"Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace…

"Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." (Luke 2:14).

The conclusion of this verse has a very important meaning of salvation.

What is this thing pleasing to God?

What does he mean? To find the answer, we must go back to what God said by Isaiah the prophet in verse 53, that speaks clearly about the passion that Christ will bear for our sake:

“He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely, He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth”.

After this we find the answer:

“Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand (Isaiah 53: 10).

Note that the word “pleased” is here related with the Father’s will that His Son be crushed as an eternal sacrifice for mankind.

God’s will is our sanctification. It is God’s eternal satisfaction for the salvation of humankind from the yoke of sin and from the tyranny of evil.

Theologically, it was pleasing to God that the aim of creating mankind in His image and likeness be fulfilled, as creation is united with God and gives him glory.

Both things were implemented in the Incarnation, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. Indeed, God’s Incarnation is never separated from His Cross and Resurrection.

What appears to be sorrow and despise is a peaceful and eternal salvific pleasing thing. We find further in the text:

He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.

By His Knowledge My Righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore, I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.

The Suffering Servant of God, the Only Begotten Son on the Cross, in Isaiah’s prophecy is an image of God’s economy of salvation.

Therefore, in the Epiphany (Christ’s baptism), we heard the Father saying: “This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3: 17).

The same sentence is repeated by the Father in the Theophany, with an added sentence: “Listen to Him” (Matthew 17: 5).