Your Role as a Human Being

We all serve multiple roles. We can't be mothers without first having been daughters. We are leaders in some arenas, followers in others; most times our leadership is born because of whom or what we choose to follow. We are parents and employees and neighbors, all in the same day. I just spent Christmas Day as a wife, mother, and grandmother, as generations gathered.

Throughout Scripture, Jesus is identified as the Son of God and the Son of Man. When He emerged from the water after His baptism, and again at His transfiguration, the Father's voice from heaven declared, "This is My beloved Son." And yet, again and again, Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man. I don't assume to know all the theology behind it, I don't pretend to understand the idea of God maintaining His deity in full while existing completely as a human being, but Scripture says it. 

As human beings, we think linearly. We want to know where His human existence stops and His deity begins. We want to know if, as a human He said what He said and did what He did (the implication there, perhaps, is our capacity to imitate those things), or if He was acting in His authority as Creator or Redeemer. But this morning, as I was reading over Matthew 20:27-28, I began to understand Jesus' desire to identify with those He came to save and to serve. He tells His disciples, "And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Briefly, and with regard to another day's topic, Jesus had to enter earth as a human being in order to be the proper substitute for the penalty required of all human beings outside His redemptive blood. But He came to serve as well. To serve humanity as a human. And not only those few hours on the cross, though that was worldwide, comprehensive service surpassing all of time and circumstance; but Jesus came to teach and heal and feed and comfort and correct. Jesus served by doing the same things we do each day. Only, He did them for everyone. Yes, even the Pharisees to whom He spoke so sharply. Even Judas! Admittedly, I have a difficult time serving those I love consistently, humbly, day after day. 

I know the celebration of Jesus' incarnation was days ago, but by it He taught us a principle that is timeless (and, perhaps, something that can challenge and inspire us in the new year). We can love and serve others --all others --as He did and as He still does today. He makes us a part of that continued ministry. As human beings we can do it. Our role as human followers and imitators of Jesus, given His righteousness and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, provides us with the desire to do it.