The Word Became Flesh and Attended a Wedding
On Sunday we looked at Jesus’ first sign to manifest His glory in John 2. One element that I wished I was able to spend more time on was Jesus’ humanity.
John starts his Gospel with some of the highest Christology in the Bible: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1, ESV). But then, shockingly in v14 he says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
The eternal Word through whom all things were made put on human flesh. He added humanity to His deity, which was not just a costume, not just a temporary appearance, but real flesh and blood. He had real emotions, a real family, real fatigue, real tears, and real suffering.
The Athanasian Creed summarizes what Scripture teaches: That we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, is both God and human, equally. He is God from the essence of the Father, begotten before time; and he is human from the essence of his mother, born in time; completely God, completely human, With a rational soul and human flesh; Although he is God and human, yet Christ is not two, but one. He is one, however, not by his divinity being turned into flesh, but by God's taking humanity to himself. He is one, certainly not by the blending of his essence, but by the unity of his person. For just as one human is both rational soul and flesh, so too the one Christ is both God and human.
In other words: He is as fully human as you are, and as fully God as the Father is.
We’re often comfortable affirming Christ’s deity; but we get more nervous with His humanity. In our circles we don’t usually deny His humanity outright, but we can functionally. We imagine a Jesus who floats through life above ordinary pressures, who never felt awkwardness at a village wedding, or sweat drip down his face as he danced, who didn’t get tired or hungry after traveling, and maybe even who obeyed the Father but never really felt the cost.
That’s more Gnostic than Christian. The Gnostic heresies emphasized Christ’s deity over his humanity, even to the point where they thought Jesus was just a ghost who didn’t actually inhabit a physical body. This is the type of thinking that turns Jesus into an icon behind glass.
The Athanasian creed and others demand that we hold the truths in perfect balance that Jesus was truly God and truly man.
Our story gives us a good opportunity to consider if we are thinking about Jesus disproportionality? It also gives us an opportunity to consider his humanity and divinity in action.
Another truth that is in this story is that Jesus cares about ordinary life.
The incarnate Son is not embarrassed by the very human details of your week: school pickups, bills, fatigue, awkward family moments. He has been there.
Your emotions are not foreign to Him. At Cana He is already thinking about His “hour” and His future wedding. There’s emotional complexity there: joy, sorrow, anticipation, weight. When you feel pulled in two directions emotionally, you are not in territory He doesn’t understand.
Your temptations and weaknesses have been experienced by Him. Hebrews 2:17 says He was made like us “in every respect” so that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest. And 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.”
That means when you pray, you are not talking to a distant impersonal deity, you are coming to one who is able to sympathize with our humanity. There is nothing too insignificant or small that you couldn’t bring before the Lord in prayer. The hairs on your head and the sparrows in the air are numbered (Lk 12:7). When Phil 4 says, “in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God,” it means “in every situation (v6)!” In 1 Peter 5:7 when it says, “to cast all your anxieties on Him,” it means “All!”
Our Discipleship Groups are reading Trusting God by Jerry Bridges. In it, Bridges continues to pound the drum of trusting God in all circumstances, and how God is sovereign over all people, actions, nature, and things. But the sovereignty of God can sometimes seem crushing, and distant, and impersonal, when we forget that this God took on flesh and attended a wedding. When we forget that He has not left us only looking at His back as He passes by in all His glory. But He has come to dwell among us and reveal His Glory in the flesh. And He cares about a small wedding in crisis, as He prepares to mend a larger wedding in crisis between Himself and His bride.
Caleb
Foundational Faith Statement 10. What do the Scriptures primarily teach?
The Scriptures primarily teach what people are to know and believe about God, and how He commands them to live (John 5:39, 20:31; 2 Tim. 3:15–17; Ps. 119:105).