Theosis: the Heart of Christmas

Christmas is a very dualistic time in Christian churches. In stories and sermons God is pictured as a theistic deity up there in heaven who sends his Son down here into this world of sin in order to redeem the world and humankind. Those of us who see the universe in terms of nonduality wonder how to make sense of Christmas. The good news is that the heart of the Christmas message is nonduality.

The theological heart of the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus is the Incarnation. When interpreted correctly Incarnation is one of the most nondual teachings of the Church. It says that God became human. That is what sets Christianity apart from other monotheistic faiths. But the question is: Why did God become human? According to the early church father Athanasius, it was so that humans could become God.  

In the fifty-fourth chapter of his most well-known work, On the Incarnation, which he wrote when he was only as 23, he wrote this famous sentence, “God became man so that man might become God.” This teaching is known as theosis. It is the heart of the doctrine of the incarnation and therefore the heart of Christmas.

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Transcript

Christmas is a very dualistic time in Christian churches. In stories and sermons God is pictured as a theistic deity up there in heaven who sends his Son down here into this world of sin in order to redeem the world and humankind. Those of us who see the universe in terms of nonduality wonder how to make sense of Christmas. The good news is that the heart of the Christmas message is nonduality.

The theological heart of the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus is the Incarnation. When interpreted correctly Incarnation is one of the most nondual teachings of the Church. It says that God became human. That is what sets Christianity apart from other monotheistic faiths. But the question is: Why did God become human? According to the early church father Athanasius, it was so that humans could become God.  

In the fifty-fourth chapter of his most well-known work, On the Incarnation, which he wrote when he was only as 23, he wrote this famous sentence, “God became man so that man might become God.” This teaching is known as theosis. It is the heart of the doctrine of the incarnation and therefore the heart of Christmas.

It is the most nondual way that the Church has historically understood the process of salvation. Usually salvation is thought of in very dualistic terms. Other biblical models include being ransomed, having a debt paid, being pardoned for a crime, being spared punishment for sin, being healed of a wound.  

Theosis is one of the few understandings of salvation that are found in the teachings of Jesus. Furthermore he spoke about it at the time of year that we now celebrate Christmas. Jesus gave this teaching during the Feast of Dedication, which we know as Hannukah. This year Hannukah happens to begin on Christmas night. So it is a timely example of Jesus’ Christmas teaching.

The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus was in the temple courts during Hannukah, walking in Solomon’s Colonnade, probably admiring the huge menorah which was erected in the temple courts. I picture it as similar to the huge menorah that stands across from the Israeli Knesset building in Jerusalem today. People were asking Jesus to be clear about who he was. Jesus responded with the words, “I and the Father are One.” 

When he said those words, all hell broke loose. Such a statement is anathema to those rooted in duality. The gospel says that his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him. Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” They responded, “We are not stoning you for any good work, but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

Then Jesus quotes scripture to them to support his claim. Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’? If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? .... the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” 

To support his claim Jesus quotes from Psalm 82, “I have said, You are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.” What gets overlooked when Christian pastors preach on this passage is that the Hebrew word for God used here in the Psalms is the word Elohim, which is the word for God. Not polytheistic deities but the monotheistic God of Israel. 

Out of all of the passages in the Bible that Jesus could have chosen, this is the one he chooses. And he claims not only divinity for himself, which is what got him in trouble, but for all of his listeners. “You are God.” Wow! That would get any preacher thrown out of the pulpit today! If you want to get kicked out of a church, just say what Jesus said about us. That ought to do it. 

Jesus’ claim was a bridge too far for his listeners. Now they really want to kill him. But it says “Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.” Jesus was good at escaping death. This happened also at the very beginning of his ministry when he said something controversial in his hometown synagogue. They dragged him out of the synagogue and tried to throw him off the nearest cliff. Somehow he escaped. 

Here in the temple he escaped again.  I picture the thirty year old athletic Jesus running for his life like a first century Indiana Jones, weaving through the crowds, jumping over the money-changers tables, and the booths selling animals for offerings, turning tables over to block his pursuers from following him, causing a commotion and somehow getting out of the temple without being captured. 

It was all because Jesus taught theosis at Christmastime. Theosis is an important doctrine in Eastern Orthodoxy but not known by most Christians in the West. It is certainly not known in evangelical churches. Jesus is saying that the spiritual life is about discovering and realizing that we are God. Just saying those words out loud feels dangerous for a preacher like me.  

I have a good friend who got fired from his position as a pastor of a Baptist church in North Carolina this week for saying controversial things from the pulpit.  In his case it was speaking against Christian Nationalism.  He is a prophet and received a prophet’s reward for speaking truth. I am retired, so no one can fire me. 

Jesus spoke truthful controversial things. He calls us children of the Most High. Jesus taught that we are one with God like he is one with God. He prayed in Gethsemane that we might know our oneness with God as he knows his oneness with God. 

The process of realizing our true nature is theosis. Theosis is a word from Greek which can be translated as either “deification” or sometimes “divinization.” It comes from the Greek word theos, the Greek word for “God.”  God became man was so that man might become God. To say it more inclusively, God became human so that humans might become God. Jesus realized his Divine nature and taught us to realize our divine nature. 

That is the heart of Christmas. It is a Christmas message that you will not hear in churches this year. Yet it is the essence of the doctrine of the Incarnation. The Incarnation is not just about Jesus being born as the Son of God. It is about us being born as daughters and sons of God. 

When we realize our birthright firsthand, then we say with the apostle Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  We say with the apostle John in his Christmas poem, “the Word became flesh and dwelt in us.” Not “dwelt among us,” as it is usually translated, but “dwelt in us.” That is what it literally says. As Jesus put it, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” That is the heart of Christmas. Let us celebrate that message this Christmas!