The two natures of the one person of Jesus can be seen in these 31 gospel classics, all rendered for meditation in the present tense: Annunciation, Nativity, Maji, Simeon & Anna, Return from Exile, Twelve Years Old, the Word, Baptism, Temptation, Nazareth Rejection, Call of the Brothers, A Day in the Ministry, Nicodemus at Night, Woman at the Well, Levi, Field of Grain, the Twelve & the Women, Love Your Enemies, the Family, the Bread of Life, Disciples of John the Baptizer, Anointing by a Woman, Profession of Faith, Transfiguration, Woman Caught in Adultery, Rich Young Man, James & John, Zacchaeus, Entry on a Donkey, Cleansing the Temple, and Authority Questioned.
Jesus is that man who lived in the first third of what we now call the first century, near the Sea of Galilee, who we also know as Son of God, Christ the Anointed One, Savior, Redeemer, Risen Lord, and a host of other names. Incarnate means enfleshed or embodied, or for Christians, the Word become Flesh. This means that God has chosen to enter human history as one of us. Tell a child that there was a day when Jesus was exactly as tall as he or she is today. Tell a teen that Jesus too lived in his own in-betweenness. Tell a student that Jesus too had to learn. Tell the adult being tempted that so was Jesus, one like us in all things but sin.
Anytime we proclaim his divinity, his God-ness, to the diminishment of his humanity, we may fall into what we call heresy. And anytime we proclaim his humanity to the exclusion of his divinity, we may fall into heresy. For a Christian, Jesus is Son of God and Son of a human being, Mary. He is fully God and fully human, not half God and half man, as a teacher would say, not only God on his Poppa's side and human on his Momma's side, but completely God and completely human. For more visit www.idjc.org.
