By His Poverty

Christ Offers To Redeem Man

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

2 Corinthians 8:9

There is no adequate way by which to talk about the poverty that our Lord Jesus Christ embraced to carry out his messianic mission. There is no comparison within the totality of human experience, how ever monumental or drastic, which would even come close to being synonymous with the depth of poverty to which the God/Man descended for the sake of his redeemed. The choice was not one of passing whim, or curious wonder, or quaint self-sacrifice, like some rich kid from the suburbs spending a night sleeping in a cardboard box downtown or a homeless shelter in the ghetto to ‘experience’ what poverty is like.

What Christ entered into was a permanent and ontological altercation in fabric of Triune God. From this point on a member of humanity would be incorporated into the Identity of Deity. The Trinity, the eternal fellowship of loving communion, would now include one who had passed through the waters of the womb and walked the earth in the obscurity of humanity. Had Jesus mission been merely to live among his creation and never extend himself in ministry then his presence amongst his people would have gone without notice altogether. So ordinary, so painfully mundane he became that no observer of his appearance would ever have arrived at the conclusion that he was anything other than an ordinary man.

The mystery of the incarnation is not that the metaphysical cloud of boundless energy which philosophy labeled Deity somehow shrunk himself into the minuscule form of a man. This, while perhaps perplexing the mind, does not move the heart, and does nothing to come close to the reality of what took place in this awe-inspiring incarnational event. The mystery at its heart is that YHWH, the God of Israel who was exalted above all else and separate from all other reality came near to his people in a way which would have held in stunned wonder all who beheld it.

God had always sought to draw near to his people. Throughout their history, the God of Israel had established a form of worship, a tabernacle and then a temple, by which he could enter into dynamic relationship with his people, but never before had the Holy One of Israel come this close. In one glorious step from the highly exalted riches, comfort and pomp of the heavenly courtroom to the zygote in the water’s of a virgin womb, the God of the cosmos lowered himself to enter into the human experience in an unprecedented way.

He was in possession of all the power in the universe, the ability to do whatever he pleased and yet he determined not to use his power to do anything that might preserve his own right or promote his own agenda. He established in himself that with all the right, privilege and power he possessed he would uses it only to further the advancement of his creation. Being in the form of God; exalted, revered and regarded by all who saw him as the Holy One who was due all worship and adoration, he bowed low and chose, rather than to use his identity as claim to privilege, that he would make himself nothing, of no reputation, and embrace instead a life of servanthood, suffering, and being mistreated, abused and hated by those who saw him.

This is what it means that he became poor. He was the one with all the wealth of the world at his disposal, all power to accomplish anything, demand anything, cause anything he desired. Had he longed for comfort, luxury and ease he could have demanded it at any time. He could have lifted his voice and all of the arsenal of heaven would have been set against any who opposed him. Yet when the garrison came to take him away he went quietly, before the court he stood silent, and when the nail head and the hammer came to meet his flesh, which he could have easy rendered impenetrable with but a thought, the iron barb pierced skin, flesh, and tendon to fasten his bleeding frame to the cruel tree.

His consideration was never for his own needs or to placate any desire for ease and comfort. When presented with the choice to remain away in heaven unblemished by the assaults of his creatures and insolated from the pain and suffering of humanity his response was a resounding ‘no.’ His actions seem foolish; casting off care and restrain, recklessly loving without counting the cost, giving all with no thought to reward, with pure abandon embracing a world which answered up with but a crown of thorns.

He had spoke the world and it was, brought low mighty Egypt with a fierce blow, the horse and the rider sank in the sea, before him kingdoms fell and at his voice all the cycles of nature hold their rhythm, he raised up kings and tore down rulers, before him all humanity laid bare and but by his word not one breath beat of a heart takes place and yet he gave himself to the ransom of humanity. When the kingdoms of the earth advanced by violence, the gears of the war machine greased with blood and swear of slaves, his kingdom was advanced by love, his rule carried forward by the sweet surrender of servanthood.

He who could have made in an instant the whole of the cosmos bow before him instead bows before his disciples to wash their feet. His way was that of poverty, of laying down his rights of embracing a lifestyle that not even the weakest of the weak would ever consciously choose. He entered into the human experience at the least opportune of times, in a nation of national unrest, to a people group despised by their overlords, to a poor family without even the means to offer a proper temple sacrifice for the dedication of their son.

His sojourn amongst his people was mundane and tenuous. Rather than his identity affording him any comfort or accommodation, he was instead the object of scorn, disbelieved by his brothers, abandon by his followers, betrayed by the closest of friends. This was the poverty which the Lord of Glory embraced for his people. That in all his being poor he might ransom for himself a people who are rich in faith, in love for God, and who stand before him fully forgiven. His shame became our glory, his humiliation our exaltation, his passion our redemption. In all the history of all the worlds there has never been one such as this who bowed so low in love that the object of his affection might be lifted so high.