Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2

Jesus is one person, but in Scripture and in our relationships with Him, we see so much of our own humanity.  First, each of us sees Jesus as He relates to us, and us to Him. Because Jesus was fully God and fully man, we all can each see ways that “Jesus was just like me.”

Jesus was funny and blunt, just like some of us. He told self-righteous, local religious leaders that they were full of dead bones (Matthew 23:27)!  Jesus delighted in spending time with children (Matthew 19:14) and He cried in public (John 11:35; Luke 19:41; Hebrews 5:7-9)

Jesus was a peacemaker, bringing diametrically opposed groups into community with one another – the Jews and the Samaritans, the zealots, and the tax-collectors. Jesus was also resolute, destroying tables and creating chaos with a whip among the money launderers at church (John 2:15).

Jesus loved a good party, just like some of us (John 2:1-11). He could even be extravagant, accepting a very costly gift of perfume (Mark 14:3-9). Yet, at times, Jesus sought seclusion, like I do (Luke 9:18). Jesus worked diligently at His craft of carpentry, but then changed jobs, like some of us.

Jesus may be surprising to us, but we shouldn’t be surprised when others recognize Jesus differently than we do. The uniqueness of the members of the Body of Christ and our human differences show us Jesus’ nature.  Most importantly, Jesus is our advocate who experienced all of the human condition and He presents us to God, the Father, as perfect and blameless.

 

Resource reading: 1 John 3:1-3