Max Lucado
As Human as He Intended to Be
It all happened in a moment, a most remarkable moment. God became a man. Heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in a human womb.
Jesus came, not as a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, but as one whose first cries were heard by a peasant girl and a sleepy carpenter. The hands that first held him were un-manicured, calloused, and dirty. For thirty-three years he would feel everything you and I have ever felt. Weak and weary and afraid of failure. His feelings got hurt.
To think of Jesus in such a light seems almost irreverent. There’s something about keeping him divine that keeps him distant and predictable. But don’t do it. For heaven’s sake, don’t! Let him be as human as he intended to be. Let him into the mire and muck of our world. For only if we let him in can he pull us out.
God’s Plan for Humanity
God’s plan for humanity. It was crafted in the halls of heaven and carried out on the plains of earth. Only holiness could have imagined it. Only divinity could have enacted it. And only righteousness could have endured it.
When God chose to reveal himself, he did so through a human body. The hand that touched the leper had dirt under its nails. The feet upon which the women wept were calloused and dusty. And his tears—oh, don’t miss his tears. They came from a heart as broken as yours or mine ever has been.
So people came to him. Not one person was reluctant to approach him for fear of being rejected. Remember that the next time you find yourself amazed at your own failures. Or the next time you hear a lifeless liturgy. Remember, it’s man who creates the distance. It’s Jesus who builds the bridge.
