One of us?

“What if God was one of us?”

 

Remember this song from the 90s that posed this very philosophical and controversial question?

The song lyrics speak of God as being a “slob like one of us.” Christians hear the word “slob” and immediately think of it as derogatory toward God. And who can blame them?

I definitely remember the very visceral reaction this song elicited from the Christians I knew at the time. The Baptist Christian school I attended was very quick and decisive in condemning it as “blasphemous”, and forbidding any of us playing it or talking about it on school premises.

This reaction seemed to be the consensus for Christians everywhere.

Makes sense, right???

Was the song written by a secular artist? Yes. Was it written with the intention to be sacrilegious? That’s certainly a possibility, but we can’t know what the writer/singer’s intentions were.

 

My thought then, was the same as my thoughts now. Isn’t God one of us? Didn’t He send His only Son, Jesus Christ to be born, live, work, suffer and die just as we all do? Didn’t Jesus make the choice to live among us, both as fully God and FULLY MAN?

I think it’s all in how you look at it.

I typically wouldn’t refer to God or Jesus as a “slob”, but Jesus came down to be among us. He was born in a barn, and laid in a manger; a trough where animals were fed. He was not born in a beautiful, lavish palace, Like any earthly king. Jesus was born in a place that even the poor of the day would have seen as lowly. He and his parents were very likely looked down on as “slobs” or Anawim, because of their socio-economic status.

In a recent post, I referred to the Anawim, or the throwaway people. Christ was born into a family of Anawim. We are the Anawim. Christ lived, suffered and died as one of us. He did that because of His incredible love for us; for the Anawim.

That’s all well and good. But if that’s the end of the story then all we have is a really amazing story about a dude named Jesus who preached about some really out-of-the-box ideas, made the wrong people mad and lost his life for it. The good news is the story didn’t end there. Christ came to live as one of us; fully man. But death was just the beginning of His story. He did what none of us could do. He conquered sin and death through His resurrection. He walked among the faithful as the resurrected Christ; fully God. He showed us that He was one of us, but so much more.

 

So, let’s ask the question the song poses, hearing it through new eyes.

What if God was one of us?

 

He was.

He is.

He will always be.