Week 6—Friday 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Week 6—FRIDAY
THE INCARNATION UNIVERSALIZED
We said yesterday that Jesus was interested in the poverty of the poor, interested in feeding them. But he was not only interested, he was incarnated in the poverty of the poor. “‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you . . . for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when . . . ?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me’” (Matt. 25:34-40). Here we see something deeper than his own incarnation in his own flesh. He is incarnate on a Universal scale—every person’s hunger is his hunger, every person’s sickness his sickness, every person’s bondage his bondage. To do it to them is to do it to him. To refuse to do it to them is to refuse to do it to him.
This broadens and deepens and universalizes the Incarnation. Jesus does not merely have a body that suffers as our bodies suffer—he is suffering in everyone’s body, hungry in everyone’s hunger, bound in everyone’s imprisonment. To suffer in one body—his own—is one thing; to suffer in everyone’s body is another—and different and breathtaking. It is beyond imagination.
But we could never have known this universal Incarnation if Jesus had not shown it in a particular Incarnation in a particular body. If it had been written in a book that God suffers in everyone’s suffering, is hungry in everyone’s hunger, we would have shrugged our shoulders in incredulity. But having seen it in the Word become flesh, we do not shrug our shoulders—we bend the knee. And we mention it in awe and adoration. It is beyond us, but it grips us and we say to ourselves: The God we see in Jesus would do just that.
O Divine Redeemer, we do not understand, but we worship. We worship a God who would love like that. And we love him too—love him with a love too deep for words. And we love you for revealing him. May our love be kindled at the flame of your love. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: The Africans have a greeting: “Are you well?” and the reply: “I am if you are.” Beautiful?