Ephraim Syrus – Hymns on the Nativity (2)

In his second Hymn on the Nativity Ephraim writes:

“Glory to the Beautiful Who conformed us to His image!...Glory be to Him on High, Who mixed His salt in our minds, His leaven in our souls. His Body became Bread, to quicken our deadness…

“Thanks be to Him Who sent His Heir, that by Him He might draw us to Himself, yes, and make us heirs with Him!”

As Paul writes, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…” We have been “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren…” (Romans 8:16, 17, 29).

We see in Hebrews Chapter 2 that in the Incarnation Christ came to declare the Father’s Name to His brethren; and that in the Incarnation that through Christ the Father would bring “many sons to glory”.

The glory of Christ’s Sonship in the Father is beyond our comprehension, so also is the glory of our sonship in Christ and the Father. The one Son has become the many-membered Son, the Bride has come forth from the sleep of Jesus Christ in the grave, a Living Temple came into existence on Pentecost, the Jerusalem which is above has begun its descent to the earth.

We are learning to eat of His flesh and drink of His blood – to live by, and in, and unto Jesus Christ for the glory of the Father. We are learning from Jesus Christ to live by doing the will of our Father and His Father, our God and His God.

The Nativity, the Incarnation, is so much more than the observance of a day in December, it is the joining of the Godhead and Manhood – it is a Way of Life. It is God walking the earth then; and God walking the earth now. It is Christ living in His transcendent People for the Father’s glory and catching them up into the koinonia of the Trinity. It is Christ walking this earth in shoe leather, even barefoot – as He mixes His salt in our minds, His leaven in our souls, His Body has become our Bread.

Let us now live as broken Bread and poured out Wine for others; let us fulfill the destiny of the Son in our Father.