tormented by the inhumanity of the soldiers, He hears how the people He loved renounce Him - how the high priests intensify to plead for Him a dishonorable death, now relying on their law, now renouncing their rights - how Pilate, cold to the truth, yields to the lawless demand. He could move legions of Angels for His deliverance, he could stop the judgment of unrighteousness with a word: and yet he calmly allows people to do their will; lifts up His cross, becomes weak, falls, crucifies, hears new blasphemies, calls out to the Father - and no answer is heard from Him! Thus, the Son of God humbled Himself, “becoming obedient even to death, even death on the cross” (Phil. 2:7-8). And why did the Son of God humiliate himself so much? “For your sake He became poor, so that through His poverty you might become rich.” When the union of man with God was dissolved by sin, then the sinner was afraid to approach the holy God. The very friend of God, Moses, with whom God spoke face to face, even he trembled as he approached Him on Sinai; and when he wanted to see the glory of God closer, God said to him: “You cannot see My face, because man cannot see Me and live” (Ex. 33:20). How blessed are we, listeners, that the Son of God, through His impoverishment, came close to us and allowed us to see the face of God in Him, just as a mortal man can see God on earth! “His name is Immanuel, which means: God is with us” (Matthew 1:23). God is with us not only in His good deeds, not in short-term appearances, as in ancient times in the booth of Abraham; God is with us - in essential and inseparable union with our nature. – The sons of Israel once gathered to David to anoint him as king, and they said to him: “Behold, we are your bones and your flesh” (2 Samuel 5:1). Thus, the incomprehensible impoverishment of the Son of God inspires in us the boldness to confess our joyful and grateful feelings before Him who most sincerely partook of our flesh and blood: “Behold, we are your bones and flesh.” Having approached us with His humiliation, the Son of God brought us closer to God with His grace-filled teaching, example of a godly life, and redemptive suffering. People forgot God and lived as if without God in the world; They deified the creature, deified their passions. The most insightful minds, after long labors, barely reached the conviction that there is a being above the world, worthy of all love and worship. Entire millennia passed, many generations arose and disappeared one after another in ignorance of Him. - The Son of God announced to people that they all have one God, Whom they left, but Who remembers and loves them, that in Him, the Son, one can recognize their God - the Father; that the Only Begotten Son came to people to tell them about the Father. People have forgotten their dignity; immersed in sensuality, they cared only about satisfying temporary needs; Their mind, behind the darkness of doubts, did not see the bright face of truth: the will, under the burden of the evil that weighed on it, was so humiliated that it even found pleasure in its slavery. The whole person was a pitiful ruin of the beautiful creation of the great Artist. – The Son of God revealed to man the dignity of his spiritual nature: in his instructions he showed him what he could and should be; revealed to him the highest objects of aspiration; enlightened the mind, aroused the heart, directed the will; inspired the courage to throw off the shameful yoke of sin. He told the people: “If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. And if the Son sets you free, you will be truly free” (John 8:31–32, 36). People forgot the way to their heavenly Father, and, exhausted by slavery to sin, they became so weak that even having found the way, they themselves could not go to Him. – The Son of God announced to people: “I am the way” (John 14:6). He, His teaching, His life, His commandments - this is the path to the Father. The path is for everyone, not only for the chosen ones from the people of Israel, and not only for the wise. “Come to Me,” He said, “all you who labor and are heavy laden” (Matthew 11:28). He promised and sent preachers to the whole world who, on His behalf, would ask and beg everyone to “be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20) and return to Him. And to complete the path itself, the Son of God promised not only to strengthen the strength of those to come, but also to renew them with a new birth. People have forgotten about the benefits intended for them. The Son of God reminded them of the great inheritance that has been reserved for them from eternity in heaven, not wasted, but increased by His endless merits... You see, listeners, how the poverty of Christ enriches us! Through the Son we come to know the Father who loves children, and with Him we regain everything. It would hardly be possible to believe such promises if it were not for the Son Himself speaking about it. But He took on flesh for this purpose, in order to destroy all doubt; in order to explain to us in human language all the love of His and His Father. - And who could know the Father and testify about Him like that, if not the Son? Who could reveal to people in such a light the advice of the Trinitarian God, if not the Angel of the great council? Who could more clearly and more fully reveal the laws of our spiritual nature, if not its Creator, who alone formed our composition, - if not the Son of man, in Whom alone human nature appears in its original purity? Who better could know and reveal our purpose in life, present and future, if not He who took upon Himself the redemption of man, in Whose hands are all our past, present and future? Not enough. God cannot recognize us as His children unless the image of His holiness is reflected in us. It is natural for children to look for similarities with their parents. And the Heavenly Father Himself said to His firstborn son, Israel: “Be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 19:2). We cannot have that highest holiness that belongs to the being of God: but, of course, everyone would like to know in what form the holiness of God would appear if God became man. Your desire, zealous to be a child of God, is provided for and fulfilled. The features of Divine holiness in human form were revealed to you in the life of the Son of God. Look at it and learn. For centuries we have been removed from the time of His appearance on earth: but the features of the Divine image, written with the brush of the Holy Spirit on the tablets of the Gospel, are eternally alive; in it are predestined for us all the virtues by which we can recognize the children of God. If we want to be worthy of this title, we only need to immerse ourselves in this image more often, peer into it more carefully, transfer its features into our hearts, imprint it more deeply, express it more clearly in life and deeds, repeat what is being erased and disappearing, and smooth out and eliminate all alien images of the world and passions. Then the Heavenly Father will not refuse to recognize us as His children, but will recognize us by the features of His beloved Son. But all these blessings of the Son of God and all our hopes based on them could only be realized when He, having reached the extreme degree of His humiliation, thereby completed our redemption. And this is a new, abundant fruit of His impoverishment for us! In us lies a hereditary ulcer of sin from our ancestor, which, expanding in its development with the sins of subsequent generations and our own, infected our entire being. It is found in our thoughts, feelings, desires, actions, throughout life. And with sin is naturally connected the punishment for sin - excommunication from God. In order to make amends for our untruth before God, the Son of God deigned not only to show us his truth by example, but also to transfer it to us as our property through faith, and to take our sins from us and blot out them. Thus, we, according to the apostle, “receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, which will reign in life through one Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17); and He, our Savior, alone remained under the hand of Divine justice, punishing sin. By this double action, meager vessels are spared, which could not bear the full weight of God’s wrath, and sin is punished in proportion to its guilt. Without this, what would become of us? The justice of the eternal God, offended by sinners, could not remain unsatisfied, and they would have to remain forever sons of outcasts. - But now, according to the law of our consanguinity with the Son of man and according to the immutable testament of His love, which demanded from us only that we believe in Him as the Son of God who died for us, we become heirs of His merits in humanity and joint heirs of His blessedness. This is where the final degree of impoverishment of the Son of God lies! He appears, as it were, a sinner for our sake, not only in human court, but also in the face of God’s justice, and therefore is subjected to torment and death. – And this is where the highest wealth for us comes from His impoverishment: by faith in Him we are justified before the goodness of God, and therefore we receive the right to eternal bliss. And I, said the Lord, coming to death, “I bequeath to you, as My Father bequeathed to Me, the Kingdom” (Luke 22:29). “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that through His poverty you might become rich.” - And when He became poor for our sake from so much wealth to such humiliation, will we remain poor out of negligence, with such hope of enrichment? No! - grant us, Lord Jesus Christ, to find all our wealth in Your impoverishment, incomprehensible to us! Amen.