The Oakland California Temple at Christmas
(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a Christmas-related column that I published in the Deseret News<\/em> on 22 December 2011:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowest thou the condescension of God?\u201d (1 Nephi 11:16) We miss the significance of the question posed to Nephi if we think that \u201cto condescend\u201d means to patronize, or to act in a smugly superior way.<\/span><\/p>\nAs documented in Noah Webster\u2019s great 1828 American dictionary, Joseph Smith\u2019s contemporaries understood \u201ccondescension\u201d to mean \u201cVoluntary descent from rank, dignity or just claims; relinquishment of strict right; submission to inferiors in granting requests or performing acts which strict justice does not require.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThis perfectly captures the remarkable central claim of Christianity, that God himself \u2014 moved by love for his very often unlovely and ungrateful creatures \u2014 chose to live among mortals in hopes of redeeming us by his grace. \u201cMild he lays his glory by,\u201d sings the Christmas carol, in a line far too easily passed over.<\/span><\/p>\nNephi\u2019s prophetic successors understood this before Christ\u2019s birth:<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cFor behold,\u201d declared King Benjamin in roughly 124 B.C., \u201cthe time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAnd he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAnd lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nWhy? Because, remarkably, he loves us.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAnd lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him\u201d (Mosiah 3:5-7, 9).<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cVery rarely will anyone die for a righteous person,\u201d wrote the apostle Paul, \u201cthough for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us\u201d (Romans 5:7-8, NIV). \u201cHerein is love,\u201d says 1 John 4:10, \u201cnot that we loved God, but that he loved us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe world\u2019s most important acts and events rarely make the newspapers. Its most truly interesting people seldom appear on magazine covers. \u201cOut of small things proceedeth that which is great\u201d (Doctrine and Covenants 64:33). Jesus\u2019 birth to an obscure young woman in a minor village in a backwater province of the Roman Empire was entirely fitting. The Lord seems to prefer doing things that way.<\/span><\/p>\nIf God were to reveal himself fully and openly, the revelation would overwhelm us and destroy our freedom. In his \u201cPhilosophical Fragments,\u201d the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard uses a parable about a king and a maiden to make this point: How can the king reveal his love to a maiden of humble parentage \u2014 given the huge disparity of rank, status and wealth between them \u2014 without coercing and crushing her? \u201cNot to reveal oneself is the death of love, to reveal oneself is the death of the beloved.\u201d The only real choice open to the king is to court his beloved indirectly, by descending to her station, by taking on the character of a servant. But it\u2019s no mere costume change. In order to be a convincing servant, he must really act as one.<\/span><\/p>\nThe Savior wants us to freely choose to love him, not because he\u2019s powerful or terrifying but because we come to know him as lovable. And we have abundant reason to do that. \u201cWe love him,\u201d testified one of the ancient apostles who knew him intimately, \u201cbecause he first loved us\u201d (1 John 4:19). As the Silesian folk hymn says,<\/span><\/p>\nFair is the sunshine,<\/span><\/p>\nFairer the moonlight<\/span><\/p>\nAnd all the stars in heav\u2019n above;<\/span><\/p>\nJesus shines brighter,<\/span><\/p>\nJesus shines purer<\/span><\/p>\nAnd brings to all the world his love.<\/span><\/p>\nFair are the meadows,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFairer the woodlands,<\/span><\/p>\nRobed in the flowers of blooming spring;<\/span><\/p>\nJesus is fairer,<\/span><\/p>\nJesus is purer.<\/span><\/p>\nHe makes the sorrowing spirit sing.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Here\u2019s a Christmas-related column that I published in the Deseret News on 22 December 2011: \u00a0 \u201cKnowest thou the condescension of God?\u201d (1 Nephi 11:16) We miss the significance of the question posed to Nephi if we think that \u201cto condescend\u201d means to patronize, or to act in a smugly superior way. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Oakland](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/12\/800px-Oakland_Mormon_Temple_at_Christmas.jpg\")
<\/a>