Thoughts on the Incarnation of Christ – Attempts at Honesty
On the way to church this morning, I heard a woman on the radio say, “isn’t it amazing that Jesus came to die for us?” After hearing this, it occurred to me that you could shorten the question to “isn’t it amazing that Jesus came?”
If Christian tradition is correct and Jesus is God incarnate, then the fact that Almighty God would subject himself to the limitations of human existence is truly amazing.
My point is not to detract from the importance of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. These events are the culmination and the purpose of Jesus’ incarnation. It just hit me that even before these important events took place, the incarnation itself is an amazing thing.
As a baby, Jesus willingly allowed his physical existence to depend on the care of Mary and Joseph. The creator of the universe had to limit his ability to communicate to crying and the other means of communication available to a newborn baby.
Did Jesus ever get frustrated with his limitations? It seems sacrilegious to think so, but I wonder. I do not know if Jesus was aware of his divine nature from infancy. Perhaps he had to grow into the knowledge. But if he had any consciousness at all about his divinity, he would have been aware of what he “emptied himself” (Phil. 2:7) of when he set aside his divinity to fully experience humanity. That he did this willingly can only be as a result of his great love for us.
That Jesus loved us enough to “tabernacle among us” (John 1:14) should blow our minds. That his did so for the purpose of dying to redeem us adds to the “amazingness” of the whole plan.
The incarnation itself is something so wonderful that the only proper response is to worship.
