Fix your eyes on Jesus

The come and go of busy feet With sound of hammer down the busy street, A little two-roomed house with scarce a breath Of air; in busy, crowded Nazareth. Yes, here for love of thee, through silent years -- Oh, pause and see, if thou art wise -- The King of Kings dwelt in disguise.1 Jesus was indeed the King of Kings -- but don't forget He was also a real human being. Luke the doctor recorded that the Son of God was truly born, and wrapped in cloths and placed in a manger (Luke 2:7). When He was eight days old the baby was circumcised (2:21) and then cuddled in an old man's arms (2:28). He grew as a child (2:40, 52), and once as a twelve-year-old He got separated from His parents and scolded (2:41-48), although His reason showed His growing awareness of His specialness and mission (2:49). As an adult He got hungry (4:2); He shared human sadness (7:13); He liked to eat and drink and socialize with people (7:34). He wasn't omnipresent -- He could only be in one place at a time (10:1). And He died a real death (23:46) and ended His earthly life as He began it: wrapped in cloths and placed not in a manger but a tomb (23:52-53). Think about this earthly, human, thirty-three-year life-span. Jesus spent six times as long working as a carpenter as He did in full-time ministry. He was essentially a blue-collar worker, and that was His identification (Mark 6:3). And I want to tell you -- it was a good thing He didn't shrink from all those laborious, tedious carpenter-years as His preparation. Once the ministry began, Never in human history were human frame and nervous system to be called on to endure such unremitting strain . . . Only a physically perfect constitution could have supported such unceasing activity and expenditure of nervous force . . . His recorded journeys during the three years covered at least two thousand five hundred miles on foot, frequently surrounded by crowds, and always teaching, preaching, healing. And what better preparation than twelve hours a day spent in the sawpit or at the bench, planning and hammering? These silent years . . . were invaluable in building up the physical and nervous reserves which were to be so heavily overdrawn in coming days that He would stagger under the weight of His cross.2 Jesus -- pale, puffy-eyed, and effeminate, as in some of our paintings? No way. He was a "man's man." And since His entrance into this world as a human, He will never cease to be a human! In His risen manhood He assured the disciples He wasn't a ghost -- and He said, "Touch Me and see." And He ate a piece of broiled fish in front of them (Luke 24:39-42). Now in heaven there is a Man at the Father's right hand! He's our go-between: For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). He's as manly as ever -- as human as ever - having become the glorious human that Adam started out to be and lost, and that we soon shall be. He's our prototype! We, too, will be gloriously resurrected, And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man [Adam], so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven [Christ] (1 Corinthians 15:49). I can hardly wait, can you? Still, we'll always know the price He paid to get us there. He'll be the only One there with scars in His hands. Fix your eyes on Jesus -- your strong Hero, your Ideal, your Model. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prayer: Lord, I look at You, and I discover You're looking at me! "As in water, face answers to face, so the heart of one man answers to another" (Proverbs 27:19). You are like me -- but perfect. You're all I want to be -- but You're made of my kind of stuff. I can identify with You; I can move in close and be Your friend. What an honor! What a thrill! You have said, "He who walks with the wise grows wise" (Proverbs 13:20). Lord Jesus Christ, I want to walk with You and grow to be like You. I fix my eyes on You, my wonderful Companion! In Your own dear name, amen. _____________ 1. Oswald Sanders, Christ Incomparable, p.33 2. Ibid, pp.43, 44. * * * * * Ecce Homo -- see the Man. Ecce Deum -- see your God. "Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see; Hail, incarnate Deity!"