Re:The unborn Jesus

[holyjoy]

http://www.highfield.org.uk/main/index.php?id=161

The unborn Jesus

The following study is taken from "The First 10,000 Days" — a study guide on the first 30 years of Jesus' life by Chris Halls. For more details of the book, or to buy a copy, please visit the publishers site.

Day 2 — The unborn Jesus

For this he assumed my body, that I may become capable of his Word; taking my flesh, he gives me his spirit; and so he bestowing and I receiving, he prepares for me the treasure of Life. He takes my flesh, to sanctify me; he gives me his Spirit that he may save me.

John Chrysostom, Christmas Morning

He was his mother’s Maker and his mother’s God. He formed the womb that gave him birth.

Joseph Parker

DNA is like a language encoded in the centre of a cell; a molecular message, a set of instructions telling the cell how to construct proteins – like the operating system needed to run a computer. The amount of information DNA contains is staggering. It has been calculated that if the information contained in one human DNA were to be put down on paper it would represent a library of 9000 volumes of 500 pages each. What makes DNA function as a message is not merely the chemicals themselves but rather their sequence and pattern. The chemicals in DNA are grouped into molecules – nucleotides – that act like a coded message. The particular order can then be interpreted into its specific message.

God’s message, the Word (John 1:1), his divine DNA or genotype, was implanted into Mary’s womb. The power of the Highest overshadowed her (Luke 1:35). The infinitely complex blueprint for the life of God was fused with the biochemistry of earth so that God might communicate intelligibly with man. The Word, who was with the Father in the beginning, left the Father’s side and was conceived by the Holy Spirit within Mary. Exactly how this took place is one of the profoundest mysteries of the universe. Jesus arrived in the tiniest, least-threatening form imaginable; from a fertilised ovum to an embryo, to a foetus, and finally a viable human baby, bursting forth to join human beings on our speck of a planet. 예수는 상상해 볼 수 있는 것들 중에 가장 미세하고 가장 미약한 형태로 오셨다: 수정난에서 수정착상단계, 태아, 그리고 가시적인 아기의 모양되었다. 그리하여 우주 가운데 점같은 인간존재의 형태를 취하셨던 것이다. 

Through that segment of time, writes Max Lucado, popular American author, something spectacular occurred. While the creatures of earth walked unaware, Divinity arrived. Heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in a human womb. God became a foetus. Holiness slept in a womb. The creator of life was created. God was given eyebrows, elbows, two kidneys, and a spleen. He stretched against the walls and floated in the amniotic fluids of his mother (God came near). Ultimately, how this took place is a secret belonging to God (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Mary had, quite naturally, been confused, disturbed and frightened by Gabriel’s appearance to her (Luke 1:29-30). But the words the angel then spoke; she was to have a child. Furthermore, her relative Elizabeth was already in her sixth month of pregnancy. This news prompted Mary to spend the first three months of her pregnancy, not in Nazareth but about 50 miles to the south in the hill country of Judea, with Zechariah and Elizabeth (Luke 1:39,56). This would be a very important time for her. She would feel isolated, the object of suspicion and scandal if she stayed in Nazareth.

As her pregnancy became known, her future marriage – even her life – could be in danger. It became essential for her to seek a time of solitude and reflection in a place where her faith could be nurtured and she could come to terms with the carrying the Son of God (Luke 1:35).

Perhaps it was only a matter of hours after the angelic annunciation that Mary, taking her cue from Gabriel, decided to visit Elizabeth. The journey south may have taken three days – and was one she would repeat a few months later when she went with Joseph for the census. Did she travel south with others or was she alone? Did she share her experience with anyone? How could she digest and process all she had been told? Was she serene or a confusion of emotions?

Five days after conception, a tiny bundle of cells became embedded in the lining of her womb – the most important cells in the universe. By then she would have reached her relative’s home. Perhaps the words of Jeremiah’s prophecy came to mind as she thought about her child:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations

(Jeremiah 1:5 NASB).

And yet, she had been told her son would be more than a prophet – the holy offspring would be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). The Father knew the unique identity of Jeremiah, of Jesus, (indeed, of each of us,) before we were four or five days old – the time when implantation in the womb takes place.

Although Mary’s uncle, Zechariah, had been unable to speak for six months (Luke 1:20), he was able to gesticulate to others what he had seen in a vision while serving in the temple (Luke 1:22). Through writing or mime, Zechariah informed his wife that she would give birth to a prophet who would turn many Israelites to God: “He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:16-17), and that he would also be the forerunner to someone greater. “He will precede the coming of the Lord, preparing the people for his arrival” (Luke 1:17).

After five months of quiet seclusion (Luke 1:24) Elizabeth intuitively knew upon Mary’s arrival that it was Mary, not her, who was blessed by God above all other women. Indeed she calls Mary the ‘mother of my Lord’. If Elizabeth’s child was to be great in the eyes of the Lord (Luke 1:15), Mary’s would be greater – the Lord himself (Luke 1:43). As she learned these things Mary’s natural anxieties and concerns would have given way to faith and hope. And as she shared her experiences of the angelic visitation with Zechariah and Elizabeth, their confidence and understanding would have grown too. There was nothing to worry about, the Lord had caused a barren woman and a virgin to conceive; nothing was impossible to him (Luke 1:37).

The everyday miracle of a tiny embryo being formed within a mother, took on new and unparalleled significance. Even at this early stage in his development, Elizabeth, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, acknowledges that her cousin, Mary, is ‘the mother of my Lord’. The embryo is the Lord. In Judea, long before his mother could feel his presence within her, Jesus was undergoing the most crucial stage of his development. The unborn John responded to the presence of Jesus. He leaped for joy within Elizabeth, when his mother heard the voice of Mary (Luke 1:44).

It would be another two weeks yet, before this embryo had a distinct heartbeat and the foundations of the brain, spinal cord and nervous system were laid. In five more weeks – eight weeks after conception – the one who would be called Jesus was a well-proportioned baby, just over an inch in length weighing 1/30oz – a mere gram. Every organ was present and his heart was beating sturdily. His stomach was producing digestive juices; his liver making blood cells; his kidneys beginning to function; his taste buds starting to develop. Indeed changes now would be in size and the increased efficiency of each working part. The Son of God kicked, waved, turned somersaults, swallowed, and drank.

Until the last decade, we might have dismissed the thought that Mary’s psychological state had any impact upon the child she carried. Scientific evidence collected in recent years indicates that, far from being safely cocooned away from the world with its joys and stresses, the unborn baby is very much in the world and is affected by what goes on around him and his mother. The core of human personality is formed in the womb through intensive communication between the mother and the unborn.

What a mother eats, drinks or inhales passes through her bloodstream into her baby’s body; maternal emotions are transmitted physiologically as well. Stress hormones travel through the mother’s bloodstream to the foetus, inducing the same stressful state in the unborn child. Babies respond not only to a surge of adrenaline, but also to their mother’s behaviour. When she pats her stomach, talks, sings, or dances, the unborn child knows that mother is actively there.

Apparently, communication also occurs on the psychological plane, with baby responding to mother’s deepest thoughts and feelings. The child is not affected by each fleeting worry, doubt, or anxiety a woman has. But deep persistent patterns of feeling, such as chronic anxiety or a wrenching ambivalence about motherhood may well affect the baby. Thoughts infusing the baby with a sense of happiness or calm set the stage for a balanced, happy, and serene disposition throughout life. (The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, Thomas Verny M.D.)

Inside Mary lay a gestating seed. If we concede that some kind of consciousness exists from the moment of conception, the first three months of the foetus’ life are crucial. If emotions that grip the mother affect the unborn child also, then far from being cushioned from them, the tiny baby feels their full impact. The womb was thus Jesus’ first world. How he experienced it, as friendly or hostile, affected his personality and character predispositions. It was significant for Mary – and therefore for Jesus – that his first trimester was spent in an environment of faith and love, rather than fear and hostility.

Can we imagine what it was like for the now-naked Son of God, so recently removed from God’s glory, the uniform of heaven, to toss and turn to the drum-beat of his mother’s psyche? Is Christian counsellor, Joyce Huggett, correct when she suggests that at times Mary’s womb might have been an ominous home for Jesus?

Jesus stepped straight from the spaciousness and perfection of Paradise into the desert-like darkness of a woman’s womb. Having peeled off the privileges of deity, he squeezed himself into the limitations of our humanity. The Creator of mankind became a human embryo. The severity of this stripping spanned the womb and the tomb and re-shaped him physically and emotionally more than anyone before or since has been shaped.

Joyce Huggett, Formed by the Desert

The Father had ordained that his Son would pass the first trimester of his life on earth in the south of the country in the security and loving environment of a godly family who would be able to reassure, comfort and instruct Mary about God’s dealings with her. Elizabeth and Zechariah had much to discover and think through for themselves – but they had nearly six month’s head-start on Mary in coming to terms with their situation. They had time to come to terms with the miracle that had happened to them, and to direct Mary’s thoughts about the greater miracle that was occurring inside her.

John was born and shortly thereafter Mary returned to Nazareth. By now the unborn child she carried would be sucking his thumb, his whole body sensitive to touch, inhaling and exhaling the fluid in which he swam. His sex would be obvious from internal and external organs. His facial expressions would resemble his mother, his movements graceful. Fingernails and vocal cords would have formed. It was now only a matter of weeks before he would be born in Bethlehem.

For reflection

“For nine months he who is angel’s Lord was hidden, love’s furnace, in a little room, humbler than all, whom all adored.” (Tadg Gaelach O Suilleabhaim, medieval Irish) Lord Jesus, I marvel at the miracle of your conception. It is impossible to understand fully what it meant for you to leave the glory of heaven, but help me to grasp that you did this for me. “Cast out my sin and enter in, be born in me today.” Amen.

Read John 1:1-18

...and further study

Feeling that he could never understand the plight of the blacks in America unless he became one of them, in 1959 John Howard Griffin darkened his skin with oral medicine, sunlamp treatment and stains, to become black. He travelled throughout the southern states and was amazed at the inhumane treatment he received. There were vehicles he wasn’t allowed to ride in, restaurants he couldn’t eat in, hotels he couldn't sleep in, toilets he couldn't go in! He was persecuted, slighted, cheated. Griffin wrote about his treatment in, Black Like Me. Consider the way Jesus became a human being to experience fully what it is like to be one of us.

Read John 1:14 in different translations. How does this verse from John’s Gospel (and also 2 Corinthians 8:9) help us understand the purpose of the incarnation? What are the implications of this for us?

Do you think that Jesus shared the desires Paul expresses in 2 Corinthians 5:1-9?

[holyjoy]

예수님이 '아기"로 탄생하기 전의 상태에 대해서 신학적으로 특별히 생명윤리문제와 관계해서 많은 논의가 있습니다. 위의 붉은 색으로 표시된 부분을 보시면, "from a fertilised ovum to an embryo, to a foetus, and finally a viable human baby, bursting forth to join human beings on our speck of a planet."라는 말이 나옵니다. 아마도 호목사님은, fertilized ovum의 상태에서 fertilization에 대해서 어떻게 성령의 권능이 역사하였는지에 대해서까지 묵상하다가, '정자'라는 말을 하신 것으로 보입니다. 누구도 단정할 수 없지만, 아니라고도 말하기는 어렵지 않을까 하는 것이 저의 생각입니다.

[어진내人]

성경이 말하지 않은 것까지 말하려다가 걸린 사람 많습니다.

[손인락]

저는 그래도 정자라는 단어 사용은 오해의 소지가 있다라고 생각되는데요...

[최재호]

저도 호 목사님의 표현에 대해 조금 조심스러운 입장입니다. 홀리조이님의 표현을 빌자면 성경이 침묵하고 있는 부분에 대해 너무 깊이 생각하는 것, 위험할 수 있다고 봅니다. 칼빈도 예정론에 대해 설명하면서 "하나님의 영역에 대해 우리의 손을 놓고 경배의 자리로 나갈 것"을 권고하고 있습니다. 자칫 왕의 침소를 지나친 호기심으로 다니는 것에 비유해서 말입니다. 저는 홀리조이님이 언급하신 '성경의 침묵에' 대해 또 그것을 의도하신 하나님의 뜻에 대해 우리 모두가 잘 생각했으면 합니다.^^

[holyjoy]

ㅎㅎ 아마도 호목사님도 '정자'라는 말대신에 '태아'라는 말로 수정하실 듯 싶습니다. 좋은 지적이었다는 말씀하시더군요. 하지만, 그래도 저는 여전히 좀 더 깊히 생각해 보아야 하겠군요. 성육신의 비밀이 너무나 크게 다가오고 있습니다. 성경이 침묵하고 있는 부분에 대해서 우리는 단정할 수는 없어도, 경건한 묵상은 언제든지 가능했던 것이 칼빈의 견해인 줄 알고 있습니다. 그리고, 그러한 경건한 상상이 풍부했던 것을 칼빈의 주석을 보면 여러군데에서 발견할 수 있습니다. 상상력이 없으면 성경은 너무 무미건조해질 것입니다. 상상력이 넘쳐서 고삐를 잡지 못하면 안되겠지만,....성육의 비밀.....계시의 범위 안에서.....상상해 보

[holyjoy]

세요. 무궁무진한 진리가 그 안에 담겨있지요. 어떻게 천지의 하나님이 자신이 만든 한낮 피조물밖에 안되는, 마리아, 그것도 그녀의 자궁 안에 들어가셨을까? 어떤 모습으로 자궁 안에 들어가셨을까? 그 조그만 난자안의 embryo는 하나님이 아니었을까? 만일 하나님이 아니었다면, 어느 순간부터 하나님이 "되었"던 것일까? feotus때? 몇달쯤 되었을때? 아기로 태어났을 때에 그가 하나님이 되었었을까?....이런 상상은.....스코틀란드의 현존하는 개혁주의신학자 Donald MaCleod의 상상입니다(참고,D.MaCloed, The Person of Christ: Contours of Christian Theology,Downers Grove:IVP,1998,p.25-36).

[최재호]

조금 다른 말일지도 관계있는 말일지도 모르겠지만 '성자는 영원전 에 성부에게서 (태어)났고'는 어떻게 이해해야 할까 궁금합니다. 사랑하는 홀리조이님께서 관심이 있으시니 직접 말해주셔도 좋고 호 목사님께 여쭤봐 주셔도 좋겠습니다....^^

[한우리]

여기에서 성자는 영원전부터 성부에게서 나심이 정확한 표현이겠죠. 성부에게 나신 영원한 성자의 나심은 탄생이나 유출이나 발출과는 다른 개념의 '나심'이 아니겠습니까. 저도 여기에는 참 관심이 많습니다.

[어진내人]

홀리죠이님 거룩한 상상은 참 좋습니다. 옛날 한상동 목사님은 내가 어떤 말을 하면 나를 신비주의자라 할까 싶어 말하지 못하는 나만의 신비가 있다고 하셨습니다. 우리는 검증 된 것만 말해야 합니다. 자칫 한마디 잘못했다가 이상하게 몰리면 끝이니까요. 누구의 상상이라든지 나만의 상상이라든지는 고집할 필요가 없다는 뜻이지요....

[어진내人]

저는 늘 이런 상상을 합니다. 세상이 끝이나고 우리가 다 하나님의 나라에 있을 때 하나님은 다시 새로운 세상을 창조하실 것이다. 하나님께서 말씀으로 있으라 하실 때 우리는 그 광경을 보며 하나님께 영광을 돌릴 것이다. 그리고 세상에서 티격태격하며 싸우던 그 미련한 자의 눈까풀이 열리게 될 것이다. 아! 그 광경을 보고 싶다. 우리는 조그마한 건축물을 짓고 기쁨과 보람을 느끼지만 그때는 정말 온 맘으로 하나님을 경배하게 될 것이다. 그 하나님이 나의 아버지가 되셨다는 사실에 감격으로 눈물이 마르지 않을 것이다.(천국에서 눈물이 나올란가는 모르지만) 전 늘 그런 상상을 하며 그 하나님의 나라를 사모합니다.

[어진내人]

순전히 저만의 상상이지요. 우리가 이름을 모르는 수많은 생물들의 사는 모습을 보면 하나님의 지혜를 발견하게 됩니다. 하나님의 말씀이 곧 지혜이기 때문에 그 말씀이 죽은 것이 아니라 살아 꿈틀거린다는 생각이지요. 저는 늘 외출을 하며 하늘을 보고 산을 보고 강을 보면서 그것이 물체라고 생각하지 않습니다. 하나님의 말씀이 살아 꿈틀거리고 있다고 보지요. 극히 개인인 저만의 상상이고 생각이었습니다

[holyjoy]

어진내인님의 그 상상을 저는 존경합니다. 그렇다면, 저의 상상도 존경해 주실 수 있으시겠지요. 흥미로운 것은, 앞에서 제가 언급했던 책자는, 고신교단과 자매교단인 스코클란드의 자유교회의 현금 대표적인 신학자의 것입니다. 그 책에 이런 구절도 나오는군요:" We have every right, in the light of modern genetics, to regard this maleness as absolute, determined by the presence of one Y chromosome(there is no Y chromosome in the female)." 이 말은 바로 예수님의 성육신의 비밀을 인정하면서도 예수님의 마리아의 자궁내의 수태에 Y chromosome, 곧 "정자"가 있었다고 말할 수 있는 "권리"가 있음을 인정하고 있음을 보여줍니

[holyjoy]

호목사님이 용어를 '태아'로 고치시겠다고 하시긴 했지만, 저로서는 여전히 '정자'라는 말도 개혁주의권에서 용납될 수 있다고 생각합니다. 그리고 최재호님의 "'성자는 영원전 에 성부에게서 (태어)났"다는 말에 대해서 어떻게 이해하는 것이 좋을까 궁금해 하신 것은, 저도 참으로 관심을 갖고 있는 부분인데, 하지만, 호목사님이 전문가입니다. 며칠 전에 웨스트민스터 컨퍼런스에 호목사님과 함께 참여했었더랬는데, 이 영역에 세계적인 개혁주의신학자인 Robert Letham교수의 강의에 호목사님이 이 문제와 관련해서 날카로운 질문을 던지더군요. 성자의 "영원전 출생"(eternal generation)이 신자들의 경건에 어떤 의미심장한 메세지가 있는

[holyjoy]

가 하는 질문을 던지셨지요. 그런데, 그 Letham교수가 답변을 못하더군요. 호목사님이 심중에 있는 답변의 근처에도 가지 못했습니다. 뒤에 저에게 귀띰해 주셨거든요. 하지만, 이것에 대해서는 그냥 가슴에 담아두라고만 하셨습니다. 아직 이런 논의를 하기에는 토론의 기반이 너무나 약하다고 하시더군요. 아마도 호목사님의 심중에서 이 주제와 관련해서 깊은 곳으로 들어가시는 것 같습디다. 아마도 나중에 한국 들어가시는 기회에 최재호님을 만나뵙게 되면 얘기하실 지도...저번 한국다녀오셔서 좋은 대화 나눴다고 하던데요 ^^

[최재호]

네, 호 목사님의 귀국을 기대하고 기다리겠습니다. 호 목사님께 안부 전해 주세요.^^

[장동관]

holyjoy님, 지나친 상상보다는 성경이 침묵하고 있는 부분은 침묵해야 한다고 생각합니다. 성경이 침묵하고 있는 부분에 대해 지나친 상상력으로 논리를 펼친다고 해서 해답을 찾을 수 있는 것은 아니라고 생각합니다.

[holyjoy]

장동관님의 쓸데없는 상상보다는 훨씬 건전하다고 생각합니다. 하나님이 만드신 거대우주(macro cosmos)를 어떻게 상상함이 없이 묵상할 수 있고, 하나님이 만드신 미소우주(micor cosmos)를 어떻게 상상함이 없이 찬양할 수 있습니까? 성경에 원형질,세포,핵,원자, 쿼크, 스트링 등등에 대해서 말하고 있지 않다고 그것에 대해서 연구할 필요가 없다고 보나요? 그런 연구에 상상(imagination)이 필요없다고 보나요? 현대철학과 과학에 대한 서적 한권이라도 읽어보세요 장동관님, 상상력을 다루는 경향들이 더 많아져 가고 있습니다. 과학이나, 심지어는 수학조차도 상상력이 필요한 "예술"이라고 합니다. 그리고 최재호님께/질문하시는 것이 무

[holyjoy]

엇인지 알면서도 일부러 답변을 피해서 죄송하단 마음이 있더군요. 사실, 저로서 답변할 수 있는 것은, "영원출생"의 "내용", 혹은 "본질"에 대해서는, 고대로부터 논의를 삼가해 왔습니다. 흥미로운 것은, 그것때문에, 마땅히 알아야 할 부분까지도 탐구하지 못하게 되어버린 것입니다. 가령, "영원출생"이 "계시된 목적"같은 것에 대해서 조차도 전혀 생각해 보지 않게 되어 버린 셈이지요. 하나님의 계시의 용어들을 소홀히 한 것입니다. "계시"의 "목적"은 "드러냄"인데, "드러난 것"조차도 "묵상치" 않고 있으니, 하나님께서 오히려 "감춰버리시지" 않겠습니까? ㅎㅎ