The humanness of Jesus

Pastor Richard Baker
Trinity United Methodist Church

(2/1) We have just come through Christmas and New Year. We celebrated the birth of the Christ child, and quickly moved to his baptism. On the liturgical calendar, it brings us to what we call "ordinary time." It marks the period between Jesus’ baptism and the beginning of Lent and following Easter we come back to ordinary time again. The word, ordinary is misleading because nothing about Christ’s life was ordinary. Even though he put on our flesh and lived just like one of us, Jesus was set apart from birth because he was the sinless Son of God.

But it’s interesting to look at what he accomplished during this period leading up to Lent. Looking at John’s gospel, he started his ministry by attending a wedding, something very ordinary, except for his miracle of turning water to wine. We assume he lived outside often and in the next chapter, he met with and discussed deep philosophical concepts with Nicodemus. He interacted with a Samaritan woman at the well. It seems ordinary to us today, but in his culture men and women did not mix, and because of her heritage, most Jewish people would have avoided her. But Jesus was not most people.

What we learn as we read these stories is that the extraordinary springs right out of the ordinary. As the write of Hebrews tells us, "He was made like us in every way." Isaiah would add to that saying that you may have had trouble picking Jesus out in a crowd. The Word became flesh and became one of us. That is the message from our Bibles. God loved this world so much that God became one of us to communicate in ways we could understand the depths of God’s love.

There is a story of a father and son walking through the woods and coming across a group of ants walking in a line together. But as they walked, they saw the ants had stopped. Their path was blocked by a large stick, and they were working to figure out what to do. The young boy wanted to pick up the stick so they could go through, but the father told him they probably would scatter in fear. The young boy had several ideas, but each time the father reminded him that the ants needed to work it out for themselves. Finally, the young boy said that if only he could become an ant, he could show them a better way.

Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the nuclear bomb, once said that the best way to convey an idea was by wrapping it up in a person. After centuries of trying to show us God’s love and our being unable to comprehend what God wanted, God decided the best way was to become one of us.

Isaiah paints a picture of a very ordinary Jesus in his 53rd chapter, saying, "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him." And yet, Isaiah goes on to describe this person as being the salvation of our world. What Isaiah pictured as ordinary would become extraordinary in every way.

Jesus was made like us in every way. He got hungry, as we can read in Matthew 12. He got tired as we can read in Mark 4. He got frustrated when he saw God’s house being defiled. He cried at the death of a friend in the story of Lazarus. Years ago, someone gave me a picture of a laughing Jesus, and when I hung it in my office a few folks took offence. That wasn’t the image of Jesus they were used to. But for me, it showed the humanness of Jesus. I think that God delights in watching us go through our days. I believe God smiles every time we get something right.

Rightfully so, we have put both God and Jesus on a pedestal, worthy of worship, but our God wants us to understand that God meets us in the ordinary times and places of our lives. We encounter Jesus shaking hands with a stranger. We encounter Jesus in the smile of the person taking your carry-out order. We encounter Jesus everywhere kindness is shown.

Jesus described John the Baptist in flowing terms, but he asked those listening what did they expect when they met John, and it’s a fair question to ask ourselves today. What are you looking for in Jesus? Would God be more relatable as someone sitting on a cloud throwing out thunder bolts? Would God seem more accessible if God were calling out judgment on those we disagree with? Our search for Jesus begins in the ordinary, as Paul reminds us in Philippians 2. "Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Jesus decided to be ordinary so as to not draw attention to himself but to God. When people saw his bring life out of death, or healing out of illness, they were told by him that it was the power of God working within him.

At Trinity United Methodist Church, we celebrate encountering Jesus in the ordinary. We feed the community on the last Wednesday of each month. There are no requirements or restrictions. If you’re hungry, come over and get a meal, it’s that simple. Several of our members work at the Food Bank or volunteer over at Seton Center. Recently we repaired a house for an elderly lady in the community. But they also serve in civic groups like the Lion’s Club. They work at the funeral home. We have college professors and custodians worshipping God side-by-side. They look just like you and yet they carry in what Paul called, "these jars of clay," the message of hope and salvation to a world that longs to know peace. They are ordinary people doing extraordinary things because Christ lives in their hearts.

Jesus chose the ordinary because it was the best way to reach us. He became like the young boy who suggested becoming an ant, like us, to show us the way around our sinful problem. Today, we invite you to see Jesus for who he really is; the Lord and Creator of the entire universe who loves his creation so much that he willingly became one of us when every other way failed. We celebrate the ordinary, but the truth is there is nothing ordinary in any of us. Because of whom God is and what God accomplished by sending Jesus into our world, we have become extraordinary because of who he is. May God help you to see that divine spark in each person you meet. Thank you for allowing me to share this message with you.