A few years ago when flipping the dial on the radio, one would every now and
then hear the words of a popular song, "What if God was one of us". At Christmas, or Christ - Mass, we celebrate the belief that, in the words of John, "the word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1: 14).
It may be said that the Roman province of Iudaea in the years 6BC to AD 30 may appear to have little if any connection with Australia 1999. Although it is hard for some children to comprehend, many of the things we take for granted in our society simply were not around in Jesus' day: the Internet did not exist; there were no fax machines or computer games and it was many centuries before the radio was to be invented. Similarly, the kingdom of Herod and the province of Iudaea were considered by many contemporaries to be repressive dictatorships, a far cry from the democratic society we enjoy. Yet, despite these differences, Jesus as a human person shared with us the experience of being human.
Some of his life experiences were those that have never happened and hopefully will never happen to the majority of us. In recent times, we have witnessed the brutal massacre of hundreds of innocent people from East Timor, who have fled to countries such as Australia, seeking refugee status. These events bear an eerie comparison to Jesus' early life. Whilst he was still a baby, his parents fled with him to Egypt, seeking asylum from king Herod, who massacred all male infants in a failed attempt to kill Jesus. If his family settled in the city of Alexandria, the location of a sizable Jewish community, they would have been stigmatised as members of an unusual minority group and would have lived with the constant threat of being victims of racial violence that frequently erupted in this turbulent city. Similarly, when we are tempted to complain about perceived faults in our hospital system, it is sobering to remember that Mary gave birth to Jesus, after being compelled to travel over 100 kilometres during the last stage of her pregnancy, in the unhygienic environs of a stable where animals ate and slept,
Jesus, like most of us, was a member of a family. It has been an accepted understanding that by the time Jesus began his ministry at about the age of 30, Joseph, his foster father, had passed away. Whilst we cannot be certain for how many years Joseph had been dead, we can be reasonably certain that Jesus had the challenging task of being the chief provider for his family at a comparatively early age. In an era that predated social welfare by many centuries, in which the unprovided widow was reduced to dire circumstances, one cannot but recognise Jesus' concern for his mother's welfare when, dying on the cross, he entrusted the care of her to John.
Human beings are social creatures and Jesus was no exception to this rule. He experienced the joys of close friendship with other human beings, particularly with his disciples. However, like Jesus most of us, at some stage in our lives, have been let down, denied and in some circumstances betrayed by those in whom we placed the highest trust.
Finally, an integral part of human life was death. Jesus' death, though salvific, was arguably far worse that that most of us shall experience. He hung on a cross in excruciating agony for a number of hours, refusing to partake of a narcotic to dull the pain.
God became one of us - so what? The Letter to the Hebrews, in its discourse on Jesus as the supreme High Priest, states. "For the high priest we have [Jesus] is not incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us, but has been put to the test in exactly the same way as ourselves, apart from sin" (Hebrews 4: 15). That is to say, God is not some remote, inapproachable deity who has no understanding of the human condition. As Christians, an integral aspect of our ability to relate to God is that God became, in the person of Jesus Christ, a human person and shared similar human experiences that we experience. Because of Christ's humanity, in the words of the Letter to the Hebrews: "Let us then, have not fear in approaching the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace when we are in need of help" (Hebrews 4: 16).
It may be said that the Roman province of Iudaea in the years 6BC to AD 30 may appear to have little if any connection with Australia 1999. Although it is hard for some children to comprehend, many of the things we take for granted in our society simply were not around in Jesus' day: the Internet did not exist; there were no fax machines or computer games and it was many centuries before the radio was to be invented. Similarly, the kingdom of Herod and the province of Iudaea were considered by many contemporaries to be repressive dictatorships, a far cry from the democratic society we enjoy. Yet, despite these differences, Jesus as a human person shared with us the experience of being human.
Some of his life experiences were those that have never happened and hopefully will never happen to the majority of us. In recent times, we have witnessed the brutal massacre of hundreds of innocent people from East Timor, who have fled to countries such as Australia, seeking refugee status. These events bear an eerie comparison to Jesus' early life. Whilst he was still a baby, his parents fled with him to Egypt, seeking asylum from king Herod, who massacred all male infants in a failed attempt to kill Jesus. If his family settled in the city of Alexandria, the location of a sizable Jewish community, they would have been stigmatised as members of an unusual minority group and would have lived with the constant threat of being victims of racial violence that frequently erupted in this turbulent city. Similarly, when we are tempted to complain about perceived faults in our hospital system, it is sobering to remember that Mary gave birth to Jesus, after being compelled to travel over 100 kilometres during the last stage of her pregnancy, in the unhygienic environs of a stable where animals ate and slept,
Jesus, like most of us, was a member of a family. It has been an accepted understanding that by the time Jesus began his ministry at about the age of 30, Joseph, his foster father, had passed away. Whilst we cannot be certain for how many years Joseph had been dead, we can be reasonably certain that Jesus had the challenging task of being the chief provider for his family at a comparatively early age. In an era that predated social welfare by many centuries, in which the unprovided widow was reduced to dire circumstances, one cannot but recognise Jesus' concern for his mother's welfare when, dying on the cross, he entrusted the care of her to John.
Human beings are social creatures and Jesus was no exception to this rule. He experienced the joys of close friendship with other human beings, particularly with his disciples. However, like Jesus most of us, at some stage in our lives, have been let down, denied and in some circumstances betrayed by those in whom we placed the highest trust.
Finally, an integral part of human life was death. Jesus' death, though salvific, was arguably far worse that that most of us shall experience. He hung on a cross in excruciating agony for a number of hours, refusing to partake of a narcotic to dull the pain.
God became one of us - so what? The Letter to the Hebrews, in its discourse on Jesus as the supreme High Priest, states. "For the high priest we have [Jesus] is not incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us, but has been put to the test in exactly the same way as ourselves, apart from sin" (Hebrews 4: 15). That is to say, God is not some remote, inapproachable deity who has no understanding of the human condition. As Christians, an integral aspect of our ability to relate to God is that God became, in the person of Jesus Christ, a human person and shared similar human experiences that we experience. Because of Christ's humanity, in the words of the Letter to the Hebrews: "Let us then, have not fear in approaching the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace when we are in need of help" (Hebrews 4: 16).
© Michael Daniel 2000