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"Of the Father's Love Begotten"
"No one has ever seen God, but God the [Only Begotten], who is at the Father's side, has made him known" (John 1:18).
What an invitation those shepherds received as they watched over their flocks by night! Simply put, the divine messenger bid the shepherds: "Go to Bethlehem and see the Lord almighty face-to-face!" Yet the angel's instructions seemed strange at best: "This will be a sign to you," the angel explained. "You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger" (Luke 2:12). Yes, go and see God; he's the baby! What?
Martin Luther could not help but marvel at the shepherds' obedient faith. They went and saw and believed. "If I had come to Bethlehem and seen it," Luther admits, "I would have said: 'This does not make sense. Can this be the Messiah? This is sheer nonsense.' I would not have let myself be found inside the stable."
One basic tenet of our Christian faith is that God cannot be seen. He is the One "who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see" (1 Timothy 6:16). True, God is hidden, yet amazingly he also reveals himself to us! How? By hiding himself within our weak, human flesh in the person of Christ. God shows up in-of all places!-a manger. "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14). What a paradox: God revealed himself by hiding himself in Jesus!
This mysterious paradox is skillfully treated in the ancient hymn "Of the Father's Love Begotten" (CW 35), written by a fourth-century hymnist, Prudentius (348-413). He wanted to sing God's truth in an age when many wanted to deny that Jesus is fully God and man.
We can join him in our own age when so many still deny this truth of Scripture. The hymn also helps us confess that our unseen God has unveiled himself to us in love. It opens with the reminder that our Savior was begotten of the Father before "the worlds began to be" (st. 1), hidden in eternity. Now this same God has "revealed his sacred face," not in splendor but in deepest humility, as "the babe, the world's Redeemer" (st. 2). Yes, this helpless child is God "whom heav'n taught singers sang of old with one accord; whom the Scriptures of the prophets promised in their faithful word" (st. 3).
Now we too offer our Christmas praises evermore and evermore!
© 2007 Northwestern Publishing House. All rights reserved.
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