Joy to the World: How Christ's Coming Changed Everything (and Still Does) by Scott Hahn, Part 3

This is my third and final post on Scott Hahn’s Joy to the World.  You can find the first post here.  

And the second post here.   

Part 1 addresses chapters 1 through 4.

Part 2 addresses chapters 5 through 7.

Part 3 addresses chapters 8 through 14.

Summary

Chapter 8: “O Little Town of Bethlehem”

Hahn outlines the significance of Jesus being born in Bethlehem.

Chapter 9: “Do You Believe in Magic”

The Magi, who were gentiles, followed the star to find truth and give gifts to the new born king of Israel.

Chapter 10: “Shepherds, Why this Jubilee?”

Hahn connects the historical role of a humble shepherd to the shepherds who will be among the first informed of Jesus’ birth to the child who will eventually become the Good Shepherd.

Chapter 11: “The Glory of Your People: The Presentation”

Hahn provides the context to the three post birth Jewish rituals: the circumcision, the child’s presentation, and the mother’s purification. 

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Chapter 11 was probably the most difficult for me.  It probably requires a deeper understanding of the Jewish rituals.

Circumcision is easy enough to understand but Hahn takes it further than I ever thought.

Israel’s covenant with God was “the covenant of circumcision” (Acts 7:8); and, though Jesus, as God, was not bound by the law, only he could fulfill the law perfectly, precisely because he was God and therefore sinless. And so he did, as his parents took him to be circumcised, perhaps at the synagogue in Bethlehem.

Christians have always seen this moment as an anticipation of Jesus’s crucifixion. It was the first shedding of his blood, whose value was infinite. Because of Jesus’s perfection, this rite by itself possessed power enough to redeem the world; yet he pressed on to a more perfect fulfillment and more complete self-giving. To his own law he would be obedient—“obedient unto death” (Philippians 2:8).  (p, 128)

First I had never heard that Jesus’s circumcision was a prefiguring of His crucifixion, but I can see that.  But Hahn says that “because of Jesus’s perfection, this rite by itself possessed power enough to redeem the world.”  You mean that Christ did not have to be crucified?  I can see the circumcision as a foreshadow, an echo, or, as Hahn initially says, an anticipation of His ritual death, but in lieu of it?  That seems like a step too far. 

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I have to admit, I really don’t understand that distinction Hahn makes concerning Jesus’s Presentation at the Temple. 

Luke’s narrative is quite odd.  He describes Jesus not as being “redeemed,” but rather as being “dedicated” or “presented” in the Temple.  It’s an important distinction.  The law did not require that all first born males be redeemed. (p.129)

Hahn goes on to explain.

If Jesus…was dedicated to God and not redeemed, he belongs to God permanently…Thus, Luke presents Jesus as a uniquely righteous first-born, who—unlike other Israelite males—did not need to be redeemed from service to the Lord, since he was not unclean.  Instead, he was consecrated as a firstborn (Exodus 13:1-2).  (p. 130-131)

So the distinction lies between redeemed versus consecrated.  If someone could explain that distinction further I might get it.

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Another interesting tidbit from chapter 11 is that Hahn tells us that Luke is one of the possible authors for the Epistle to the Hebrews.  I had not heard that.  I just finished reading the Epistle to the Hebrews as a continuous read and that does make sense.  The writing styles are similar.

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Summary

Chapter 12: “Flight Into Joy”

Hahn explains how the flight into Egypt resonates in Biblical history.

Chapter 13: “Blessed Trinities: Heaven and the Holy Family”

Hahn contemplates upon why God entered the world and entering revealed how God is both a family and love.

Chapter 14: “Joy to the World”

Hahn explains why we celebrate Christmas, why it is important to do so, and the joy it brings to us and to the world.

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I recently saw a video from a vlog (I think that’s what it's called) titled "The Ruben Report" where Bishop Barron and Rabbi David Wople were discussing issues and religion.  You can find that video here.

They mostly agreed on things but they did stumble on a disagreement on the nature of God, of course, given their two different religions.  Around the 24 minute mark the Rabbi says Jews see the Father as perfect, why does He need to be three?  A few minutes before that Bishop Barron explained the central tenet of Christianity that God became man, but he never fully answered the Rabbi.  The conversation drifted onto other things after that.

But Scott Hahn in chapter thirteen asks the very question, "Why did God become man?  It is one of the insolvable mysteries, like Why is there something rather than nothing?" (p. 145)

To answer the good Rabbi one could just say that's what it is, just like gravity attracts and not repels.  God chose to do that, and it doesn't make Him any less perfect.  Bishop Barron says it's a mystery, but it's not a mystery.  Scott Hahn answers it.

But in this instance an angel gives us a clue by way of the Scriptures. It is the angel who tells Saint Joseph: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

Surely Jesus’s name, given by heaven, tells us something about his purpose. He came to “save his people”—more specifically, to save them “from their sins.” To do this is a pure act of merciful love, because sins are by definition offenses against almighty God. Yet it is God himself who has taken flesh for the sake of our salvation. He came, moreover, not just to save the wayward members of his chosen people but to save even the gravest sinners of Babylon and Egypt.

In the act of saving us, God drew close to us, so that we could see him and touch him. He became a baby, so that he would need to be picked up and caressed, changed and fed.

As we draw close to God incarnate, we can see more clearly the nature of God eternal. And that, too, was why he became man; revelation is bound up with our salvation. In our fallen state, with our darkened intellect and weakened will, we could not see God or know him, though we could know that he existed.

God drew close so that we could see clearly—and know that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). In eternity, that is his deepest identity. Before he created anything to love, he was love; and love is an act that requires both a subject and an object, a lover and a beloved. God is that pure act of love. Because of the revelation of Christmas, we know that love as the Blessed Trinity. Pope Saint John Paul II summarized the matter in a memorable way: “God in his deepest mystery is not a solitude, but a family, since he has in himself fatherhood, sonship, and the essence of family, which is love.”  (pp. 146-148)

God became man to (1) to save us as part of mankind, therefore redeeming mankind, because it was mankind that lost salvation, (2) to show us that God is love, (3) to reveal that God is a family of persons bound in love of which we are supposed to emulate, (4) to draw us close to Him since He took on physical presence, and (5) to show us that God can humble Himself to come as a babe that requires love and care.

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I thought the final chapter was a superb way of concluding the work.  First Hahn points out what makes Christianity special because of Christmas.

No human mind could have invented the triune God.  He is not a God we can contain in our categories or tame by our thoughts.  No human mind could have conceived a God who is love and who loves us as if we were gods.  No human mind, unaided by angels, could have dreamt up Christmas.

Christmas makes us different.  Christmas sets us apart.  Christmas calls us to share in divine love—and then to share that love with an unbelieving world.  (p. 163)

So in chapter thirteen Hahn tells us why the birth of Christ is so important, and then he tells us why we should celebrate it.  God entered humanity for our salvation, and that brings joy to us and to the world.

God has created the whole world for the sake of the joy we celebrate at Christmas.  He fashioned human nature so that every man, woman, and child should desire Christmas joy and seek fulfillment in Bethlehem, the House of Bread—through the Bread that came down from heaven.  God made us so that we would find all other joys unsatisfactory aprt from the joy of Christmas.  (pp. 164-165)

So we should spread this joy, despite the commercialism twist that it has taken the last hundred years.  Hahn is not afraid of the commercialism.  In its own way, it’s “an acknowledgment of Christmas joy.  It’s the market’s awkward attempt to join the party and capitalize on joy” (p. 166).  And why is Christmas joy so important?

Because the world offers countless pleasures, but no lasting joys.  What Jesus Christ gives is joy, even in the midst of hardship and sorrow—even amid persecution, flight, and exile.  (p. 165)

It is amazing how people can be secular all year long but celebrate Christmas.  In Christmas those people come the closest to tangibly experiencing Christian jubilance, but it still falls short of full mystical joy.  This is our calling as Christians, to bring people to this joy.