Jesus the Mortal

Nearly all Christians agree that Jesus was a mortal man. Yet we seem to often forget it. The Bible leaves no doubt as to His humanity. He was born to a human mother. He had need of the same basics we all do: He ate, He drank, He slept. In the end, He suffered intense physical pain and died a human death.

Even though He was the incarnation of God, Jesus suffered the same pains as we do, both physical and emotional. At times Jesus showed impatience with his disciples at their inability to comprehend His teachings and His calling. At Gethsemane, He displayed a tremendous amount of doubt and fear concerning His impending death, even to the point of crying tears of blood. He asked that the "cup" be taken from Him and eventually resolved Himself to do God's will, as we all must do. But he suffered a setback, as sometimes happens to us. As He was hanging on the cross at Calvary, that doubt crept back in. He became angry and yelled out to God, not only as His Holy Father but as his "daddy". He wondered aloud why his daddy could have forsaken Him in such a manner and allowed His pain. Even in this, His darkest hour, He again dedicated Himself to do God's will and committed His spirit to Him. If He could do this under the greatest pain imaginable, why can't we in our everyday lives?

We forget his pain and doubt. When we struggle to live the Christian life and follow His example, we sometimes say "well it was easy for Him, He was God". If He could have simply relied on the fact that He was part of God, then there would have been no need to feel the pains of life. He could have made Himself impervious to the pains of the crucifixion. He could have walked the earth as God whenever He pleased and then passed back into Heaven. But this would not work.

For our salvation to be true, He had to be like us. He had to struggle through this life in a world that hated Him for who He was, just like the Bible says it hates us for who we are. The only way He could absolve us of our sins was for Him to fully bear them and take on the world as we have to confront it. Not only is God your Father, but he is also your Brother.