Then
he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,
“If anyone wishes to be first,
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”
Taking a child, he placed it in their midst,
and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;
and whoever receives me,
receives not me but the One who sent me.” Mark 9
In the
Incarnation, God has come down to us, to imitate us, his own creation and so himself
become imitable in his lowliness, littleness. In Christ Jesus, our Lord, the
Father has placed a dear Child, his only Son, in our midst to teach what God is
really like.
And If we are to be "imitators of God as his own dear children"- it is now possible because God in Christ first imitated his parents at Nazareth. God's Word learned to speak words from listening to Joseph and Mary. The Creative Word learned the trade of carpentry from Joseph.
When we hear Jesus say, "I can only do what I see the Father doing," could it be that he thinks of Joseph as well as his Father in heaven? And when his heart is on the point of breaking and he says: "Into your hands, I commend my spirit," could it be that he is doing what Joseph did with Mary at Nazareth, just what Mary did at her Annunciation - placing his life in God's hands. Indeed, Jesus grew in wisdom and grace, his little heart formed at Nazareth, Christ Jesus empowered by the Father's love, by the love of Joseph with Mary, hands himself over.
How God
wants to be ordinary. Christ’s life reveals this so plainly. And in all the accounts of his healings, what he is doing best of all
is returning these once sick and isolated folks back to the ordinary. Jesus’
healing restores them to family, kinsfolk, and friends. They are no longer
isolated by their maladies. Think of the lepers, the deaf and blind and
crippled. Jesus gives them back to
ordinariness. The deaf man he cures will, at last, be able to hear a friend
say hello, hear her laugh; hear a breeze blow through the trees. He will, at last, be able to speak clearly, tell someone a story; whisper I love you. He can
simply blend in again. Jesus has given him back to ordinariness, blessed
ordinariness. It is after all where he always comes to meet us. We know that.
God only wants to be ordinary and small. It is why Jesus has come, he is God with us, near us, in us. The ordinary is charged forever with his kind, incessant presence. God longs to be ordinary, not taken for granted, but here, always here with us. Why else would he choose to be a child, why else a carpenter and a wandering teacher? Why else allow himself to be done in by thugs and jealous bureaucrats? Why else choose to be hidden in a morsel of bread on our altar? In Christ Jesus, God Most High has come down to serve us and care for us and teach us to go and do likewise.
Photograph by Brother Brian.
