Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus, and I can’t stop thinking about His humanity.
We hear in church and we read in the Word that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, fully God and fully man, but I have always skimmed over the fully man part to focus on the “God with us” part.
Don’t get me wrong, God is with us. There is no place we can run, no words we could say, no darkness that can hide us and keep us from Him. The fullness of God made Himself at home among us because that is the only way that God’s justice could be satisfied and His forgiveness be extended to us.
And as Jesus was welcomed into this world, the unlimited power of God became wrapped in the limited body of a human. Jesus, the Son of God, who knew no bounds became bound. Jesus, who’s existence extends beyond the foundation of the world, found Himself moving to the speed of the world.
His body could only carry Him so far.
His hands could only reach so far.
His feet could only walk so far.
His humanity declared the grace of God with us as His emotion displayed the very humanness we often try so hard to hide.
The truth is, I’ve been having a hard time with accepting my limits this year.
More specifically, accepting limits that I haven’t always had, relatively new limits that only remind me of things I can no longer do.
“For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” - Hebrews 4:15
When I first read these verses, my humanity shouts “Jesus didn’t have my limits.” But the Spirit within me quickly comes back with a resounding “Yes. Yes He did.”
Jesus knew limits. Yes, reigning in heaven He existed in the limitlessness of who He fully is.
And yet He knew limits because He left that untamed existence and became a man.
He took on limits He had not previously known. He offered up His limitless stature and took on a body like ours. A life like ours. A limit like ours.
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” -Philippians 2:5-8
So yes, Jesus is a limitless King of kings who reigns for all of eternity. And He also experienced what it is like to have lost something that once felt un-lose-able. He experienced what it is to be limited.
Yet He bore it all without sin.
Limited man meets unlimited God in a limited body.
This is the reality of Christmas I’m holding onto this year. The magnificence of what Jesus did as He stepped down from heaven. The unknowable depths of love that would inspire such a move. The omnipotent God emptying Himself to know and be known to us.
Maybe today you’re so wrapped in your humanity that happiness seems like a distant memory. Maybe your limits, your grief, or your fear of the future are shouting louder than the Christmas music being played around the world today.
If that’s you, take heart my friend. You are the reason Jesus deemed to bend low. You are the one He came to save. You are the one He was born for, died for, and rose again for. All so that you could be given access to the Father, to the throne of grace, to the arms of the most secure Shelter, to the one who can not only handle your every emotion today but who can also sympathize.
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” -Hebrews 4:16
Comfort and joy are both possible today because Jesus made them so.
Merry Christmas, y'all. Jesus is here.
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