Unforgettable Jesus

Recently a friend sent me a poem by Brian Doyle with the intriguing and unwieldy title, “To the United Airlines Signalman Silently Reading the New Testament in an Alcove Under the Extendable Jetway at Gate C-9 in Chicago on a Morning in April.” 

The poem ends with the following lines:

                        But how astonishing it is, how truly unbelievable, that a book can be

Alive after all these years, can have in its fragile pages that one man,

Dusty and complicated, tart and testy, tired and afraid, unforgettable.

Although we celebrate the incarnation at Christmas, we still tend to emphasize Jesus’ divinity—the miracles he performed, his transfiguration, the uncanny wisdom in his teachings. That Emmanuel grew to be a man who was “dusty and complicated, tart and testy, tired and afraid” isn’t what made Jesus unforgettable…or was it?

Jesus wasn’t playacting when he took on human flesh. He felt physical and emotional pain, experienced the joys and disappointments of being in relationship with others, and had to figure out what he was supposed to do with his life. What made him unique was that in the midst of living this ordinary life, he came to an intimate understanding of God’s love and compassion for him and for all beings and responded by faithfully relaying that good news to others, even though it led to a painful and shameful death. If, while Jesus was human, he was able to know and relate to the God of infinite love and mercy, that means we are capable of it, too. No wonder that the book of his life is still alive after all these years; who could forget the man who opened that gate for us?