What if God was One of Us?

Jesus consistently defied the normal way of doing things.  This is most espeically true in regards to anything involving forgiveness and reconciliation. Because the world is pretty screwed up when it comes to such things–we are pretty screwed up, too.

Most of the time, when reconciliation is necessary, we expect the person who did the wrong—who disrupted the relationship—to bear the bigger burden of making peace.  We expect the wrongdoer to make it right. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ paints a very different picture. The Gospel is the story of God making every effort and going to great lengths to make peace with us through His Son.

In the nineties, a song came out entitled “One of Us.” Joan Osborn sang:

What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on a bus
Trying to make His way home
If God had a face what would it look like
And would you want to see
If seeing meant that you would have to believe
In things like Heaven and in Jesus and the Saints
And all the Prophets
And yeah, yeah God is great
Yeah, yeah God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

This song used to drive me crazy. I admit it’s catchy and would easily get stuck in my head. But I guess what always irked me was the fact that God actually was one of us. Or should I say: God is one of us. Indeed, that is the whole point of Jesus, whom the song cryptically mentions. This is what the Bible is all about. This simple and wonderful truth is what moved the prophets and saints to risk life and limb. God was and is one of us!

So, the question should be: Why? Why did He become one of us? 

He became one of us to pursue forgiveness and reconciliation.  That’s why. 

He didn’t wait for sinful man to come to Him.  He pursued forgiveness and reconciliation all the way to the cross.  While we have such a hard time making peace and going the extra mile and going above-and-beyond for the sake of our neighbor, Jesus shed His blood and gave His life to make peace for us with God. When you think about that, how can we not rethink the way we handle conflict with others?  Why are we so proud and not more willing to pursue forgiveness at all costs?

It’s said that “to err is human; to forgive, divine.” That was Alexander Pope’s conclusion in “An Essay on Criticism.” You might agree with Pope, that it goes against human nature to forgive. But thankfully, we don’t need to have some special power within us to bring forth forgiveness for another.  We’ve been given all the forgiveness we’ll ever need from Christ, Himself.  When we forgive others, it’s not because they’ve earned it or deserve it. No. We forgive for Christ’s sake.  We remember that Christ shed His blood to make forgiveness possible, and for this reason, it’s literally as easy as saying the words “I forgive you.”

The hardest part is that we often have to keep on saying those words. Don’t we? Again and again. To the same person or people. We have to keep on forgiving. It’s seldom just a once-and-done thing.  Our memory doesn’t quickly fade when it comes to offense and hurt and pain caused by others.

Sometimes you’ll have to wake-up every day and remember that you’ve forgiven old so-and-so. You may have spent all night wrestling with angry, vengeful thoughts about old so-and-so and the pain they caused you. And, on that particular morning, any past vocalizations of “I forgive you” will hardly seem to appease the wrath you feel in the moment. You’ll think to yourself, “Those were just words. That’s not how I feel.”

But we must make the choice NOT to act upon our emotions. We must remember that words matter. Our salvation is based on words–THE WORD–the word of God made flesh. When our emotions try to deceive us into holding on to someone’s sin against us, we have to remember to base our willingness to forgive not on how we feel towards that person, but on how God feels toward us in Jesus Christ and on what He has said to us through Christ: “I forgive you.”

He pursues us. He never gives up. He makes the first move. He affirms His love and forgiveness again and again. He doesn’t count the cost. 

That’s something to think on.

Is there someone you need to forgive?