What Are You Looking For? Part 1: The Nicene Creed

And Became Man

And became man.

                        Sometimes it’s hard to picture Jesus’ human nature.  It’s a lot easier to “see”, as it were, his divinity than his humanity.  I think that’s because we all know the end of the story.  We’ve either heard or read the Gospel stories that describe his miracles, his teachings and the one event that most displayed his power: his Resurrection.  Whether people are believers or not, most have at least a basic knowledge of what the word “Easter” refers to.  And when we want Jesus to act in our lives, it’s often because we want something from him that his divine nature would provide.  We want a miracle.

            Jesus’ human nature was just like ours, with the exception of sin, of course.  What did that mean, both for him and for the people around him?  It means he grew up like any other kid.  When he was a baby, he cried when he was teething.  He got cranky.  He needed to be taught how to be a good Hebrew boy.  That must have been a little weird for Mary and Joseph.  They knew he was fully divine as well as fully human.  They knew he was the Son of the Living God, but they had to teach him how to observe the very feasts and fasts that had pre-figured his own coming.  They had to teach him the very scriptures that he, as God, wrote.  Maybe they didn’t think about that too much.   He didn’t just spring from Mary’s womb knowing all he needed to know as an adult.  He had to be taught.

            What went on in Jesus’ life between the ages of twelve and roughly thirty when he began his ministry, no one knows.  There are a few things we can assume, because they are things that are common to all people.  He would have worked.  Joseph was a carpenter, so it’s safe to say that he taught Jesus his trade.  He no doubt smashed his thumb with a hammer more than once as he was learning.  Because Joseph isn’t mentioned anywhere in Scripture after Jesus began his ministry, common thought is that he had passed away.  Mary is mentioned, but not Joseph.  It’s doubtful that Mary would have accompanied her son, or that Jesus would have commended her to John’s care if Joseph had been alive, which means he had probably passed away earlier.  So Jesus knew grief. 

            During his ministry, we see times when Jesus is moved with compassion and pity.  When he is tired.  In the Gospels, the story is told of the storm that blows up while he is sleeping in the boat.  Anyone that can sleep in the back of a fairly small boat in the middle of a storm at sea isn’t just tired.  They’re exhausted.  He gets angry.  He gets frustrated.  Sometimes he wants to take a break.  On the night of his Passion, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he pleads with his Father to “let this cup pass from me”.  He didn’t want to die.  He didn’t want to suffer.  As the Son of God, he knew it was necessary and so he was able to bring his human nature in line with the divine will and declare, “Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.”  But he was hardly going, “yippee skippee!  Today I get to be tortured and die!”  Which is a good thing; because the whole point of becoming a man was to lead us to the Father.  To be like us in every way.  To feel what we feel, dread what we dread, and so show us the love of the Father.  If the cross had been without suffering, if the prayer in the Garden had been without dread, St. Paul could never have been able to write that he was like us in every way except he was without sin. 

            Because he was like us in every way, we can identify with him.  We don’t just focus on the power of his divinity to provide miracles when we want them.  More importantly we know that he knows exactly how we feel when we hurt.  When we’re angry.  When people we love are taken from us way too soon.  When life isn’t fair.  When we feel abandoned.  Because he felt all of those things, too, we can run to him and pour out our hearts to him.  Because he knows exactly how we feel, he comforts us and upholds us.  He wraps his arms around us and walks with us because he loved us so much that he became one of us.  He became man.