The Daily Text for this morning came from 2 Corinthians 5:21. It reads: “For our sake, God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Growing up, there were people I wanted to be “like.”
- I wanted to be like the police officers that I saw patrolling our neighborhood.
- I wanted to be like the pilots who flew giant planes.
- I wanted to be like my Dad, who worked at 3M, where they invented cool things. (Though my Dad wasn’t actually an inventor…he worked in staffing…so he hired inventors, and that was cool enough for me at the time!)
- I wanted to be like Captain Kirk, exploring the galaxy.
- I wanted to be like Bilbo Baggins, on an adventure.
There were lots of people who I looked up to and wanted to imitate when I was a kid. And really, the same is true today. I have friends and family, people I respect, who I wish my life better reflected. Perhaps they’re more patient, or more compassionate, or a better public speaker…but I see what they do and I compare it to myself and I find myself wanting.
So what does it say to us to read the scripture from 2 Corinthians and realize that Jesus came to earth to be more like us? Jesus, Savior of the world, the One who knew no sin, came to be sin…that is to absorb and carry our sin, on our behalf? What does it mean that Jesus stepped into the messiness of human existence, and set aside glory to take on humiliation and death?
Why? So that we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus was pure and righteous, and we were sinful. And Jesus took on sin, so that we might become pure and righteous. In other words, Jesus came to reflect us, so that we might reflect him.
This is nothing we can do on our own. It is only the work of Christ who makes us whole and restores our relationship.
Every day I look in the mirror, and I’m not always content with what I see. I wish I were somehow ‘different,’ or ‘better.’ But if I can learn to look in the mirror and see Christ reflected there; to understand that Jesus entered the world…and in baptism entered my life…to call me to something different, then perhaps I would learn to more fully live as one of God’s children, and I would learn to be content with who God has created me to be. Yes, sinful. But also righteous in God’s eyes.
Jesus loves me so much that he wanted to be like me, in order that I might be more like him.
Peace,
Pastor Todd
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