“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” – John 1:14 (MSG)
The Creator of the Universe took on flesh! How can this be?! What an inexpressible mystery! Flesh like yours and mine became His covering, His garment, His cloak. How can the Word that spoke the universe into being limit Himself to becoming a few ounces of flesh and blood nestled in His mother’s womb?
God was right here among us! From those few ounces of flesh and blood in His mother’s womb, Jesus grew up to be one of us. People like you and me touched and hugged Him. They talked and laughed with Him. They shared meals with Him. They walked and sailed with Him.
He became one of us.
And the humility! I marvel at what it must have taken for Jesus to lay aside what was rightfully His and humbly embrace human form. As the Apostle Paul put it:
He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. – Philippians 2:6-7 (MSG)
On top of that, I can only imagine what it must have felt like for Jesus to enter into the mess we’ve made of His creation. You think our world is decaying now? Try being born in Israel during first century Roman occupation!
The Jews were surrounded by deeply offensive pagan practices and antisemitic prejudice. The Roman soldiers had the power to subject the men to forced labor1 and rape the women2. Israel’s administrative districts—similar to our states—which had been in place for almost a thousand years (even under the rule of other conquerors) were redrawn by the Romans to destabilize the nation and undermine attempts at resistance3 . Citizens were subject to the whims of Caesar and the infighting of local authorities4. Rampant taxation ground many of the Jews into poverty5. And that doesn’t even include all the other theft, power-mongering, violence, dishonesty, oppression, and hatred that fill this world no matter when and where you are born.
Why would Jesus do such a thing? The Early Church Father, John Chrysosom (349-407 A.D.) had this answer:
For what reason? That coming amongst us He may teach us, and teaching, lead us by the hand to the things that men cannot see. For since men believe that the eyes are more trustworthy than the ears, they doubt of that which they do not see, and so He has deigned to show Himself in bodily presence, that He may remove all doubt.
Made visible to “lead us by the hand to the things that men cannot see.”
Made audible so we can hear the voice of His Spirit.
Made tangible so we can grasp the things that men cannot touch.
This is a humility beyond my understanding, a love beyond my comprehension.
Out of the ivory palaces,
Into a world of woe,
Only His great eternal love
Made my Savior go6.
~ Kathryn Kircher
~ photo from https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57086
1 e.g. Matthew 5:41
3 https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/palestine-under-roman-rule/
4 https://israelmyglory.org/article/jerusalem-vs-rome-jewish-life-in-the-time-of-christ/
5 https://www.evidenceunseen.com/theology/historical-theology/tax-collectors/
6 From Henry Barraclough’s poem, Ivory Palaces (1915)
