I have a Tunisian friend who, as a Muslim, had a very difficult time understanding how it would be possible that our great God would, or even could, become human. How is it possible that we could say that the God of the universe would become a man here on the earth and live amongst us? It seems impossible in so many ways.
My friend told me that his friend, a pastor in Tunisia, explained it to him this way:
Imagine a little bird – a sparrow, let’s say – is looking for a shelter to come inside out of a storm. A human being sees the bird and goes to the bird to show it a place where it can find shelter. What would the bird do? It would fly away, of course. The bird cannot relate to the human. In fact, it is scared of the human.
However, suspend reality for a moment and imagine that the human being had the ability to become a sparrow, just like the little bird who is caught in the storm. In this way, the lost little bird would not be afraid. He would only need to trust that the other bird, who was needing shelter himself, knew the way and knew where the shelter could be found. In this way, the first little bird could follow the second little bird and they could go to the place where they could find shelter together.
When I first heard this story from my friend, I’ll admit that I nodded along and smiled, but in my mind I may have been rolling my eyes a little bit. Sort of simplistic, isn’t it?
Yes, it is a simplistic way to explain the story, but the more that I thought about it, the more that I realized that the essence of the story, what it was intending to communicate, made sense to me and even helped me to conceptually understand what God did for us through Jesus.
Jesus, as God, did take on the form of a man to bring a message to people using a form that we could understand. Yes, that is the case and that is true.
However, he didn’t only do this, but he took on the form of a man to be able to offer himself as a sacrifice in the form of a man so that he could take the punishment as justice for the sins of the world. He lived a sinless life, not deserving punishment, and was therefore able to take on the punishment that we deserved, allowing us to put our faith in him so that we also could live with him as God’s children and his human brothers and sisters.
And so this is what the writer of Hebrews is talking about when he says:
For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews 2:17-18
Jesus became fully human to serve and glorify God. He gave himself for the sins of all men, if they would accept his sacrifice and the forgiveness of their sins by faith. And he suffered in the midst of temptation, helping us to overcome temptation and sin, both at that time and even today.
God became human in the form of Jesus so that we both could know him, hear from him, and be saved by him. God chose to become who we are, part of his creation, so that we could return to be with him, live for him, and glorify him for the rest of our lives and into eternity.