Ok, I didn’t get it. I was wrong about the humanity of Jesus. I did not doubt the humanity of Jesus, but I thought being God gave him an edge in being perfect. I did not doubt his perfection, but perfection is a standard beyond my daily experience. Wow, my head is spinning as I reflect on perfect God becoming perfect man.

I understood half of the reason for his perfect and sinless life among men. To serve as God’s ultimate and supreme sacrifice for the sin of all humanity, Jesus had to be the perfect and unblemished lamb.

Jesus understood what the release of evil in the garden had done to the God-Man relationship. To restore what was lost in the garden, the mission of Jesus was to reunite man to God in the perfect state of the garden relationship. For that to happen, Jesus had to become fully human.

It must have hurt when he fell and scraped his little boy knees playing ball on the rocky dirt streets of Nazareth. Surely, there were times when he felt insults and criticism at a deep level. He hurt at rejection, felt hunger, and thirst. He cried when those he loved died. He felt profound compassion for all who suffered. He understood the effects of evil released by Eve and Adam.

Because he lived the human experience as the perfect God and the perfect man, he could be the spotless lamb, required to remove once and for all time the sin barrier existing between earth and heaven. The stage is set for total restoration of the garden.

That part I understand—as best I can with my mere human brain.

Now for the part I didn’t get until now. Could it be the take away for me is to see the perfect life of Jesus as a glimpse of who I will be in the restored garden?

I admire Jesus as I witness his perfect relationship with God. I admire Jesus as I witness the way he treats his fellowman. In contrast, I find myself failing to live up to his expectation as I shout through my car’s closed windshield at the bozo that pulls in front of me.

I admire the complete sincerity of Jesus as I see him act without a stained ulterior motive. In the Gospels I witness Jesus make perfect the defects of the human existence inherited from the garden fall.

By comparison, my defective human experience is not close to where it should be, yet in Jesus, I see a time when perfection will describe me. All of a sudden, the perfect human Jesus makes perfect sense.

He had to be perfect to free me from my own sin, and his perfection allows me to look forward to the completely restored garden when I too can be set free from all of the evil and imperfections resulting from the first garden fall. I will be perfect. Now that’s a big thought.

What are your reflections? Stay tuned.