"Divinity and humanity were mysteriously combined, and man and God became one. It is in this union that we find the hope of our fallen race." (Ellen G. White, in Signs of the Times, July 30, 1896)
The union of divinity and humanity in Jesus is an empowering symbol for all human beings. The good news is not only that God was in the one man Jesus Christ but that through him we see God in and with all human beings. As one theologian has said, "To be human is to be with God" (Karl Barth). Ultimately, there is no secular or autonomous man for in God "we live and move and have our being."
Jesus is the God-man and the man-God. The good news of Jesus is not only that God came down to embrace humanity but that humanity is elevated with God. Human nature itself was taken up and exalted. Human beings are in this way empowered and not oppressed! This is in stark contrast to the way elitist leaders of all stripes have treated human beings through the ugly centuries of human history. Take for example, ancient Babylon's (the archetypal human empire and thus the mother of all abominations) concept of human beings.
"You are the womb-goddess (Mami), creator of mankind!
Create primeval man, that he may bear the yoke!
Let him bear the yoke, the work of Ellil,
Let man bear the load of the gods!"
(Atrahasis Epic, Babylon, 1700 BCE)
"Let me (Marduk) create primeval man.
The work of the gods shall be imposed on him,
and so they shall be at leisure.
(Epic of Creation, Babylon, 1000 BCE)
Apparently being a god is hard work! So hard to that human beings had to be created to do the work so the weary gods would have time to play. Unfortunately that story wasn't just a Babylonian counterpart to a Saturday Night Live skit. Such oppressive ideology was ultimately used to justify the institution of slavery. Obviously, if human beings are slaves by nature then those that rule in the name of the gods must honor that divine order by subjugating the people. Maybe that is why the people of God celebrate the fall of Babylon in the Apocalypse (Rev. 18)!
The good news of Jesus stands in contrast to every form of oppressive theology that strips humanity of its power and dignity! To the parent that crushes the spirit of a child to the interrogator torturing an enemy, the incarnation of Jesus sounds a loud and clear "No!" The words of God in the great liberation story still ring in our ears from the distant past, "Let my people go!" The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Jesus has come to lift us up and not to beat us down!
Jesus came, not to exalt just one of us or a few of us, but to lift up every human being! Such a radical idea calls into question all our human strategies of exlusion. The friendliness of God toward us, all of us, knows no limits and no boundaries!
"One thing is sure, that there is no theological justification for setting any limits on our side to the friendliness of God towards humanity which appeared in Jesus Christ." (Karl Barth)
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