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Fun fact: you’re probably a human being. Probably. As a human being, you have longings to love, and be loved. You get tired. You get worn. You get hungry. You run, you laugh, you cry, you play, you work. You look at the world, and you see a planet full of human beings; bundles of pain, poverty, disease, and laughter, life, and joy.
Another fun fact: Jesus of Nazareth is a human being. He experienced love, he got tired, worn, and hungry; he had friends, he laughed, he loved. Yet there is one key difference between Jesus and us: He never committed a wrong against anyone. In fact, Jesus was the perfect man.
That doesn’t mean He was perched on a rooftop, hands folded, his eyes directed heavenward with a blank stare on his face. No, this man lived with the poorest of the poor. He ministered to the outcast, to the oppressed. He stepped into the pain of those society wouldn’t dare touch. Jesus gets us. In fact, He understands those society refuses to understand. Jesus gets those despised- the victim of human trafficking, the poor, the oppressed, the sick. And yet, Jesus never did wrong to any other human, or any wrong against God. He never compromised, and He healed and forgave the ones He lived with.
Third fun fact (actually, mind-blowing fact): Jesus is God. That means He is simultaneously the Creator of the universe. He keeps the universe running. He created every single star in the sky, and every single blade of grass. He’s as near to you as your own heartbeat; He’s keeping it beating, after all! The Bible says that God keeps creation running as an act of love. So feel your pulse. In every heartbeat, Jesus is saying to you, “I love you. I get you. I really understand every bit of you.” In every sunrise, Jesus invites you to rest in Him. In every warm hug you feel, Jesus invites you more deeply to know the One who sustains that hug. He wants you.
So somehow, this Jesus is both God and man at the same time. He has two “natures”. What in the world does that mean? Well, a “nature” describes all the qualities that make something…well, that thing. For example, the human nature describes all the qualities that make a human…well, a human. Jesus had all the qualities of humanity, and all the qualities of deity. He had a human nature, and a divine nature. Picture it like this:
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Label one hand “divine” and one hand “human”. Jesus had two natures that were joined together and yet still distinct. He wasn’t half human or half deity, or a weird deity-human hybrid; Jesus was truly and fully God, and truly and fully man. In His human nature, He became hungry, tired, and limited in knowledge; he was fully human. Yet in His divine nature, He was unlimited, eternal, uncaused, all-knowing and all powerful, for He is fully God.
So if you were to look into the human eyes of Jesus, you would be looking into the eyes of God Himself. As you look at the man who weeps over Jerusalem, you are seeing God weep over those far from Him. As you read about the man who ate with tax collectors, fishermen, prostitutes—people who were the outcasts of His day—you see God coming to live with the least of us. The God of Christianity is no detached deity.
And as you see this man bearing a Roman cross, mocked by soldiers, spat on, beaten, and crucified, you see God come in the form of a shamed human to die for humanity. You see a God who became one of us to rescue us.
