I’ve been contemplating Jesus’ humanity a lot lately.
It’s blowing me away.
I am discovering I tend to think of Jesus as very different from me. It’s almost as though He surely floated above the earth and always was a bit separate from those who followed Him.
It’s hard to imagine Him playing with his brothers as a young boy. Do you ever think of Jesus scraping His knee? Or, did He ever have a cold? I believe he did, but I have never really thought about such things before now.
I have a hard time even typing “him” with anything less than a capital “H.”
Now, as I read the gospels I am considering Jesus, the son of man. I am imagining how I might “play” him if I were to be Jesus in a play or musical. What expressions were on His face? What was His tone of voice? What emotions was he experiencing as he was laughed at, pressed upon, tempted and in pain?
He really died. He bled. He cried. He wept. He laughed. He was tempted IN EVERY WAY just as we are. When people laughed at him, isn’t it reasonable to imagine that one of his temptations was to doubt that He could heal or raise someone from the dead, even though the Father was speaking it to Him? He was tempted in every way. Just go back and reread Mark 5 (as one example) and consider all that Jesus may have felt as a human in those stories.
The verse that really struck me is Luke 2:52. Not only did Jesus grow physically, but He grew in wisdom and in favor with God and man. Have you ever wondered how Jesus, God the Son, grew in wisdom and grew in favor with the Father???
He was fully human. That’s how. Yes, He was fully God, but Philippians 2 explains that He clothed himself with humanity. He submitted all His power and godliness into human flesh. Imagine Jesus as an infant, crying and unable to lift his head. Imagine Jesus with a stomach ache after nursing and burping up Mary’s milk. Imagine Jesus first learning to walk and falling down, over and over again. He did all of these things. Otherwise it would not have been so hard for his brothers and family to believe He was the Son of God. He would have not had so much trouble with miracles in his home town, where the faith in him was really small.
Jesus, the son of man. Hard to imagine. But as I contemplate it my heart yearns to know Him more. The love He had for us, to do what He did (taking on human flesh and submitting to all its frailties), is unfathomable and makes my heart explode with love for Him.
Even more amazingly He remains fully human and fully God.