Imagine if Jesus showed up in the flesh as a great teacher who taught and did miracles but at the end of the day went straight to heaven without feeling a bit of pain. No cross, no resurrection, no tears, no pain. Could you relate to that sort of Jesus? Not really. That is because real relationships require vulnerability. The fact that Jesus went through everything we do helps makes Jesus relatable. It draws us to him because we know that he knows. He knows what it is like to feel pain. He knows what it is like to be rejected. He knows what it is like to suffer, to bleed, to cry, and to die.
Relating to Jesus is only made easier by the fact that he made himself vulnerable enough to experience everything we do. How vulnerable do you make yourself to others? Might doing that help open doors for the kingdom in the lives of those you encounter? We live in a world that things vulnerability is for weaklings and spineless people. Jesus showed us quite the opposite. If you want to show the world Jesus Christ you don’t start with power. You start with vulnerability.
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I went to church this Christmas morning with my daughter. The minister’s message centered on the theme “God with us in the Word become flesh.” He talked about the hymn “Away in a manger” and how it states, “The little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes.” This, he said, is wrong. We want Jesus to be so perfectly divine that he does not react as a human. Yet, He wept when he was an adult. Doesn’t it stand to reason that he also wept as a baby?
This, I think, is the same point you make above! Merry Christmas – for God is with us!
Good thoughts! 2co 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.