God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man. C.S. Lewis
The mystery of Christ, that He sunk Himself into our flesh, is beyond all human understanding. Martin Luther
I am obsessed by the Incarnation of Christ. Literally, I am often in my car, on a walk, or praying and will be struck by the amazing reality that God took on flesh. A chorus that I use to sing at the International House of Prayer in Atlanta during devotional sets would go: “The Word took on flesh and bone, the Father and the Son are one, worthy is the Lamb that was slain”. That melody still arises out of my heart on a regular basis.
Ravi Zacharias wrote in his book Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message (2000),
Anyone contemplating the life of Jesus needs to be newly and more deeply aware every day that something scandalous has occurred: that God, in His absolute being, has resolved to manifest Himself in a human life. He must be scandalized by this, he must feel his mind reeling, the very ground giving way beneath his feet; he must at least experience that ‘ecstasy’ of non-comprehension which transported Jesus’ contemporaries (Mark 2:12, 5:42, 6:51).
I think one of the things that fuels my intercession in praying for the western church is the seeming forgetfulness of this reality of the Incarnation. The tendency is to make it a factual based reality and then move on, yet the true reality of the Incarnation should stop us dead in our tracks! The Incarnation is not just a doctrine to be wowed by during the Christmas season as we think of the birth of Christ, but every day. Seriously, every day.
This year was special for me. On March 12 this year I turned 33 years old. I seem to be returning again and again to thinking about the aches and pains that I feel as a result of my 33 year old body is something that Christ identified with. 33 was the last year that Jesus experienced in His Fallen human body (having received His glorified new one at resurrection). Most likely, Jesus knew what it was like to have:
• Tired and sore feet
• Sore muscles
• A headache
• A splinter and something in His eye (since He was a carpenter)
• Hoarse vocal cords from talking loudly and for a long time
• Loneliness
• The list goes on…
A spiritual experience for me this year was that on the evening of my birthday, my friends from our ministry took me out for dinner at a barbecue restaurant. While usually a barbecue being spiritual is a regional thing ☺ (and by the way, it was good barbecue) the simple act of eating with friends, is something that was unique to Christ’s experience on earth. Actually, one of the last things that He did before His trial and crucifixion was eat with His friends. True, Christ sympathized with our weakness, but He also knows common experiences of human life, which I believe is just as awe-inspiring!
Additionally, while the Incarnation and the life of a disciple is something that we should always be experiencing as followers of Christ, I hope this year to pursue living like and following Christ more fervently than any other year. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1959) wrote in his book The Cost of Discipleship, “Suffering is the badge of the true disciple.” I long, in light of my Lord’s attitude of humility and sacrifice, that in moments of suffering and “taking up my cross” (Luke 14:27), that I will follow Him closely in always looking to the Father and living in love. Jesus lived an amazing 33rd year of His life, and I pray that He (through His Spirit) will enable me to also.
In conclusion, maybe our seeming forgetfulness of this grand mystery of the Incarnation is partly due to us not really believing it. We need to pray daily that God will reconnect our hearts to this mystery. When our hearts become connected to this, I believe, our prayer life is able to come alive. Lord have mercy on us for not being amazed at this, the most amazing occurrence in human history. God stooped lower than most of us are willing, or are able, to go (Philippians 2:5-11), so that (while due to original sin we are flawed) we have a way to get back home from the old (first) Adam by way of the second (Romans 5: 12-21). That through His work we can obtain adoption as sons of God, and are not looked at merely as formally (legally) adopted children that might lack in intimacy with their Father, but rather we are co-heirs with Christ, grafted into His family given the right by the holy dance of the Trinity to cry out “Abba Father” (Daddy) (Romans 8: 12-17) in the same intimacy of a child to its Daddy. Hallelujah!
Please do this exercise: take 5 minutes (or more) right now and close your eyes and dialogue with God. Ask Him to reconnect your heart with the reality of the Incarnation. That you and all Christ-followers all over the world would be wowed again today by who Christ is and what He has done.