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| WHY COME TO EARTH? |
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| body was - and is - too much for some people to believe. But how else could God truly communicate with us? We don't know what God looked like as a man; no Gospel writer described the physical appearance of Jesus. But, in other ways, Mark painted a full picture of his humanity. Jesus, who claimed to be God, didn't have a supernatural "glow" about him. His own neighbors and family marveled that he seemed so, well, normal. Mark does not diminish Jesus. He shows the power of a man who healed the blind with a simple touch (8:25), and the authority of a teacher so captivating that people sat three days straight, with empty stomachs, just to hear him (8:2). Even after Jesus hushed them, people wouldn't stop talking about his miracles. But Mark also reveals the full range of Jesus' emotions: a surge of compassion for a person with leprosy (1:41), a deep sigh in response to nagging Pharisees (8:12), a look of anger and distress at cold-hearted legalists (3:5), and then an awful cry on the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (15:34). Jesus was sometimes witty, and he sometimes cried. He got tired: five times, Mark records, he sought a quiet place for rest away from the crowds. Like No One Else Jesus was like no other person who ever lived. Twelve men left their jobs and families at a single command to follow him. Yet Jesus was also fully "one of us." He needed food and friends. He got lonely and tired. He showed anger and disappointment. Because Jesus experienced all we experience as human beings, he can understand us completely, and share in our joys and sorrows. |