Jesus is our model for masculinity and this view has been largely absent and untaught. The church rightly emphasizes presenting Jesus as the Son of God, who died for our sins, and defeated death. Jesus is the King of Kings, He is the Lord of Lords and the Son of God, however His favorite self-descriptor was ‘Son of Man.’ Jesus is referred to as ‘Son of Man’ over 80 times within the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This title identifies Him in His humanity, Jesus is most comfortable relating to those He teaches and ministers to from His humanity. The Bible tells us that Jesus willingly emptied Himself and chose to self-limit His power by becoming a man.
“…who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”
Philippians 2:6-7
Jesus lived His existence on earth having a divine and human nature at the same time. The reason He refers to Himself as ‘Son of Man’ is because the ‘first man’ Adam failed when he disobeyed God. Jesus appears as what the Bible calls the ‘second man’ to redeem everything that was lost when Adam sinned (1 Corinthians 15:45-47).
The Missing Link
In our understanding of Jesus as Lord many have overlooked His role as man and entrance into humanity in the fulfillment of His mission to offer us salvation. Sadly, many men feel unworthy to draw close to Jesus and instead view Him as a distant, out of reach Lord that we can never relate to, we perceive Him as detached from our daily struggles.
"We have lost sight of Jesus in His humanity. We may revere Him as Lord but we miss what He accomplished, modeled and exemplified for us as man by taking on human flesh."
I would like to take you on a journey of exploring not only the words and message of Jesus, but His actions, His methods and what He modeled. I advise you to put aside the image of Jesus you may have fashioned to fit your belief system; the image of Jesus you inherited from your well-intentioned (yet inaccurate) religious traditions.
- Throw out that feminine, wispy healer who prances through the pages of your Sunday school book.
- The stoic, emotionless and distant stained-glass character who is unrelatable.
- The social justice warrior, consumed with a fantasy doctrine of fairness.
- The one-sided portrayal of the Son of Man that has been twisted and manipulated to serve a political and religious purpose.
See Him in his humanity, His form is shaped by His work, His hands are calloused from handling building materials and tools for the majority of His earthly life. He sweats in the heat of the day.
His feet are covered in dirt from the paths and backroads He travels as He makes his way from town to town. He is not a pristine European picture of a sad, depressed sorry excuse for a man. He is fierce, He is dangerous and He is not safe.
Come Meet the Man Christ Jesus…and Forever Be Changed.
I warn you…Jesus does not easily fit into our nice boxes and pre-supposed attitudes.
He is not only a Lamb; He is a roaring Lion.
He is not safe. He is offensive.
He will offend your religious beliefs and political mindsets.
He carries a sword and He will cut you to the bone, dividing your soul from your spirit man.
He will reveal your innermost thoughts and the secret intents of your heart.
All of this for the purpose of changing you into who He created and called you to be.
JESUS IS THE STANDARD
This is an excerpt taken from THE STANDARD: Discovering Jesus as the Standard for Masculinity. You can purchase the book here
