In 1995 pop singer-songwriter Joan Osborne released her Grammy nominated single “One of Us.” Originally written by singer Eric Bazilian, “One of Us” proposed a series of questions challenging the listener’s convictions about and response to God. As a teenager, I can remember hearing the song everywhere. It was on a loop in the supermarkets, department stores, on television and on the radio. If you can remember, sing the chorus with me: “What if God was one of us, just a slob like one of us, just a stranger on a bus, trying to make his way home.” A Billboard Hot 100 hit, the song garnered a diverse response across the country. Some felt it was a challenge to organized religion, while others applauded it as a practical and honest paradigm of mankind’s relationship with God. The beauty of this song is its openness to interpretation and its knack for igniting self-reflection. One can’t listen to those rhetorical questions without answering at least one! As we celebrate Christmas today, the awesome thing about this song is that God WAS one of us. In the fourth book of the New Testament, John, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples’ writes, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He explains that this “Word” was present with God in the beginning and that this “Word” was and is, in very nature God. Through the “Word” all things were created and in him is the life that is the light of the world (John 1). Jesus is the “Word” John spoke of. God’s glory, love, plan and power are revealed to us through Jesus. He was with God in the beginning, speaking the world into existence. He is the second person of the trinity, and He became flesh and joined the human experience to reconcile us God. Imprisoned in Rome for spreading the gospel, the apostle Paul, a converted persecutor of the church, wrote to the church in Philippi, encouraging them to imitate Christ’s ultimate example of humility and servant hood as they related to one another. He states, “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:5-8) This incarnation, God becoming flesh, is what we celebrate on Christmas. That the pre-existing Son of God, voluntarily and obediently took on human form, in the ultimate act of servant hood to save his lost and rebellious creation from eternal separation from himself. He was fully God and fully man, experiencing all that it is to be human- emotions, pain, hunger and thirst- yet without sin. Jesus, God in the flesh, fulfilled God’s plan of salvation for all people, bearing the sins of the world on the cross and rising again to return to his rightful place seated at the right hand of the father. I don’t know how Joan would answer the main question in the chorus of her Top 40 ballad but I know how I would. What if God was one of us?-He WAS. He walked the earth over 2000 years ago. He was born of a virgin in the town of Bethlehem. Like other boys, he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. He claimed to be the Messiah, the savior of mankind. Just a slob like one of us-According to the prophet Isaiah, Jesus was no Brad Pitt. Folks didn’t follow him because of his looks. He wasn’t handsome or attractive. On the contrary, he was despised and rejected. The son of a carpenter he had no designer robes, or BMW chariots. He was a common man. (Isaiah 53) Just a stranger on the bus-In fulfillment of hundreds of prophecies, the one who created us lived among us for 33 years and performed miraculous signs, yet we didn’t recognize him. We denied his deity, accused him of blasphemy and murdered him. Today, like a stranger, we ignore him and deny him his rightful place in our lives. Trying to make his way home-After his ministry, death, burial and resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven leaving his followers to “go and make disciples of all nations.” Though he is at home in heaven he left us the Holy Spirit to dwell inside us and give us the power to live for him. He constantly intercedes for us because he loves us with no end. If we put our faith in him we will join him there one day. Christmas truly is the most wonderful time of the year. Let the gifts we give and receive this season be a timely reminder of the newborn babe God gave. He didn’t have to, but because of his great love and his desire for intimacy with us, he did the unthinkable. He became One of Us.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:59:31 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015