Fully Human

Jesus was fully human and fully God

all at once throughout His lifetime

until His death on the cross.

And then, His human body was fully dead,

but His Spirit lived on,

even before we were able to see Him

outside of the tomb.

 

The Scriptures tell us

He did battle with Satan and won

while we still thought Him dead, entombed.

 

Before the cross

came Gethsemane,

where Jesus fought with His humanity.

His soul was exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.

He longed for friends to watch and pray and stay with Him.

But even that smallest request

was too much for even His closest friends

who could not stay awake, even for an hour.

 

In that garden, in both His humanity and diety,

Jesus saw both the torture and the victory;

He knew the earthly pain and heavenly glory to come.

His earthly humanity rose up against that unbearable pain

of flesh and Spirit;

the nails piercing flesh and crushing bones

was nothing compared to

the seering torment of His Father turning away,

His heart ripping hatefully from His chest

and our sins marching in with sickness and wicked evil

and hate and pride and selfishness and everything

unholy poisoning and ripping Him to shreds.

 

He saw it all

alone, with no friends to comfort

or even sit by His side.

Knowing all too well,

He asked for what His humanity

and ours always desires,

“Take this cup from me.”

None of us, even Jesus in His humanity,

want our part in the kingdom

to include suffering.

 

Like Jesus, we know,

if He’s graced us to know,

that all things are possible

for our Father in heaven.

But here in our humanity

we rarely if ever

truly say and mean what Jesus said and meant:

“Not what I will,

but what You will.”

That is the process of life,

the work of our decades,

the ultimate going-home goal.

Amen and amen

(from Mark 14:32-42 NKJV)