Have you ever considered how different the priorities of the Church are when compared to the priorities of the society around us? To most Americans, we are full-swing in the center of the most materialistic time of the year... the time of year when the main focus is on over-shopping and over-eating, and over-working ourselves with self-imposed obligations until we collapse on Christmas Day in somnolent exhaustion. For Christians, though, we purposely take a step back from all of that this time of year. We focus on waiting, on expectation, on delayed gratification: on preparing ourselves to welcome the Christ Child -Jesus Christ the Son of God- and on readying ourselves for His return again on the Last Day.
It strikes me, too the desire to adopt is a spirit that reflects this same Advent mentality. Think about it, didn't the very beginning of God's redemptive plan involve adoption from the start? Inasmuch as God's plan was that Jesus Christ be conceived by the Holy Spirit and not by a man (see Matthew 1:20 and the Apostles' Creed), the necessity for a father-adoption was part of God's Christmas plan. Consider the two parents standing behind the manger in your nativity set at home... have you ever thought much about Joseph, the husband of Mary (Jesus' biological mother)? Joseph was the man who adopted Jesus as his own son, devoted himself to raising Jesus as his own child. Without an adoptive father, for instance, the society into which Jesus was born would never have listened to Him; Jesus would not have had the social standing to even begin a teaching ministry!
This importance of this adoptive relationship is shown in the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel, where Jesus' lineage is traced (not through Mary, his biological mother), but through Joseph, his adopted Father! (Not to minimize the role of his biological mother, however... see Luke 3:23ff).
This adoptive principle, begun by Joseph, is continued in Jesus' own ministry as He pursued the reconciliation of sinful humanity with His Heavenly Father. Consider John 1:11-13, where we find this description of the Incarnation: "[Jesus] came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God."
In other words, the reason for the Advent of Christ was that we all might be adopted into the family of God for eternity. It's the same adoption principle espoused by the St. Paul to the Christian congregation at Rome: "All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons" (8:14-15).
In the end, I suppose the thing that strikes me about the adoptive character of Advent is how it reminds us of the value of love. To my mind, orphan adoption is one of the clearest manifestations of God's redemptive, adoptive love which is revealed to us in the first in the manger and in finally in the cross and the empty tomb. Soli Deo Gloria!
2 comments:
I noticed that Jesus' lineage was traced back through Joseph, but I always thought it was because we're working with a patriarchal society here. It's interesting, though, that Jewish culture now passes on "Jewishness" through the mother.
For example, my birth father was supposedly Jewish. I've been told it doesn't matter, in terms of being "biologically Jewish."
I looked up Luke 3:23 -- "Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph" -- and I don't know what "ff" means, but can you explain how this doesn't minimize the role of the biological mother? I'm not clear on this. I just see it referencing Joseph (?).
"FF" is a term frequently seen in Biblical studies by people too lazy to track down all the specific verses which need referencing (like me!) You should read it as "verses following." It's never used in serious scholarship, but when you run across it, it's usually means that you should start reading at one particular verse and scan down the following paragraphs as well. Implicit in its use it the idea that not all the following Bible verses will necessarily deal with that particular subject.
Oh, and the reference to Luke 3:23 was sloppy on my part. (Can't you read my mind to understand what I meant to say?) I was referencing the fact about how the "as it was thought" draws one's thoughts toward his biological mother Mary. (As a result, some commentators have gone so far as to suggest that the Lukan genealogy is the genealogy of Mary). In any case, the qualifying statement "being a son, as was supposed" does affirm Jesus' virgin birth in the genealogy and articulates one of the key themes in Luke's Gospel: that Jesus is not Joseph's biological son, but the Son of God born of woman in order to redeem all people.
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