In 325 B.C., the leaders of the early church gathered in a town called Nicaea. In response to some of the heresies of the day, they tried to define authentic, orthodox Christian beliefs.
The Nicene Creed states that Jesus Christ is “the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father, through him all things were made.”
While I certainly agree with these statements, they might cause us to look at Jesus through stained glass and think of him as more divine than human. If he is way up there, so to speak, how can we relate to him while we are way down here? It is right for us to revere Christ for his divinity, but we should also love him as a fellow human being.
When the Son of God became human in the person of Jesus, he emptied himself of his God-qualities and became like we are (Philippians 2:6-8). As a human being, he was able to experience life like we experience it. He got mad like we get mad, had sorrow like we have sorrow, suffered like we suffer, and died like we die. He was tempted like we are, even though he did not sin (Hebrews 4:15).
He was not pretending to be a man; he really was flesh and blood, and like us in every way except without sin. Jesus was not Mozart pretending to play in the kindergarten kazoo choir. Life was not easy for him, just like it is not easy for us.
After he fasted for 40 days, “he was hungry” just like we would be if we had not eaten for over a month (Luke 4:2). When he had walked all day to Samaria, Jesus was tired from the journey and sat down by a well where he met the woman at the well whom he asked for a drink because he was thirsty (John 4:6-7). Hungry? Tired? Thirsty? That sounds just like us.
Jesus was very human and experienced life in the same way we experience it. When his cousin John the Baptist was executed by Herod, he was engulfed in grief and had to “withdraw by boat privately to a solitary place” to mourn (Matthew 14:13). When his close friend Lazarus died and Jesus saw the grief of Lazarus’ sisters and other friends, “Jesus wept” in solidarity with the feelings of those whom he loved (John 11:35). It infuriated Jesus when the Pharisees and religious leaders could not seem to put aside their own self-interest and hear the truth about the gift of salvation God was sending them. He compared them to hard-to-please children who would not dance when the flute was played for them by their playmates and would not play funeral and weep when their friends sang sad songs (Matthew 11:16-19).
We would have been exasperated, too, by such hardheartedness. Sometimes Jesus was surprised. When the Roman centurion expressed unshakeable faith in Jesus’ healing power, Jesus was “astonished” (Matthew 8:5-10). When Philip could not seem to understand what Jesus was saying about his impending departure from earth through his death, Jesus answered him “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?” (John 14:9). Jesus was hurt like we would be hurt when those closest to us can’t seem to understand us. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he wanted his disciples to be close to him and asked them to remain in the garden to watch and pray (Matthew 26:36-46).
Just like us, Jesus wanted the company of those closest to him when he was about to undergo the most trying experience of his life. He did not want to be lonely, and he wanted the support of others.
It is possible to get lost in the religious fog of the highly exalted Jesus, which puts him out of our relational reach. The whole focus of Jesus’ life was for us to be able to relate to him and be his friend. When he was resurrected, the disciples thought he was a ghost, so he had them feel his body and examine his scars. He took a piece of fish and ate it, so they would know that even in his resurrected body, he was still human.
After making bold statements about Jesus’ divinity, the Nicene Creed asserts that he came down from heaven and became “truly human.” The creed then lists many of Jesus’ human experiences of life like being born, suffering, and dying. He was 100 percent human, sharing our feelings, our suffering, and even our experience of dying. Jesus was the most human of all human beings.
Jesus demonstrated to us how to be human, how to feel, how to struggle, how to suffer, and even how to die. Yet, he assures us that we are not lost in our humanity, for he overcame even our final enemy of death. In him we find hope, love, and peace. In him we discover that being truly human means we are connected to God in the midst of being human. In him we discover wonder, awe, and faith while we experience the same things in life that he experienced.
He calls us to belong to him and be a part of his community of humans who are saved by his grace and mercy.
Dr. Dan Darby is a retired United Methodist pastor.
