Advent-ure Day 8: Son of Man

Jesus was teaching His disciples on servanthood, and we can read in Mark 10:
43b ...whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.
44 And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.
45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

The image of Jesus we see here is that of a servant, and He calls us to exhibit a servant spirit.  After all, He left his position in heaven, humbled Himself as a man, so that as a man, He could be the perfect sacrifice for our sins.  His submission to death on a cross is a piercing picture of what it truly means to serve.  At Christmas - and throughout the year - we can be challenged to demonstrate His love and become characterized by the way that we serve.

+++++

We are continuing to focus, during this Advent season, on reasons why we praise Jesus, our Savior, who came to earth so that we might come into a knowledge of Him through salvation.  There is a 25-day Advent Guide available at the Faith Radio website and in the Faith Radio app, called, 25: A Christ-mas Adventure.

Yesterday, after highlighting 6 prophecies out of the hundreds that Jesus fulfilled, I moved into worshipping Jesus for His personality, who He is.  He is the Son of God, and described Himself as
the Son of Man. Matthew 16 says:
13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?"
14 So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
16 Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Jesus was completely divine - the Son of God; yet, He was born of a human, so He can also be called the Son of Man.  We're reminded that He is the Incarnation - God in the flesh, and that He is Immanuel (Emmanuel) - God with us.  He partook of humanity so that we could, in essence, encounter the divine - He made it possible for God Himself, through His Holy Spirit, to live in us!

So, I think it's instructive to think of ourselves as vessels to be used by Him, representatives of Christ - it's been said that Christians are to be "Jesus with skin on."

On this "Famous Friday," examining how God shows up in popular or celebrity culture, I want to turn to two people who are quite familiar to television viewers - the patriarch of the Duck Dynasty family, Phil Robertson, and his wife, affectionately known as Miss Kay.  The Faithwire website has the story of an act of compassion that involved the Robertsons when they were on a trip to New York City and Washington, DC:

Miss Kay explained in a video uploaded to Phil Robertson’s Facebook page on Thursday that she decided to seek out the maid who cleaned her room so she could give her a thank you gift, explaining how the interaction sparked a conversation about the gospel.

“I went to find the lady that cleaned my room … and I found her and she thought she was in trouble,” Miss Kay said. “But I said, ‘No, I just want to give you something’ and I gave her something and then I gave her a big hug and I kissed her on the cheek.”

The cleaning woman began to cry and continued to hug Miss Kay, which surprised the former A&E star quite a bit.

The story relates that Miss Kay learned that in 14 years at that hotel, the lady had "never been hugged by a customer."

Then, Phil began to share the gospel with her. He is quoted as saying:

“I got a piece of paper and I drew an arrow coming down out of heaven … I said, ‘Two thousand seventeen years ago, year one, God came down in flesh.’ She said, ‘Really?'” he recounted. “I said, ‘Yup … he died on the cross for all of our sins, yours and mine. And they put him in a tomb, three days later he resurrected from the dead, he came back to life.'”

He asked her if she believed that and she said she did.  Phil suggested that she find a Bible, as well.

There are several takeaways from this story, and the first is rather obvious: we have opportunities to share the love of Christ with people on a regular basis.  The question then becomes whether or not we are allowing the Spirit to lead us to those individuals and then to speak through us to share truth.

We also see that the door for the gospel to be shared was preceded by an act of kindness.  Now, there is a lot of charity going around at Christmas, rightfully so, as we reflect on the enormous act of sacrifice that Jesus did for us.  And, believers should be known at Christmas - and throughout the year - for our compassion and our generosity.  Our willingness to give of ourselves can soften hearts so that they be more sensitive to the message of the gospel.  We can remember that Jesus, the Son of Man, became human so that humans could know Him, now works through human beings to share His love.

I also think there is an element of being sensitive to those who serve.  We encounter people who are in service positions or service industries regularly - you may serve in that type of capacity.  From store cashiers, to restaurant waiters and waitresses, to hotel employees, to those who collect our garbage and keep our cities rolling; not to mention law enforcement and military people - we should pay more attention to their service and not hesitate to show kindness, not taking their work for granted.