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This world is not my home?

Bob Koivisto

True spirituality is measured by our ability to live deeply in the world (John 17:18). We haven’t been made spies of heaven or secret agents of grace. As the new “Adam” (Romans 5:17), Jesus lived here as a man, disguising His deity and displaying His humanity. Somehow we often attempt to disguise our humanity and display our “deity”, and in doing so we miss the point of the incarnation.

It may seem that we are only “strangers and pilgrims”, and yet we are people of the earth as Adam was. The hymns we sing are of longing for the “far-off land”, and therefore we often dare not like it here or allow ourselves to be really human. Yet, the earth belonged to Jesus when He was here, and He seemed at home. Jesus validated our humanity when He became “one of us” (Hebrews 2:14,17).

When God saved us, we were not only reconciled to heaven, but we were reconciled to earth as well, and to ourselves and our fellow human beings. As believers, we are genuinely human – our humanity has been restored. Thus, the image of God can be seen more clearly in us by how we behave as people than in religious fervour. No one can love the symphony or the smell of warm bread or the touch of love better than we can. As complete human beings, we know why Jesus took on flesh and blood, and we should not fear our own incarnation.

Jesus’ visit may have been temporary (John 1:14 says literally “He pitched His tent”), but He was genuinely a man and did not speak of His anxiousness to leave. We live sometimes as though we are caught in a time warp, trapped between two worlds – not yet in heaven and not really enjoying the earth either. The Bible says little of heaven and much of earth. This is our land to possess. “All things are ours” (1 Corinthians 3:21).

Real spirituality is not measured by our rejection of the delights of life or our isolation from the lost, but by our distinction while deeply in the world. The true measure of our spirituality is best reported, not by our fellow church members but by our fellows in the workplace who don’t even know what a Christian is. Jesus’ best “letters of recommendation” came from His enemies; perhaps ours should too.

We are not called by God to hold out desperately until He comes to evacuate the fort. We are to live so closely to our fellows, that, like Father Damien, a missionary to lepers, we are in danger of catching the very disease we seek to cure in others. Jesus was “tempted in every way, just as we are” (Hebrews 4:15). To live deeply in the world is risky and dangerous.

“Overcoming” doesn’t mean never touching or being touched. When Jesus was jostled by the crowds, He expected to be touched, and He risked being touched. It cost Him His “virtue”, but the woman who was hurting was healed (Mark 5:25-34, KJV). You can’t heal without letting people touch you. Serving involves touching; touching involves suffering.

Perhaps it is time to enter into our “incarnation” as Jesus did. Perhaps it is time to be found in the “nature of a servant” (Philippians 2:7). With everyone around us running from death, perhaps we need to embrace it. It is time for the “mind” that was in Him to be the “mind” in us. It is time for us to stop fearing our own humanity, to enter deeply into the world and to be the model for those who have no idea what our “humanity” really is.

Bob Koivisto lives in Everson, Wash.

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Last modified December 6, 2000.

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