In Jesus we have the utmost example of God taking sides. It starts with one who emptied himself of all divinity, came as a homeless baby in a poor family, living a life of a refugee in a foreign country, then an invisible carpenter in his own country which is colonized by an imperial power, ending as a “criminal,” accused and tortured by heads of both systems of power, temple and empire, abandoned by most of his friends, subjected to the death penalty by a most humiliating and bizarre public ritual, and finally buried quickly in an unmarked grave.
Until we come to accept created reality with all its limits and pains as the living presence of God, Christianity has nothing to offer to the world. When we lose the priority of God’s love in weak, fragile humanity, we lose Christ, the foundation on which we stand as Christians.
Compassion continues the Incarnation by allowing the Word of God to take root within us, to be enfleshed in us. The Incarnation is not finished; it is not yet complete for it is to be completed in us.
Philippians 2:5-8 "You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross."
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