JOHN 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus is indeed Immanuel – God with us!
The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. (GNB)
God became a human being – a man. But WHAT KIND OF MAN did Jesus become?
We tend to think that Jesus became a human being just like us. That when God was choosing what kind of man to become, of course he would choose to be like us. Or even more, like we would choose to be. He would choose to be project a good image, always be in control, rich, happy, successful.
But of course that isn’t how it was for Jesus Christ the Son of God. When God became a human being, he became an ORDINARY human being, and ordinary for 2000 years ago for the middle east for Jewish peasant farmers.
So what kind of human being did Jesus become.
Did Jesus have a GOOD IMAGE
In this world of advertising and spin-doctors, image counts for so much. Looking good counts for everything! So many people spend fortunes even on surgery just to look good! Spending so much for results that are so temporary.
Os Guinness – book : WHEN NO ONE SEES: THE IMPORTANCE OF CHARACTER IN AN AGE OF IMAGE, all about “the modern world’s obsession with physical appearance.”
This began to occur, Guinness writes, when Americans began moving from the country to cities, “from small, stable, face-to-face relationships to fast, superficial, largely anonymous acquaintances.” The result, he says, was “an accompanying shift from an emphasis on internal character to one’s external appearance. Thus the traditional ideal of ‘the strong character’ has given way to ‘the striking personality’ and ‘the successful image.'”
The dramatic increase in cosmetic procedures “is the mirror image of the decline of character,” Guinness argues. Plastic surgery was once confined to those with disfiguring war injuries. Having it for purely aesthetic reasons was considered a mark of vanity, “because perfectibility was understood to lie within the spiritual, not the physical realm,” Guinness writes. “Crooked noses … sagging breasts, and spreading wrinkles were realities of this earthly life, to be borne with dignity and humor” — not anymore.
The same is true in other areas of life. How much wisdom and how many friendships do we miss out on because we look no further than someone’s plain face or gray hair?
We need to beware of the modern tendency to admire image and personality over character and conviction. We need to look beyond physical appearance to inward character.
But what kind of image did Jesus project? He was an ORDINARY man, of his times.
Isa 53:2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 … Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Dud Jesus have a good image? NO – He would have been a spin doctor’s nightmare!!
Was Jesus POWERFUL? Was Jesus always IN CONTROL?
One thing I have noticed from visiting Uganda and Bulgaria. Death and sickness and accidents seem to hit us in the England much harder than they do many other people. People suffer and die in Uganda and Bulgaria – and they weep and grieve as we do. But then people cope. Life goes on. There are two reasons why we seem to suffer more.
1. In general, we experience LESS occasions of physical suffering and pain and grief than people who have no access to medical treatment, where life expectancy is much shorter and most people have lost brothers and sisters and children in their early years of life.
2. Death and illness and accidents are the only areas of life where we have NO control. Of course I should include things like redundancy as well, but in Bulgaria where unemployment in rural areas is running at 80% they are more used to being without jobs and without money. But most people in England for most of the time are in control of their lives. We have enough money to live on, and social services to step in when needed. We have good nutrition and good sanitation and good health (compared to the vast majority of people in the world). And we have excellent medical facilities available free of charge if we need them. Most of us for most of the time are able to be in control of their lives.
Most people in the world are NOT in control! They are not powerful. They are powerless. And Jesus became an ORDINARY human being. His life was at the mercy of the floods and famines which strike most parts of the world from time to time – and of an occupying Roman army.
Isa 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 ¶ Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
Was Jesus RICH?
One question from Christmas story has been puzzling me. Whatever happened to the gifts the Wise Men brought to baby Jesus? They would have been worth a lot in those days!!
Nobody knows. Id like to think they were sold to feed the poor – but nobody knows. Certainly Jesus didn’t live on their riches.
Matt 8:20 “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lie down and rest.”
Jesus spend the first two years of his life as a refugee. HE grew up in Nazareth, the back of beyond. Remember Nathaniel’s sneering question. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
By any reasonable comparison with the rest of the world, all of us are rich. Jesus wasn’t rich. He was just an ordinary man of his times.
2 Cor 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
He came down to earth from heaven, Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable, And His cradle was a stall:
With the poor and meek and lowly Lived on earth our Saviour holy.
Was Jesus HAPPY?
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering./ acquainted with grief.
We spend so much of our lives struggling to be happy and complaining when we aren’t. Certainly Jesus attracted a crowd. He went to celebrations like weddings, and Jewish festivals. People liked to be around him – until the last few days at least. But never once does the Bible tell us that Jesus laughed, or smiled, or grinned, or was happy. And my suspicion is that many of the things which make lots of people happy are things which would have given Jesus no pleasure or satisfaction at all. I don’t believe Jesus would have enjoyed clubbing, or comedies or game shows or “reality TV” as much as many people and even many Christians seem to. So many people in England only seem to be happy when they are being “entertained”. Many have forgotten how to find pleasure in the ordinary things of life. But I believe Jesus was an ORDINARY MAN – not happy all the time, probably weeping much much more than we ever do over the sadness and suffering the real world is filled with.
For He is our childhood’s pattern: Day by day like us He grew;
He was little, weak and helpless; Tears and smiles like us He knew:
And He feeleth for our sadness, And He shareth in our gladness.
And how about SUCCESS? Was Jesus SUCCESSFUL?
By today’s standards of success, Jesus would have been considered a failure.
Was he popular? No. He was not well-liked. In fact, after one of his sermons, all of his followers deserted him, except for the Twelve Apostles.
Did he have political power? No. He was a political failure. All levels of government first rejected him. Then they conspired to kill him.
Did he have lots of friends? No. His friends often hurt him, eventually abandoned him, and one of them betrayed him to death.
Did he have money and possessions? No. No house, no “wheels”, no world headquarters, no Christian amusement park.
Was he respected by his peers? No. His professional peers (Pharisees) rejected his work.
Jesus WAS successful – but only through failure. Through suffering. Through sacrifice. Through death. Not the kind of success many people strive for.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was
stricken. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 ¶ Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light [of life] and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Jesus was an ORDINARY MAN. Not a superstar! Not powerful. Not rich. Not happy. Not successful. In fact Jesus was less powerful, less in control than we are. Less rich than we are. Less happy and less successful than any people like us! Jesus was an ORDINARY man. Truly a man of the people.
And why does this matter to us? Because Jesus has shares our humanity in EVERY way. There is no pit too deep where he has not been and suffered with us. This is the message of Christmas
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
