[12] 99 From East to West, From Shore to Shore

‘For Lo! The world’s Creator wears
The fashion of a slave:
Our human flesh the Godhead bears,
His creature, man, to save.’

Like many people, I have clothes for many different situations. It’s a good idea to adjust your outfit for different groups of people, or for different formalities. It’s about how you present yourself. If I’m slobbing at home I’ll wear a t-shirt, most of the time I’ll be in a shirt and blazer, and if I need to lead a rehearsal I’ll probably wear suit pants too. This is because clothes bring about a strong perception in others’ eyes – imagine how much you could get away with if you were wearing a fluorescent jacket!

In this carol, Jesus is wearing the clothes of the lowest of the low in Roman culture; the slave. He has chosen to present himself as a contemptible member of society, conceived out of wedlock and born into a poor family. More than the trappings of poverty, He has taken upon himself the physical nature of humankind – our flesh and blood, our needs and desires. Beyond an external semblance of humanity, Jesus becomes human inside and out.

Beautifully, the writer rhymes ‘wears’ (referring to slaves’ clothes) with ‘bears’ (referring to flesh). ‘To bear’ can mean different things; it can be a plain synonym for ‘to wear’, but also might imply some burden or pain – Jesus bears our sin, Jesus bears his cross. To dress like a human is one thing, but to carry the weight of being human is another.

The text, written in the 5th Century by one Caelius Sedulius and translated in the 19th by one John Ellerton, has a final, parting blow. The last line of this verse astounded me when I first read it. We humans are described as God’s ‘creature’ – a word which we don’t usually use to describe ourselves to say the least! Everything we have accomplished in the last 50,000 years of sentience has been to distinguish ourselves from the animals; we cook our food, we have complex social systems, we even wear different collections of fabric to show our relative importance. This line shows us the harsh reality; we are still totally reliant on God, as his creations, as his creatures.

So, here I am, wearing a suit out of deference to God (I was playing in church yesterday), and there He is, dressed as a poor child wrapped in rags, to try and reach me right back. It kind of kicks the legs out from under you. As Mary sang in yesterday’s blog, ‘[God] has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate’ (Luke 1:52). With God nothing is as it seems, no outward image is true to what’s inside, and everything is turned on its head. This is why Christmas is so exciting! Here is a child/saviour, who is God/man, and poor/glorious. His mother was meek but now is famous, his birth-town was insignificant but now is hugely important, He himself was born to die. These are all incomprehensible, but make complete sense. For the mysteries of Christmas; thanks be to God!