God becoming man involved more than just His assumption of a human body, but his entry into all of the elements of human life.
So observed Dr. Joel Lehenbauer, the Executive Director of the Commission on Theology & Church Relations of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, in a sermon I heard last week in the chapel at the church headquarters in St. Louis. He was preaching about Jesus at the wedding at Cana. That God became man meant that He went to weddings, that He had obligations to His mother, that He feasted and drank wine. That got me thinking. . . That Christ was fully human means that He was incarnate into culture. The gospels show Him involved with a whole range of human experiences: a child in trouble with his parents, dealing with sickness, work, family, economics, (oppressive) government, injustice, going to weddings, going fishing, considering the lilies of the field, getting arrested, being jostled in crowds, being by himself, being situated in a particular society and moment in history, was weary, angry, slept, was hungry and thirsty, wept, grieved at the death of a friend, was tortured, suffered pain, died.
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