A revised version of the devotional I gave at our Christmas Eve service this year.
Around the year 428 AD, in the ancient city of Constantinople (modern day Istanbul, Turkey), a sermon was preached which ignited an empire wide controversy over the nature of Jesus Christ.
Theological tensions were on the rise and were about to cross a critical threshold, when the private chaplain of Nestorius, archbishop of Constantinople, preached a sermon denouncing use of the term Theotokos, or “God-bearer,” as a title for the virgin Mary.
This term Theotokos was an ancient, commonly used term of honor for the mother of Jesus, recorded in early Christian prayers and writings from at least the third century AD.
This chaplain, however, expressing the views of his patriarch, Nestorius, claimed that Mary herself was just a woman; surely it cannot be said that God was born of a human woman.
A designation more appropriate, in his view, is Christotokos, “Christ bearer,” not Theotokos. And it was this remark that lit a fire throughout the empire, lasting more than two hundred years.
The term Theotokos, meaning “God bearer,” carried no theological meaning in itself and had been used by Christians with differing views for decades. Nestorius, however, thought the term’s “pious sentiments” masked faulty theological ideas about the relation of Christ to God.
“Mary gave birth to a man,” he said, “a man who was united with God. She did not give birth to God himself. God cannot have a human mother.”
In a matter of weeks, a copy of this sermon traveled 1500 miles to the south, to a great imperial city in Egypt, Alexandria. The patriarch at the time was a man named Cyril, a native Egyptian born in 378 AD, in a town not far from Alexandria.
Cyril, as history shows, was a rather strong character, confident, assertive, and somewhat brash, not one to shy away from a fight, theologically speaking.
For centuries, Alexandria (Egypt) and Antioch (Syria; near Constantinople) represented two opposing modes of Biblical interpretation: One based on Greek philosophy and a stress on mystical, symbolic knowing (Alexandria), and the other based largely on ancient Judaism, stressing literal, historical readings of Scripture (Antioch).
The debate which ensued between Cyril and Nestorius centered on this very issue: how to interpret those Scriptures which speak of Christ and his true nature.
Cyril and the Alexandrians emphasized language from the Gospel of John, such as ‘‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” in John 1:14.
In their view, in the Incarnation –that is: in the birth of Jesus Christ– God the Son, the eternal Word of God, who was begotten of the Father from all eternity, had become man, totally and fully.
Jesus for Cyril then is the Son of God living within the conditions of human life. It is thus more than fitting to call Mary: Theotokos, “the God-bearer.”
Nestorius and the Antiochene tradition emphasized passages which speak of God dwelling in Jesus Christ, such as Colossians 1:19 which says: “In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.’’
In their view, the Incarnation, the act of God becoming flesh, meant that God the Son chose to unite with the human man Jesus, himself born of Mary. Therefore, Christotokos or “Christ bearer” was far preferable to Theotokos in their opinion.
For Cyril, however, by rejecting this term Theotokos, Nestorius and others portrayed Christ as simply “an inspired man—unique to be sure—but not God become flesh.”
To the Alexandrians it seemed that Nestorius divided Christ into two persons, divine Son and human man, attributing some passages in the Gospels to God the Son and others to the human man Jesus.
The Antiochenes, on the other hand, thought that Cyril so emphasized Christ’s divinity that he did not take seriously Christ’s humanity. And if Christ was not fully human, like us, how could we in fact be saved?
What began then with the use of a single word over another, thus bloomed into a series of passionate, hard-fought empire-wide debates.
In the end, seven years after the death of Cyril and just months after the death of Nestorius, 520 bishops were summoned by the Roman Emperor Marcian to the city of Chalcedon to draft of a new decree on the nature of Christ meant to unify Christians throughout the empire.
Little did the bishops realize, however, it would be one of the most divisive doctrinal statements in the Church’s history, sparking continued debate for hundreds of years thereafter.
Now, why am I sharing all of this with you on Christmas Eve of all evenings?
Why not sweeten this night with words of peace, comfort, and joy, as opposed to words of division, disagreement, and debate?
I bring up this ancient story, which continues to this very day, because the birth of Jesus cannot help but stimulate such passion and reflection, since his birth, friends, was no ordinary birth at all.
History has witnessed the births of countless heroes and luminaries, such as: Alexander the Great, Queen Elizabeth, Mother Teresa, Tom Brady… but none of their births stimulated such fierce and considered debate as that of Jesus.
The birth of Jesus, celebrated every year by more than just Christians on Christmas day, is an event of momentous significance. It was something utterly unprecedented in the history of the universe, something that would never ever happen again.
Nestorius and Cyril fought valiantly for the truth they expressed because this was the most important birth ever to take ever place in the history of human beings.
And the baby to be born was and is the most important human being in the history of the universe. That’s why we’re here tonight.
What we are celebrating is not the birth of just any hero, luminary, or star. It’s the birth of God Himself, the result of God’s considered decision to become human permanently.
What we have in the Incarnation is God’s unimaginable journey from heaven to earth for our salvation.
Not only this: it manifests God’s decision, as Creator, to forever become Creature, so those two poles, long separated by sin/evil, might never be separate again.
Christmas is a time for singing, laughing, and sharing joy, yes, yes. But it is also a time of profound, sublime, world-altering good news, that of union between God the Creator and us his creation.
This Christmas, I encourage you to see Jesus for who he really is: the nexus connecting heaven above and earth below.
Jesus, friends, is no ordinary human. He is the fusion of humanity and divinity, the link between us and our maker, the key to eternal life and peace.
Jonah Bissell
Pastor