December is here again! Does anyone else feel like yet another year has flown by? In terms of writing journal plans there seems to be a particular rhythm to my months that feels much like the arrival of December. The beginning finds me relieved to have gotten another plan out on time. The month stretches before me and I settle in to writing out scripture to see what God has to say to me. There’s a newness to it that I just love. Mid-month I’m really into it and my responsive journaling is getting longer and longer. I begin to fear running out of pages before the month is done. But then comes the third week of the month and it feels much like December itself, “what, it’s almost done? But I have so much yet to do!”
So it is that I arrived at this month’s plan. I had started thinking about the Incarnation, as I often do before Advent starts, as I think we’re meant to do. But as I went back over the previous years’ plans I was looking for something more. I know the “right” answer as to why Jesus had to be born as a human babe in a manger. I know he had to be fully human when he died on the cross, or else there would be no atonement for my sin. I get it, and please don’t think I’m making light of it, but why else did he have to be human? That was the question skirting around the edges of my brain.
While reading John 1, I got stopped on verse 14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” My study notes said the following; “The gospel and salvation hang on Jesus’ humanity. If Jesus was not fully human, he could not save humanity. His sacrifice would be insufficient, and we would still be dead in our trespasses and sins” (Ancient Faith Study Bible, p.1285). That’s pretty sobering, and something that elicits tremendous gratitude in me. But then I got to chapter 11 in Andrew Murray’s classic, “Abide in Christ” and that’s where the idea for this plan started to really take shape.
Chapter 11 is entitled, “Christ The Crucified One” and is a closer look at the blessing and power that are ours because we “have been crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20), and what it means to be “United with him in a death like his” (Rom 6:5). Because the book is a deep dive into John 15:1-12, (abiding in the true vine) we have covered lots of imagery regarding vine dressing and specifically grafting. It was in reading about grafting that the idea for this plan emerged.
The following is from “Abide in Christ” p.69-70:
“When a graft is united with the stem on which it will grow, we know it must be secured, it must abide in the place where the stem has been cut and wounded, to make an opening to receive the graft. There can be no graft without wounding —opening and exposing the inner life of the tree to receive the foreign branch. It is only through wounding that access to the sap, growth, and life of the stronger stem can be obtained…
It’s also true that the graft has to be removed from the tree it first grew from, and be cut to prepare it to be placed in the wounded stem. The Christian also must be made to fit in Christ’s death —to be crucified and to die with Him. The wounded stem and the wounded graft are cut to fit into each other’s likeness. There is a fellowship between Christ’s sufferings and your sufferings. His experiences must become yours. The manner in which He chose and bore the cross must be yours…The clearer the resemblance between the wounded stem and the wounded graft, the more exactly their wounds fit into each other, the easier and more complete the union and growth will be”
As I considered Murray’s words, this is what I wrote in my journal;
“think of every area of wounding in my life, every place of particular pain, every wound I carry in my physical body, every wound inflicted on my mind and heart —Jesus has a matching wound. He was wounded in His incarnate flesh so that He would be able to sympathize (to share in suffering or grief) with me. So that I would never be alone in my pain, like he was (Mt. 27:46).”
I was overcome with the personal nature of this truth. I made a list of all the ways I experience pain in my life, right now, today. Then I opened the back of my bible and looked up every way that Jesus was wounded and I saw that, with the exception of one, they were all shared experiences of being human. At that moment the words of Hebrews 4:15-16 hit afresh;
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.”
The Greek word for sympathize is sumpatheō Strong’s 4834, from 4835, to feel sympathy with i.e. (by implication) to commiserate - have compassion, sympathize.
4835 is the Greek word sumpathēs from 4841; having a fellow feeling (sympathetic). But it was at the definition of 4841 that Hebrews 4: 15-16 became clear. That Greek word is sumpaschō, to experience pain jointly or of the same kind (specially persecution; to ‘sympathize’): suffer together (with)…To sympathize with, to suffer together with…To endure like sufferings…
This is why the Incarnation is so important, this is why Jesus had to become just like us, so that he could sympathize with us. So that whatever pain we experience, when we take it to Jesus, He says, “I know, I know, me too.” When I am in pain there is nothing more comforting than talking to someone who has been there too, and that’s what we have in Jesus, the friend who has been there too. He doesn’t vicariously experience our pain and suffering, He has experienced pain of the same kind, he has endured like sufferings, he knows and he cares deeply. He sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us (Hb.7:25) because he knows what it is to be tempted, persecuted, marginalized, forgotten, sick, tired, hungry, in pain….
I have never been wounded without the loving eyes of my heavenly Father and my great high priest upon me (Dt. 31:6, Hb. 13:5). What a comfort to see that there is a “fellowship between Christ’s sufferings and mine.”
For the month of December we are going to look at 31 ways Jesus identified with our humanity by way of his incarnation. We are going to see that our Savior was rejected, unattractive, tempted, physically abused, mocked, betrayed, scorned, tested, deserted, lied about, insulted, cursed, persecuted, disfigured, spat upon, beaten, taunted, treated with contempt, humiliated, physically sick and in pain, hunted, troubled, denied by a friend, anguished, poor, hungry, thirsty, he had a family and family strife, he was born, and he died. All of this and so much more for love of you and me.
Merry Christmas
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