You Are Divine

I used to think that Jesus came to show me all the things I wasn’t.

You know?

Like, I was taught that Jesus came to earth to live this perfect life so that I could read about his life in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and see what an amazingly sinless man he was and then compare his perfect life to my far less than perfect life so that I could see all of my shortcomings and all the ways I didn’t measure up and then make the necessary adjustments so that I could try to be better.

BUT.

What if that’s not really why Jesus came? Because what if instead of coming to show me all the things I’m not, what if he came to show me who I really am?

Growing up it was always about how perfect Jesus was.

How sinless he was.

How Divine he was.

AND.

How imperfect I am.

How sinful I am.

How human I am.

But what if we have it backwards? Because what if Jesus came to show us not so much what we’re not, but what we are? What if the eternal Christ put on human skin to show all of humanity that we are just like him? To show us what it means to be truly human, to be truly alive? What if he came before us not as a judge who bangs his mighty gavel upon our imperfections, but as a crystal clear mirror upon which we can look and stare and study and see our truest reflection staring back at us?

The more I read the Gospels and the more I study the life of Jesus the more I see a God-Man who wasn’t trying to show the world how great he was and how not so great they were, but was trying to show people who they really were … trying to draw out of people what the Divine had planted inside of them at the moment they were thought into existence … trying to invite humanity into the same relationship that he shared with the Creator.

Not so they could be up there and us down here.

Not so they could be so great and us so not great.

BUT.

So that we could all be one.

Perhaps this is why Jesus prayed in John 17 …

“I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

I wonder if this was the real reason Jesus came?

Not to take our place on the cross.

Not to absorb God’s wrath against our sin.

Not to save us from hell.

Not to shine a magnifying glass on all of mistakes and shortcomings.

BUT.

To show us that just as the Christ is in the Father and just as the Father is in the Christ so we are in God and God is in us?

To show us that just as much as we are made of human skin so we are also made of Divine magic?

And to show us that just as Christ walked a divine life that empowered the human footprint he left behind so you and I are invited and able and welcome to do the very same?

AND.

To do it even greater than he did? (John 14:12)

I’m at a place in my faith where I don’t think Jesus came to save me from my human flesh as much as he came to show me the power that it contains; not to convince God to come and live inside of me, but to show me that God has always lived inside of me; not to bring God to earth, but to open our eyes to God’s existence in all that has been created.

I wonder if Jesus came not so much to show us what we’re not, but who we are - humanly divine creations that are empowered by a divine energy that has the ability to leave a mighty footprint on this earth that will last for all of eternity just as Christ’s footprint has spanned these past 2,000+ years and will likely span the next 2,000 and beyond.

I don't know about you, but that sounds like Good News that we should go and tell to the whole world.

Much love,