Do you ever feel like Jesus couldn’t possibly know what you are going through? He’s the God of the universe after all! Does he really know your daily struggles? The good news is: he does. For thirty-three years Jesus felt everything you have ever felt. Weakness. Weariness. Sadness. Rejection.Because in becoming human, Jesus made it possible for us to see God. Want to know what in the world God is doing? Ponder the words and life of Jesus.Join us during Lent for…JESUS-The God Who Knows our Name…This week did you know his name is…IMMANUEL?
PJ Point
Isn’t that just like Jesus for many of us? The Jesus of many people is small enough to be contained in an aquarium. Buy him at the store, dump him in a tank, watch him swim. He will never cause any trouble or demand attention. Let’s be honest we all want a fishbowl Jesus we can control and just watch.
But Max says not to watch but watch out because that is not the real Jesus the Christ. The Messiah of the world. He brings a wild ride. He comes at your like a fire hose- blasting, purging, cleansing. He will not swim quietly. And in true Max fashion, I could never say it better about Jesus than He is more a force than a fixture, flushing away every last clod of doubt and death and infusing us with wonder and hope.
PJ Point
Jesus changes everything. Jesus doesn’t change what you see in the mirror. He instead changes how you see what you see. He will not be silenced, packaged or predicted. Jesus is five letters. Six hours. One cross and three nails. We live because he does, find hope because he works, and we matter because he matters.
PJ Point
We are talking about being saved by him and not religion. Religion is our denomination, our doctrine, our creeds like the Apostles and Nicene, our church membership and name on a roll. That does not mean we have our name in the Lamb’s book of life talked about in Revelation. None of that saves us. We are saved not even by our baptism. That is our doorway into the church, the way we tell the rest of the world and remind ourselves that we have been claimed and cleansed.We are saved by Jesus himself who transformed the tomb in a womb out of which all our lives were truly born.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
DYK?
He became flesh. Why? Why did he take this journey that would lead him to his death? Why did he go so far? The answer is a simple three-letter word. What is it? YOU. Jesus came to be near you and me.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
Hebrews 4:15
DYK?
If Jesus understands our weaknesses then so does God because he is not the literal son of God, which I hope we understand but is instead God who comes down in the self-limiting form of skin. He was God with us which means to us Immanuel.
Immanu means “with us”. The El refers to Elohim one of the many names for God in the Hebrew scripture. So Immanuel is not God above us that we look to in the sky or God who created as a cosmic clockmaker and then went off on vacation in the vastness of space like almost all our founding fathers believed as Deists. They were not Christians like we think of as followers of the way. Jesus came as the God-with-us.
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:20
DYK?
Yeshua means in Hebrew literally to deliver, to save. God who saves. Jesus he who will save them from their sins. And then make sure to tell her not to be afraid.Max says he became one of us so we might become one with Him. He entered our world in the high hope that we will enter his.
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
Luke 2:11
PJ Point
And what was the most remarkable part of the Incarnation? It is not just that God swapped eternity for calendars although that is a big deal. I mean think about it. Was it God surrendered timelessness? We can’t even imagine a moment when there was not God. When was God created? No clue. What is the time when there was no Word? There wasn’t. God has never not been. God is eternal. God is not bound by time.
But when Jesus came to earth. He became finite. He had to live in time. He had only a certain number of years here on earth to live. He had to die because his time of teaching was up. Why was it only 33 years and why did he start so late at 30? God only knows. It must have been about Kairos the right time to do something instead of Chronos clock time.
PJ Point
And you might think that being bound in a body would be it. He was imprisoned in the flesh. Was it God surrendered boundlessness? He got tired and walked on human feet. And you have to wonder if he ever thought about using his abilities to make it easier in his life. Transporting himself to his next destination like something from Star Trek? If he did we don’t know about it and he didn’t give in. Not once did Christ use his supernatural powers for personal comfort.
PJ Point
This is not the most remarkable part of his coming. It is beyond the surrender of timelessness and boundlessness to the surrender of sinlessness that is most remarkable. That is the message of the crown of thorns. Scripture tells us that an unnamed soldier took branches, that bore thorns and nimble enough to bend- and wove them into a cruel crown of thorns.
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
Genesis 3:17-18
DYK?
The interesting part is that if you look at thorns in other places in the scripture they symbolize not sin but the consequences of sin. For instance, remember in Eden that after Adam and sinned that God cursed the land and said.
PJ Point
What is the fruit of sin? Thorns. Thistles. Thistles like Shame. Fear. Disgrace. Discouragement. Anxiety. But Jesus had never been but by the thorns of sin. He never faced anxiety why because he never worried. He didn’t fear. Why? Because he never left the presence of God.
Jesus never knew the thistles of sin until he took on the sin of all of us.And when he did all the emotions and darkness of sin hit him like a wrecking ball down to his very core. And on a stormy Friday we call good he felt the weight of the world upon him and he felt anxious, guilty and frankly afraid. For a moment he was separated from God and during that time is when we hear the words of Matt 27:46…
bout three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)
Matthew 27:46
“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
Matthew 4:9-10
PJ Point
No the most remarkable thing about the one who gave up the crown of heaven for a crown of thorns is that He gave it up for you and for me. He loves to be with the ones he loves. Us. Humans. He became fully human. When he was full of joy Luke 10:21 his joy was real. When he wept for Jerusalem Luke 19:41 his tears were as salty as yours and mine. When he asked, “How long must I put up with you? Matt 17:17 his frustration is honest.
rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Philippians 2:7
PJ Point
Or maybe that still isn’t the most remarkable thing. Because even after three days in a dark hole, to make sure everyone would know he was dead and not faking it, Max says he stepped into the Easter sunrise with a smile and swagger and a question for lowly Lucifer- is that your best punch?
PJ Point
But still he took the very nature of a servant Phil 2:7 to become like us so he could serve us. He entered the world not to demand our allegiance to him (what Satan tempted him with) but to display his affection. And he endured all of these feelings because he knew we would feel them too. He knew you would be weary, disturbed, angry, sleepy, grief-stricken, and hungry. He knew we would face the pain of the body and the soul.
He did this so he would understand by being where we go. He has been where you are and can relate to how you feel. And if his life on earth doesn’t convince you then his death on the cross should.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:15-16
PJ Final Point
So while it is easier to keep the goldfish Jesus in his tank by keeping the humanity out of his incarnation and clean the manure from around the manger. But don’t do it. Max says Let him be human as God intended him to be. Let him into the mire and muck of our world, for only if we let him in, can he pulls us out.
Will you let JESUS into the mire and muck of your world so he can pull you out during these 40 days?
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