I Had An Epiphany

Today is Epiphany, the day when we rejoice that God has sent his son in the flesh.

Jesus of Nazareth’s humanity is, plainly, incomprehensible.  It’s hard for us to fathom, and the past two litany readings illustrate this crisis of understanding perfectly.

Yesterday’s Gospel passage was the feeding of the five thousand from Mark’s gospel (6:34-44).  This story conveys that Jesus was not a mere mortal, there was something supernatural about him.  He fed people with awesome power.  He healed and taught in wonderous ways that shocked the crowds.  He was superhuman.

Today we are met with an interesting coda to the yesterday’s passage.  Jesus, after a night of prayer decides to walk across the waters and beat his disciples to the other side.  At first glance, this appears to be a continuation of the feeding of the five thousand: Jesus has power over our daily needs, whether food or survival.  This passage also reinforces Jesus’s supernatural abilities.  He was walking on water!

Yet his humanity is deeply evident in this passage.  It hit me as especially peculiar, and I think it points to the deep richness of Jesus’s humanity, even when he had evidenced so much supernatural power.  More to the point, he shows his humanity in the midst of a supernatural act:

And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. (ESV)

When Jesus was walking on the water it was a sign to the disciples, but it was an accidental one.  He meant to pass by, but they saw him anyway.  Jesus messed up.

Jesus’s sinlessness does not do away with his humanity, namely, that he lived in a world of reality and not a world of Platonic ideals.  Jesus’s perfect was a spiritual perfection—it was not a physical perfection.  It was a vocational perfection, but it was not an occupational perfection.  He had to learn and grow in knowledge of Scriptures and of human life.  He probably messed up a few pieces of wood as a carpenter.  Based on the passage above, he might have not been the best at hide-and-seek as a kid.  Our image of Jesus is one of imperfection.  We think he did everything perfectly, but that is not the case.  He learned and grew.  He did not have carpentry and preaching uploaded into his head like Keanu Reeves learning kung fu in the Matrix.  He was a living, breathing, dynamic human being.  And for this I am deeply humbled and grateful.