Flesh

One of the great philosophical discussions of the early Church was about the actual nature of God in Jesus Christ.  One of these great discussions/questions related to whether Jesus was both fully God and fully human.  Meetings of the early Church fathers took place.  Papers were written and passed around to the great minds of that time.  Scriptures were read and meanings were debated.  But when all the dust settled, John 1 was both affirmed and adopted into the creeds of the Church.  Jesus was fully God and an eternal being.  Jesus stepped into and submitted to time, temptation and human frailty.  Jesus became flesh and "dwelt among us."

It was predicted from the very earliest times.  Leviticus 26:11-12 says, "I will live among you, and I will not despise you.  I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people.  I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so you would no longer be their slaves.  I broke the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk with your heads held high."  God said He would come and physically be among people like you and me.  The word for "walk" in this passage is, in the Hebrew, only used for human perambulation.  The prophecy here is that God will walk as a person among the people He loves.  That happened in Jesus.

It is amazing to me that the God over everything submitted to anything, but in Jesus (as told in John 1) God submitted to the effects of time, temptation and the frailty that accompanies the human condition.  He fell and skinned his knee as a child.  He felt the looks of disapproval and jealousy as He knew, as a teen, God's word better than the religious leaders of His time.  He was hungry and thirsty as He wandered for 40 days in the wilderness of temptation.  The nails of the cross and the agony of a horrible death was felt by Jesus as any human would feel those terrible things.

John 1 expresses both the struggle of Jesus' humanity and the blessing Jesus brought us in coming to us as true light that brings life.  Jesus lived fully as a person, wrapped in flesh.  He was rejected fully by those He came to save.  He fully/completely saved those that believed in Him and "received the right to become children of God."

As we begin the season of Advent we will get the chance to experience the expectation of Jesus' arrival.  We will hear the songs.  We will have the ups and downs we usually feel during this time of year.  Some of us will remember loved ones who are no longer with us.  We will get frustrated but we will see things that give us a glimmer of the good things about the season of Christmas.  Never forget that when Jesus came wrapped in human flesh He had all of the ups, downs, losses, hurts and joys we experience.  He has been here.  And because He has been here, we can go to be with Him.  John 1 says it this way ... "The law was given through Moses but God's unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ."  For He, in flesh, walked among us.  Randy