Pilgrim Soldier

Finally I’m getting round to posting about the Incarnate Conference held last month. I only managed to get to 1 1/2 sessions due to other commitments but, my friend and former boss, Henrik sent me the full set of conference papers so I have been making my way through them. Anyway, enough of the background stuff, on with my thoughts.

Incarnate started with a paper by Stuart Murray-Williams with the title “How is Jesus the focus of incarnational living?” At the conclusion of this paper Murray-Williams says:

Jesus was utterly unremarkable for 90% of his life. Only in the final three years of public ministry did he become extraordinary. Nobody in Nazareth, except Mary, knew that he was anyone special. The Gospels report that his family and neighbours were taken completely by surprise when he ‘came out’ as the Son of God.

Now I understand where he is coming from in writing this as he was trying to put across the point that much of real incarnational ministry is found in the mundane routine of daily living. In this I fully agree! However, whilst Jesus’ actual life may have been largely unremarkable in the day to day stuff the way he lived it certainly wasn’t. Luke tells us in his gospel that after the events of Jerusalem when Jesus was 12, he returned to Nazareth and:

…grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.

To me this suggests that Jesus’ life may have been unremarkable in that nothing much happened that wasn’t run-of-the-mill (unless of course you give credence to some of the non-canonical gospels that are around), his life was remarkable enough that it was noticed by those who lived with him in Nazareth. They might not have realised that he was the incarnate Son of God but they saw something special in him.

This means that if we as his people want to live like him, then we must live in such a way that even in the routine, run-of-the-mill existence that is human life that is visibly different to the norm.

So in reality Jesus was remarkably unremarkable and consequently we have to live in the same way. Living like this, being immersed in the community just like Jesus was in the community in Nazareth cannot help but have an effect on those around us. Then we are able to reveal to those around us the one whose example we follow.