What we can learn from the man Jesus?

The story of an almighty God who shows up on our planet as a baby, grows into a man, gets killed and comes back to life sounds more like sci-fi novel than reality. It is sometimes difficult to wrap our minds around Christmas being a celebration of God coming to our planet as a human being, made of flesh just like us.

We might say, “We know that,” but do we really comprehend it? When Jesus was born, he was completely dependant on his mother and father. He had to be nursed, burped and changed. He probably had to learn the words “hot” and “no.” When he grew up, the Bible talks about how he experienced hunger after fasting 40 days. He got tired from walking all day and sat down by a well. He wept when his good friend, Lazarus, died. He was really thirsty when he hung on the cross.

So why did God take this huge step of sending his son as a human? One of the reasons is that God, through his son, was able to show us how is possible to really live in an imperfect world. Because of the way Jesus lived, people were attracted to him. When crowds in the town of Capernaum experienced his power of teaching and of healing, they begged him to stay. How tempting it would have been to think, “They like me, they want me, they believe in me, I’m needed, I will have significance and security, I think I will stay here.”

However, Jesus’ response in Luke 4:23 was, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”

And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. Jesus didn’t let the temptation of the good keep him from the best. His purpose included Capernaum, but it was greater than one town. Rather than living a good, comfortable life, he chose a life of purpose.

Jesus showed us we can also live lives of purpose. Each one of us has a purpose why we arrived on this planet. We are not accidents. God has placed a piece of himself in each of us, and the question is what are we doing with it? Are we following Jesus? Are we living life or letting life live us? He wants us to live a full life, not just a life of survival.

Jesus was able to live a purposeful life that attracted many to him because he also lived a life of dependence. He didn’t try to do life by himself. He depended on his father for purpose and strength. In Luke 5, crowds grew as word got out about his healing. He could have easily spent all day everyday healing and meeting people’s needs. However, in Luke 5 it says he often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. That took a lot of courage. While he was alone with his father, Jesus wasn’t getting anything done. Nobody got healed, nobody was taught. Nobody saw him, and most people did not even know where he went. But that dependence in prayer gave him purpose to know what to do and when to do it.

In fact, right after he got alone with his father, the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. In addition to being dependent on his father in prayer, he was also dependant on the power of his father to heal. Jesus showed us that as humans, we have the opportunity to be dependent on our father both in prayer and in relying on his power to heal the sick.

Jesus’ purpose and dependence also allowed him to live a life of acceptance. He spent time with what some considered the low-lifers and bottom feeders of their society, those who were beneath the religious and political leaders. One day, Simon Peter was having a bad day fishing and Jesus told him to throw his nets on the other side of the boat. When Peter threw his nets on the other side, there were so many fish that the nets were breaking. Peter recognized he was having an encounter with God and he pleaded with Jesus to go away because he felt so unworthy to be near this godly man. Jesus could have agreed and dismissed Simon Peter for being unqualified to follow him, saying, “You are sinful, you should stay away.”

Instead Jesus responded, “Don’t be afraid,” and gave him a greater purpose to live by telling him, “from now on you will catch men.”

When Jesus accepted the undesirables, he was criticized by religious leaders. His comeback was that the healthy don’t need a doctor, but the sick do. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Being a sinners means to miss the target or even shoot at the wrong target. Repentance means to change the way we think. So, if we are shooting at the wrong target in our lives, Jesus offers the opportunity to change the way we think and hit the right target.

Jesus doesn’t call those who have their act together or those who think they do. He invites those who have missed the target in life and need him to help them aim the right direction. He accepts us as we are and gives us purpose as we are dependant on him.

No, I don’t understand why he would come to this earth and accept us. I do know he did it because he loves us.

Phil Markwardt is a pastor at Northgate Alaska and the president of Valley Pastors’ Prayer Network.