Why Was Jesus Christ Necessary?

It's Christmas. We celebrate God becoming flesh. Why? Or the larger question: Why was Jesus Christ necessary? I would submit that God wanted to remind us what it means to be a human being; what it means to be created in the Image of God. Humanity had forgotten its humanity. Instead of living in God's Image, we chose to live in our own. A favorite professor of mine put it this way: "Glory to Man in the highest, the maker and master of things"! Or, as George Bernard Shaw explains: "We were created in the Image of God, and then we decided to return the favor".

Why was Jesus Christ necessary? Ask Elie Wiesel. Standing with another thousand or so of his fellow prisoners in Auschwitz, they were forced to watch the execution of a 13 year old boy, being hung from a steel railroad track. An inmate asked "Where is God now?" Elie replied: "He is there, hanging on the gallows". We didn't kill God. Instead, we forgot that we are created in God's Image. God's Image is the true character of our humanity. We are called to reflect God's Image through our humanity.

A couple of stories, one true and the other perhaps not, but the point is true. In Bulgaria, 1943, Jews were being rounded up for shipment to their doom. Sensing the urgency of the time, Metropolitan Kiril, dressed in full official ecclesiastical authoritative regalia, marched into the compound, brushing aside the rifles, laughing and talking with his Jewish brothers and sisters, and repeated the words of Ruth: "Where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God". The outcome of the story of the Bulgarian Jews is that NONE of them ended up in the furnaces of Auschwitz. I'm sure there were many other forces at work to prevent their holocaust, but the theological point is made: the Metropolitan reflected the Image of God through his humanity, and his humanity contributed to the Jews salvation. He reflected the humanity of Jesus.

The other story is about a young boy, standing shoeless in front of a store window on a cold December day. A woman noticed him, walked up to him and asked, "What are you looking at?" The boy responded, "I am praying for a pair of shoes". The woman took his hand and they entered the store. The woman asked the clerk for a bowl of water, a towel, and some socks. She washed the boy's feet and put on the new socks. She then asked for some shoes, and after trying on some pairs, the boy made his choice. Walking out of the store together, the boy looked up and asked, "Are you Mrs. God"? Okay, a bit schmultzy, call it a parable or metaphor. But the woman reflected the Image of God through her humanity.

Why was Jesus Christ necessary? Because we forgot what it means to be created in the Image of God, and to reflect the humanity of Jesus through our humanity. To my knowledge, Jesus never killed anyone, never told his disciples to kill or abuse anyone, never beat his mother, never threatened his father, never.... But I did read about truth telling, reconciliation, forgiveness, repentance, justice, righteous anger, and that stickler, love. I did read about him lifting the status of women and children. I did not read about him condemning GLBT folks. I did remember him telling about the birds of the air and lilies of the field, riding the waves with his disciples, eating and drinking with the outsiders, and then sharing himself with us in the Lord's Supper. I did read about him sacrificing himself for us, making himself a bloodbath for us, becoming a holocaust for us.

I'll confess. It has been hard watching the Rachel Maddow Show, Hardball, Keith Olbermann, Dylan Ratigan, Morning Joe, the U.S. Senate and House, President Obama, the "sausage making" of the Health Care Bill, the influence of the lobbyists and the religious "Family", the increased war funding, and.... I ask: "Can't we do better?" There are evidently an abundance of Christians in leadership positions. How about reflecting the Image of God through their humanity? Christ's humanity has been bastardized on the cross of influence and profit.

Why was Jesus Christ necessary? Because we forgot what it means to be created in the Image of God, and to reflect the humanity of Jesus through our humanity. Yes, in our humanity we will fail everyday, but the divine humanity of Jesus puts us together again, so we can reclaim our humanity and reflect Christ, not as we ought, but as we are able, again and again and again.

"And the Word became flesh...."

Blessed Christmas and Peace!
Ron