Embracing our humanity
In John 11 we see a beautiful overlap of divine purpose and human condition right in the person of Jesus Christ. This is an encouraging account for us as we experience our humanity.
After setting the stage the first part of the chapter presents the divine purpose in this event. The fact that Jesus has a clear picture of how things will play out is shown in v.4, 15 and 23 respectively. Yet in the later part of the chapter we see Jesus’ humanity surfacing (v.33, 35). He was deeply troubled and wept.
Now this is encouraging for us because knowing the bigger picture (the divine perspective) did not stop Jesus from being saddened by the situation. He didn’t approach this with some kind of detachment saying: “Yeah, I know it’s bad from a human perspective, but if you would only know (like I do) how amazingly things will turn out you would be filled with joy and not be sad.” Even Jesus could not pull this one like so many Christians try on themselves or on others. In the situation, regardless of the overarching divine purpose, there is pain, things are bad, there are legitimate reasons to grieve. In Jesus we learn that is ok to acknowledge that the divine purposes don’t always work out smooth, but that there is pain and suffering, that they are not always clean but sometimes they could be messy. In v.38 we find a Jesus who works out God’s plan thinking: I wish it was different, I wish there could be another way (which reminds of his prayer in the garden about His imminent death).
As we follow in Jesus’ way it’s good to be reminded that it is ok to embrace our humanity.
After setting the stage the first part of the chapter presents the divine purpose in this event. The fact that Jesus has a clear picture of how things will play out is shown in v.4, 15 and 23 respectively. Yet in the later part of the chapter we see Jesus’ humanity surfacing (v.33, 35). He was deeply troubled and wept.
Now this is encouraging for us because knowing the bigger picture (the divine perspective) did not stop Jesus from being saddened by the situation. He didn’t approach this with some kind of detachment saying: “Yeah, I know it’s bad from a human perspective, but if you would only know (like I do) how amazingly things will turn out you would be filled with joy and not be sad.” Even Jesus could not pull this one like so many Christians try on themselves or on others. In the situation, regardless of the overarching divine purpose, there is pain, things are bad, there are legitimate reasons to grieve. In Jesus we learn that is ok to acknowledge that the divine purposes don’t always work out smooth, but that there is pain and suffering, that they are not always clean but sometimes they could be messy. In v.38 we find a Jesus who works out God’s plan thinking: I wish it was different, I wish there could be another way (which reminds of his prayer in the garden about His imminent death).
As we follow in Jesus’ way it’s good to be reminded that it is ok to embrace our humanity.
