Do we really see Jesus as God entering fully into the human situation as a human with humans? Or do we rather see him as a human who somehow floats over the human situation?

The Jesus we meet in his story is God for us in complete solidarity with those at odds against himself. He exposed himself to human temptation, suffering and death. He was genuinely tempted so that he faced the real and dreadful possibility of unfaithfulness towards his Father. He became our brother threatened with us, harassed and assaulted with us. As the writer to Hebrews says, “He learned obedience”. He did not commit sin, but he was not immune from it.

God as human was fully with us moving with us towards death. With us He cries “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He bore our need as his own, he took it upon himself and cried with us in our need. Indeed, he knew far better than any other how much reason there is to cry.

We say that God became human and we must have no reservations at all about his total identification with us. Only then do we see the sheer wonder of our God. He is not some distant deity above and beyond us in splendid isolation. He is not some detached divine being who is remote and removed from us. He is rather the God who identifies fully with us by becoming one of us and one with us.