George Weigel on Christmas and Our Upside-down World

". . . Preachers at Christmas often, and rightly, emphasize the lowliness of the Christ Child's birth and its first annunciation to a gaggle of herders not highly esteemed by their countrymen. What St. Paul reminds us, in First Corinthians, is that this pattern of inversion -- turning everything upside-down -- continues throughout the public ministry of the Lord Jesus and reaches its dramatic climax in his death and resurrection.

"Jesus doesn't evangelize the principalities and powers (although they, too, are welcome to listen and learn): he goes to the outcasts, including lepers and prostitutes, to announce and embody a Kingdom in which Israel's God is king, not just of the people of Israel, but of the whole world. The child 'wrapped...in swaddling clothes and laid....in a manger' (Luke 2.7) will not establish God's rule and kingdom by political cunning, or by a display of worldly wisdom, or by knocking emperors and procurators off their thrones or judgment-seats: he will reign from a different throne, an instrument of torture -- the Cross. He will not be celebrated, like victorious Roman generals, with a 'triumph,' a vast spectacle conducted in the capital of world empire: the signs of his 'triumph' will be an empty tomb; the pierced hands and feet of a transfigured, glorified body that defies time and space; burning memories of a walk to Emmaus; a breakfast of grilled fish on the lakeshore; a commission to go and convert the world, issued to a group of nobodies.

"It's all inversion -- all upside-down -- all the way."

In a recent commentary, George Weigel (columnist and Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, DC) reflected on Christmas and its part in the paradox of the victory of Jesus.

To access Mr. Weigel’s complete essay, please visit:

The Boston Pilot: Echoes: Christmas and a world upside-down (22 DEC 15)