As stated in mi profile this is my new favorite thing to do, and i always find that Jesus thrills and ravishes my heart more and more and i continue to hunger for more wisdom of his nature. this article is Amazing. enjoy !!!!
Contemplating the Humanity of Jesus by Allen Hood
The Joy of Pondering the Mystery ( part I)
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. (1 Tim. 3:16)
Paul emphatically states that the greatness of the mystery of godliness is a non-controversial issue. There is no debate around the magnitude of God becoming a man. Paul proclaims that both heaven and earth are in agreement concerning the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Angels are baffled (I Peter 1:12), and humans cannot fathom what God has done.
Great is the mystery of godliness! What is the human frame that pleased Him so that the One who made all things could dwell in flesh? He is not only your divine King and Maker. Now, He is your Brother. Bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh! What has God done in His Son? Now, God can be seen, heard, and touched, not from a distance, but in the historic moment, in the flesh.
As we stand before the great mystery of God in awe and with reverent fear, our older brother, Jesus, beckons us to a deeper invitation where dreadful fear turns into tender dialogue and amazed inquiry. One can go through life with a spirit of obedience, struck by His awesomeness, but it is quite another thing for your heart to be tender toward Him, and free to move in and ask questions you normally would not dare ask. To contemplate Jesus in His humanity is to engage God on common ground in open dialogue and worship, discovering what it means to be safe in His presence, free in your personality to enjoy yourself as you enjoy Him.
Recently, I was preparing to teach my Excellencies of Christclass in the Forerunner School of Ministry on the humanity of Jesus when I came across my deceased mother's birth certificate from 1943 in my research folder. Three short years after her death, I found myself staring at her tiny footprints on the back of this hospital record. I sat there weeping, thinking about those beautiful little feet. Suddenly, the questions began. "Mom, you were such a virtuous, godly woman. What were you like as a little girl? Mom, how did you do it? How did you grow up loving Jesus with such tenderness? Mom, what is Jesus like in person? I mean, before you died, I was the one that had the Masters in Theology, but today you hold the Ph.D., and I am a mere student. Today, you know as you are fully known."
Suddenly, a divine dialogue began with the Lord speaking to me in this tender moment. "Allen, I had feet like that."
"You're kidding me, Lord! You had feet like this? I mean, the same tiny feet like my boys now have, which I love to pull on their toes till they pop!?"
"Yes, I did. Just as small and frail as your mother's, with toes as poppable as your sons'." He came as a man.
The joy of the Christian life is to gaze upon the mystery of Jesus. Luke 2:7 describes the virgin birth. Mary bears Him in childbirth, bringing Him forth with real pain. She brings forth her first-born son, wraps Him in swaddling clothes, and lays Him in a manger. Then the angels break out in singing and shepherds pay homage to the newborn king.
In verse nineteen, after "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace toward men - goodwill toward men," look what Mary does. She is perplexed. She's given birth to this baby whom angels are praising. And in verse nineteen she ponders, "I know He is God, but I felt real pain and real movements in my belly as He was growing. How can that be? How can it be that angels tell shepherds and wise men to come visit Him and bear gifts, and yet He came out of my loins? How can it be that God has my eyes and my nose? How can that be?" She has found the joy of pondering the mystery, and she treasures all these things in her heart.
Hans Urs von Balthasar in his book, Prayer,describes this joy. "The contemplative's gaze continually returns with great attention to the humanity of Jesus. It is the inexhaustible treasure entrusted to us by the heavenly Father. In a true sense He has 'despoiled himself' (Jn. 3:16) of Him to whom He is always pointing: ipsum audite (Mt. 17:5). The Son is no floating interstellar body; He is the fruit of the earth and its history; He comes from Mary (who is the exponent of the Old Covenant and of all humanity) just as He comes from the Father. He is grace ascending just as much as grace descending; He is just as much creation's highest response to the Father as He is the Father's Word to creation. He is no God in disguise, acting 'as if', simply to give us an example. . . No. He is the apex of the world in its strivings toward God, and He cuts a path for all of us, gathering up all men's efforts into Himself, the pioneer, the spearhead. He can do this only by being 'In every respect tempted as we are, yet without sinning' (Heb. 4:15), by bearing our burdens as the scapegoat (Heb. 13:11), the Lamb brought to the slaughter, slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). Thus, He stands at the summit of heaven and earth."
The point of the incarnation is to make you ponder, to make you marvel, to blow your mind. Luke tells us that Jesus is not only born with a human body, He grows up. "And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him" (Luke 2:40). I love to imagine this. What did Jesus' awkward seasons look like? Can you imagine the time when His ears had outgrown His head and Him sitting through two more years of rabbinical school before His head caught up? Have you ever thought about that? He was just like you, except without sin. What did it look like when Jesus lost His first tooth and had His first haircut? What was it like when Jesus as a boy underwent common human awkwardness in all of its stages? What was it like? Luke says that the child grew and that Mary was amazed again and again. This is all we know about Jesus until we find Him at age twelve in the temple. He simply grew. He was confined to human weaknesses.
I look at my little boys all the time, and wonder. "Jesus, were you like them? What were You like? What was holy fun like for You, Jesus? Did You ever play a practical joke? What was harmless fun like for You, Jesus? Oh, it had to be outstanding!"
He also grew in the Spirit, was the filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him. He grew mentally and spiritually. He grew. What were the stages like as He's finding out He's the unique God-Man? Surely He was thinking to Himself, "Something feels different about Me. I never get in trouble like James does." What was it like when His capacity mentally and spiritually got to the point where He began to have remembrance of the throne room? What was it like for Him growing up when He could see all the angels around everybody else?
What was it like on the day when the Father decided that Jesus was ready to see spiritual realities? I think of his first angelic encounter. Trembling with fascination, I see Him asking, "I feel like I know you from somewhere. Have we met before?" We seldom think on these things. This is reality. This is your God, and this is your King, and this is your Brother and your Groom. You can fall in love with Him. It's okay. Did you know that? You really can fall in love with Him for this. We've been robbed of Jesus far too long. It is time to ponder. It is time to enjoy the depths of His mystery and the richness of His shared life.
