I am delighted to welcome Jo Acharya to my blog today, as part of the blog tour for her devotional book Refresh: a wellness devotional for the whole Christian life (Do check out the details at the end for your chance to win a copy!) Here, she invites us to take time to consider Jesus’ humanness and what impact it can have on our lives today.
She moves lightly around the small room. The baby she holds against her shoulder is whimpering, and she talks to him in a lyrical voice as she pats his back. Eventually the child lets out a small burp, and she brings him round to face her. She smiles, cradling his head in one hand while she wipes the milky mixture from his tiny mouth with the other. And then she kisses his forehead and begins to sing, a version of the song that first flowed from her lips in the early days of her pregnancy: “My soul magnifies the Lord…”
Imagining Jesus’ everyday life
We could imagine many more vignettes like this. Perhaps Jesus’ legs repeatedly giving way when he first tries to stand as a toddler, or mispronouncing difficult letters in his early words. Perhaps Joseph teaching him to cut straight pieces of wood with a saw or Mary showing him how to knead bread. We might picture Jesus diligently memorising passages of scripture as a boy, or laughing and eating with his friends as an adult.
In a way these scenes are easy to imagine because we’ve seen them a hundred times. This is the everyday stuff of human life. But thinking of Jesus this way can be mind-blowing. That God himself chose to enter fully into this human life, even confining himself to a physical human body, is one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian faith. That he came to us as a helpless newborn baby, totally reliant on an inexperienced young woman to keep him alive and clean and well-fed, is even more remarkable.
When the ordinary becomes sacred
One of the central themes in my devotional is that when we invite God into the everyday stuff of our lives, ordinary things become sacred; from our relationships and emotions right down to our very bodies. In Refresh I look at the complex relationships we all have with our bodies, and how Jesus’ unpolished humanness gives extraordinary dignity and worth to our own.
After all, our whole lives are lived in and through our bodies. Like Jesus, we are all physical beings in a physical world, and we can’t do a thing without using some part of our physical form. God created us this way, and he called his creation good. Despite the sin, the sickness, the damage we have sustained in this fallen world, to be human is still a precious and miraculous thing.
What Jesus’ humanness means for us
I sometimes wonder when Jesus knew he was different. Was there a lightbulb moment, or was the knowledge of his identity always there, gradually coming into focus as his self-awareness developed? And then I think of his parents. How do you mother the Messiah? I imagine this simple couple, the carpenter and his wife, simply doing what all good parents do. Loving their children, passing on values and traditions, making mistakes, giving their best.
Jesus’ human life was a real human life. It wasn’t a pretence – he wasn’t an actor playing a role. He didn’t resent his humanity, he embraced it. Even after his resurrection, his glorified body was a glorified human body. This matters. It matters because being human is good, and we need to know that God is glad to share in our humanity with us. It matters because being human in a fallen world is hard, and we need to know that Jesus has experienced that too. And it matters because being human is a team effort. We can’t do it alone, and we don’t have to. You and I have a team-mate in heaven with God, constantly interceding for us. This is what Jesus’ humanity means. The burping baby, the unsteady toddler, the compassionate carpenter. The great King and High Priest who is able to empathise with you and me.
Free copy!
Jo has generously offered to give a copy of her book away to one of my readers (she will send it direct). In order to be in with a chance of winning, do sign up to my newsletter by filling in the form here (I promise not to bombard you – I send a newsletter out around once a term/quarter), or if you’re already signed up just drop a comment below.
Jo Acharya is a writer and music therapist. Her first book, Refresh: a wellness devotional for the whole Christian life is available from all good bookshops. You can read more of Jo’s writing and buy signed copies of Refreshat ValleyOfSprings.com, and you can follow her on social media at Facebook.com/ValleyOfSprings and Instagram.com/ValleyOfSprings.