March 31: THE ORDINARY JESUS

The Jesus we meet in John 13 is so ordinary looking. See Him there, washing the disciples feet. Naturally the first disciples had a hard time thinking of Him as God in such a “non-glorified” state. Later on in Matthew 25 when He began to talk about the “least of these brothers of mine” it was hard to separate Jesus by appearance from them.
And so people debated among themselves. “Where did this man get this wisdom, and these miraculous powers: they asked ‘Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all of his sisters with us? Where did this man get all these things? And they took offense at him.’’ (Matthew 13:55-57 NIV) They liked the miracles and teachings of Jesus, but He did not look like God. They had grown up with Him and played with Him, how could He be divine? God washing feet didn’t make sense.
When John 1:14 (NIV) says “The word became flesh and made His dwelling among us,” we have the Bible trying to explain to us how God could incarnate (become human) and take on an earthly address. From the Biblical account, God created us to have fellowship with us, He intended to live in relationship with us. If He had not been like us, we could never have identified with Him.
Read about the problems that royal families have in trying to come across to their citizens as “ordinary”. Do most people in England identify with the Monarchy? Of course not, the gap is too large. If God had remained aloof, could we have identified with Him? No, that’s the problem of the Old Testament, the God who is too aloof. It is the God of the ordinary that we know in Jesus and therein is the profoundest thing that we can say about God.

“Thank You, God, for putting down the Heavenly Holy and coming to
live among unholy folks who need You so much. Help us not to ignore
You as you walk among us. Amen”