Study 9 - 2007: May 7th - 13th 2007

Superman or Normal?

“The people started grumbling about Jesus, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven. So they said, ‘This man is Jesus son of Joseph, isn’t he? We know his father and mother. How then, does he now say he came down from heaven?” John Chapter 6:verse 41-42 (Good News Bible).

Golf is a game that shows you a lot about the character of a person.
John Freeman said; “You can tell a lot about a person, even a total stranger, by playing a round of golf with them”

You can tell if a person is competitive or is playing for fun, is a natural athlete or has learnt their skills over time, is confident or nervous. Some express their disappointment and success openly while others are more inward and quiet. The human side to golf is what makes golf such a great sport. There are different types of personalities in the game. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are very different. Bernhard Langer and Aaron Baddeley are both Christians and express their faith in God in different ways.

Each of us is a unique person that is amazing considering the number of people who have lived. The bible teaches that all of us were created in the image and likeness of God and that life is best lives when we live out the image and likeness of God in our lives.

Jesus was a human being in every respect that we are, except for sinning against God. What makes Jesus unique is the way he is both human and from heaven. This is the dilemma that those who heard him speak in our reading today had; that he claimed to be the bread of life from heaven, but they knew him as the son of Joseph and Mary.

Jesus learnt to the skills of being a carpenter like his Father Joseph. His hand would have been hard from working with wood.

The humanity of Jesus is something that we do not focus on a lot as Christians but it is important that we do. I recall in a youth group many years ago now the leader asking us this question; Did Jesus have pimples when he was a teenager? This provoked a lot of discussion; that was the purpose of the exercise.

That Jesus was fully human is a great benefit to our life and faith. It means that God knows what life is like for us, what temptation is like, the joy of having friends, experiencing pain and suffering.

The book of Hebrews puts it well in Chapter 4 verses 15 to 16. In this reading Jesus is the High Priest.
“Our high Priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a high Priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin. Let us be brave then, and approach God’s throne, where there is grace. There you will find mercy and find grace to help just when we need it.”

Jesus was not a superman, like in our comic strip, but normal and the Son of God like us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we can only be amazed at how you came to live among us in Jesus. You entered as our frail humanity as a baby and grew to be a man and live among us as a carpenter. And yet you were also, the Son of God our saviour. Help us to live our life in a way that is pleasing to you. May we use our mind and body in ways that build healthy and Godly relationships? Amen.