'Seen by angels'

Here is the Christmas story in a nutshell:

“He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16).

Every time I read this staccato summary of Jesus’ life, I find the phrase “seen by angels” mildly amusing, oddly out of place. Concise summaries usually stick to the main points, after all. Just how integral to a thumbnail sketch of the history of salvation is the fact that Jesus was “seen by angels”—especially when there are so many more salient features one could think of and insert in the list (born of the virgin, raised from the dead, crucified on a cross—to name a few)?

There are lots of people I know who have trouble with the whole concept of angels—it makes them squirm. If they thought about it, of course, they would feel equally squirmy with the other five clauses. “Manifested in the flesh”? “Taken up in glory”? But somehow, sheer repetition of these other more familiar features has tamed them into numb acceptance by general mainstream Christianity. With the angels insertion, I believe that God threw in a wrench to challenge us regarding the supernatural.

In Francis Schaeffer’s True Spirituality, the Alpine theologian devoted an entire chapter of a fairly short work to “The Supernatural Universe,” precisely because he sensed churches tended to be deficient there. We pay lip service to the unseen dimension but have a hard time believing in it. This has dangerous consequences, thought Schaeffer. It makes us think that the things that happen to us happen “in a closed system,” and therefore we may not pray as we should, or do spiritual warfare and rebuke devils as we should.

“If we are not careful, even though we say we are biblical Christians and supernaturalists, nevertheless the naturalism of our generation tends to come in upon us,” Schaeffer wrote. “It may infiltrate our thinking without our recognizing its coming, like a fog. … Christians begin to lose the reality of their Christian lives.” Schaeffer said we must recognize that the supernatural “is a perfect continuity” with our “normal life.”

I was at dinner with three other people, at which a godly Midwestern pastor was sharing his life adventures with God. One of the diners was listening raptly until the pastor began to describe a miracle God performed through him. At that point this other man tuned out of the conversation and later complained to me that he did not believe a word of the pastor’s miracle claim. This, in spite of the fact that everything else the pastor had said resonated with truth and proved him an honest man.

The angels were watching Jesus. That is a fact. It is a fact with equal credibility to the fact that “he was proclaimed among the nations” and “believed on in the world.” In 1 Timothy 3:16 the author strung together a seamless confession of miraculous things with mundane things, the better to show that they are all equally miraculous and divine.

Have a blessed Christmas, one and all. And enjoy the mystery of it all.