Pastor Ponderings #169: No Average Joe

Have you ever met an average Joe? You would be forgiven for not taking notice of him. He gets lost in the crowd. He isn’t set apart by any distinguishing features. There is nothing out of the ordinary with him. This does not mean something is wrong, just not extraordinary. The average Joe is the backbone civilization. He is committed to the daily grind and gets the job done. He is simply one of the guys.

Christians make much of the humanity of Jesus and rightfully so. It would be very difficult to identify with a saviour who was entirely “other” and unaware of our intricate interactions with existence. Hebrews teaches that Jesus was intimately familiar with our earthly experience.

Hebrews 2:17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

We can be forever grateful that Jesus downgraded from above every average Joe to become a servant of every such Joe. Is it possible, however, that we risk minimizing His divinity in our extolling of His humanity? In our eagerness to associate with Jesus, we imagine Him wearing cargo shorts and a t-shirt while driving an old, beat-up, pickup truck. Baseball would be His favorite sport and because He is an eternal optimist, He could even be a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey fan. With God, all things are possible!

The danger of forgetting Christ’s divinity is that we begin to overlook, forget, dismiss or ignore this all-too-human Jesus. He’s just one of the guys and I don’t pay them any heed. Why should I give Jesus any special attention? We can forget that our Lord put on humanity while remaining Lord of lords and King of kings.

Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

There is a fine balance between Christ’s humanity and divinity. The interplay of the two natures in Jesus as fully God and fully man is sufficient to separate him from the most extraordinary individual. He wept as a baby in His mother’s arms even as He wept over the lost in Jerusalem. He could have tussled with his brothers, even as He strove against temptation and overcame. He surely got weary with His chores, even as with His disciples. He bore the name, Son of Man, while remaining the Son of God. He is many things, but He is certainly no average Joe.