Advent with Athanasius – Part 4

On this the fourth Sunday of Advent, it is a joy to close out our contemplation of the Incarnation with Athanasius. Thank you for following along and I pray this has served to fix your gaze upon the only Son of God, “who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.”[1]

In the final chapters of Athanasius’s work (ch. 33-57), we encounter his refutation of the Jews and Greeks concerning the Son’s Incarnation and subsequent crucifixion and resurrection. Following Paul, who wrote that the gospel of Jesus is “a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:23), Athanasius confronts what appear to him to be the most apparent reasons for unbelief among these groups. Ironically, at the birth of Christ, the righteous and devout Simeon announced that the Incarnate Son would be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:32). Whereas Jesus proves to be the light of the Gentiles and glory of Israel, as Athanasius seeks to show, Simeon also shows that Jesus will be a polarizing figure in Israel and beyond (Luke 2:34-35). This is what Athanasius is writing to equip those who love Jesus to speak persuasively. The goal of the concluding chapters is to prepare the church to convince those who do not believe that Jesus is God and has defeated death in the place of human beings in order that humans could be made incorruptible by His life.

Athanasius begins by addressing the Jews. With regard to the Jews, he focuses on the Scriptures which have foretold of the sufferings of the Messiah. Athanasius seeks to show from Scripture that the Messiah must suffer on behalf of all (ch. 33-37). This Athanasius uses to faithfully demonstrate the Jesus is fully human, in order that He may heal them. And as a human, the Word experiences suffering and humiliation. Regarding this Athanasius writes, “Marvel at the Word’s love for human beings, that he is dishonored for our sake, that we might be honored” (ch. 34). Athanasius mentions various Scripture which speak of the Messiah and in each he seeks to show that no other human could possibly fulfill the word spoken. After quoting Genesis 49:10 and Matthew 11:13 he concludes:

If, therefore, there were now among the Jews a king or a prophet or vision, they would rightly deny that Christ has come. But if there is neither king nor vision, but all prophecy has henceforth been sealed up, and the city and the temple taken, why are they so impious and perverse, that they see what has happened, and yet deny Christ who made these things happen (ch. 40)?

The Christ event has brought about a cessation of prophecy, “For when he who was indicated has come, what is the use of those who indicate” (ch. 40). Athanasius desires for the Jews to reckon with the reality that has dawned in Jesus; Gentiles are coming to the Light, they are honoring the God of Israel. This ought to be sufficient to unsettle one from their confident disbelief. Who else but the Son Incarnate could do all that Jesus has done and manifested through His work?

Then Athanasius turns towards the Greeks. Rather than focusing on Scriptural proofs as he did with the Jews, he employs more philosophical reasoning to prove that Jesus is the Incarnate Word. First, the takes up the fact that God took a human body. For the Greeks, Athanasius sees this as a stumbling block. He takes it for granted that “no one would call it absurd for him to speak, if he wished, by means of the sun or moon or heaven or earth or waters or fire, to make himself and his Father known; inasmuch as he holds together all things, and is with all and in the part in question, and invisibly shows himself” (ch. 42). The human body is a lower body than these and thus unsuited for the purposes of God, so Athanasius believes the reasoning of Greeks to be. Therefore he argues to prove that God taking up a human body is necessary for the purposes of salvation. God was coming to do more than impress. He has come to heal and to teach.

The Lord came not to be put on display but to heal and to teach those who were suffering. One being put on display only needs to appear and dazzle the beholders; but one who heals and teaches does not simply sojourn, but is of service to those in need and appears as those who need him can bear, lest by exceeding the need of those who suffer he trouble the very ones in need and the manifestation of the divine be of no benefit to them (ch.43).

In this argumentation, Athanasius may be using Platonic categories to help communicate how God could become man. For God “pervades and acts in the whole” (ch. 42), yet His being “in creation” in no way means “he partakes of creation” (ch. 43). Athanasius has made it clear that God is able to be present in creation while reamining altogether transcendent, which should resonate with the Greeks who understood “participation” in light of the transcendent Forms. Consequently, this section immediately made me think back to what Athanasius had written earlier regarding the Word being found in a body and yet in no way contained. He wrote:

For he was not enclosed in the body, nor was he in the body but not elsewhere. Nor while he moved that [body] was the universe left void of his activity and providence. But, what is most marvelous, being the Word, he was not contained by anyone, but rather himself contained everything. And, as being in all creation, he is in essence outside everything but inside everything by his own power, arranging everything, and unfolding his own providence in everything to all things, and giving life to each thing and to all things together, containing the universe and not being contained, but being wholly, in every respect, in his own Father alone (ch. 17).

Thus, God could take human form because He is the fount of all being and God must take human form in order to heal humans from death.

Finally, towards the end of the work, Athanasius gives the story of a king in his house who visits part of his kingdom where deceivers and dissenters have arisen and by his visitation he expels and silences them. He then says that this what Christ has done. “When the real king emerges and appears, then the seditious imposters are exposed by his presence, while the citizens, seeing the real king, abandon those who previously led them astray” (ch. 55).

The real King has come. At His first appearing death was exposed and expelled. At His second coming, He will come to deliver the inheritance to the saints; the Kingdom He has prepared for them. May the Lord of all be with you this Christmas as you long for His return. “Our Lord come” (1 Cor 16:22).

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Notes:

[1] Nicene-Constantinople Creed 381.