The most intriguing aspect of the Christ story is the very nature of incarnation itself. Jesus models that it is possible to be both God and human at the same time. This is for us, certainly, the most terrifying thought. Throughout history the church has retreated into deifying Jesus so thoroughly that the human Christ can't be seen. If indeed Jesus is too human (or barely human at all), he calls from us a worrying response. To this otherworldly, super-spiritual Jesus I simply have to offer my devotion, my worship, my adoration. By the grubby, human, peasant Christ we are challenged that maybe it is possible to be human and Godlike after all.
How distressing to us that Jesus could be the Messiah, the human incarnation of God for thirty years and NO ONE AT HOME NOTICED! No one in Nazareth smiles knowingly and says, "I always suspected there was something strange about that kid." Instead they wonder where he got all this messianic stuff. Somehow Jesus could be fully God and blend into Galilean society - hardly the most pious or sophisticated culture - without creating a ripple. What does this mean for us? It invites us to follow Christ in all His ordinariness as well as his righteousness. The incarnation demands that we neither retreat into a holier-than-thou Christian ghetto nor give ourselves over to the values of secular culture.
Take a look into the life which Jesus modeled for us. His life calls us to be godly, but we are expected to live it out in the midst of others, not just in the confines of church. It tells us that we should be able to hang out with sinners yet we do not compromise on our obedience to God. What Jesus did was right. He was involved in the lives of sinners and showed them the love of God, but He wouldn't have been able to impact others lives the way He had done if He retreated into a "holier-than-thou" attitude. Rather He closed the gap and was in close proximity with sinners. He was eye to eye with them, and treated them as equals, they were friends. What does this say about God? Jesus shows that God is a God who is interested in every detail of your life and has involved Himself in every aspect of it. That He is a personal and close God, not a distant and indifferent one.
I challenge you to do the same: to live a godly life in the midst of sinners yet maintain your faithfulness. Show others the personal God you know.
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