In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [He] was in the beginning with God…
The Word became flesh, and lived among us.        John 1:1-2, 14 (WEB)
Jesus was a common name. It was like John or James. There would have been several boys named Jesus in Nazareth. Isaiah, the prophet, said that the Messiah would not be charismatic but common. Maybe Jesus had bad hair. Maybe He was even clumsy. We know He had calloused hands and dirty feet! And yet those hands brought healing and those feet received the loving tears of a forgiven woman and the nails of a sinful world.
I am common. I am Jesus’ disciple. It is Jesus’ plan to use me to show others His healing hands and forgiving heart. God had the eternal vision to come to earth – fully human – and show me The Way. Jesus had a frail human body that lost skin when He fell down. The sun burned His flesh. He was susceptible to fatigue and headaches. It may seem irreverent but Jesus was totally human! To see Jesus hitting His thumb with a hammer is to realize that He really knows what it means to have pain and need healing.
A disciple of Jesus is fully human. Jesus is my only standard and so I may not be self-righteous. I have only Jesus in me to give me righteousness. Just as Jesus was approachable and reachable because He was human, so God uses me to reach His hurting, lost children when I am real and humble. It has always been God’s only plan to use His children to reach out to their siblings. It is our very weakness that allows His strength to flow to lift and heal His children.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.       John 1:4-5 (WEB, my emphasis)
Remember how Jesus said that a person does not take a candle or a lamp and put it under a bowl but instead put it on a table so that it may give light to the whole room. (Matthew 5) Jesus wants His light in me to shine to the world. He wants me to be crystal clear so His light can shine unhindered.
