The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood (John 1:14 MSG)
With this paraphrase in the Message translation of the Bible, Eugene Peterson made a theological mystery more accessible, helping give us a connection point to the unfathomable thought of the Trinity, God’s cosmic plan of redemption, and how we might join in that work.
If you are unfamiliar with the term ‘incarnation’, it is a description of what the Christian faith upholds as a foundational part of the Gospel, that the Father sent the Son from heaven into the world. Literally, it means, “to put an idea or abstract concept into a concrete form and be its living embodiment.” Scripture says that if we have seen Jesus, we have seen God (John 14:9) and that he is the exact representation of His nature (Hebrews 1:3).
We may be more familiar with the Crucifixion and Resurrection in the completed works of Christ, but the Incarnation is just as important a piece to the whole puzzle. The Incarnation helps us understand the full picture of the Mission of God. When practicing neighborhood revitalization as a ministry of Jesus, it is crucial to understand the Incarnation because it informs and shapes both why and how we go about doing this good work. So, let’s take a look at the Incarnation and its meaning for Love Your Neighborhood.
Just as the Father sent the Son, the Son sends us, and the sending ought to take on the shape of the incarnation. Jesus did not come as God, though he could have, but instead came to a nondescript backwoods part of an unknown nation in the ancient world, and as a helpless babe! He was already a forgotten of the nobodies, and then went a step further and went to the lost and broken of that society.
Jesus’ ministry was hyper-localized, meaning he focused on a specific people and place. Jesus even seemed to place a geographical limit on his activities (Matthew 10:5-6). While his mission was cosmic in scope, his ministry was in the context of real people, in the flow of their lives, embedded into their story.
In our church outreach and service culture, we have lost the ability to participate as human beings instead of just human doings.
While Jesus did not shy away from activity, we do not focus as much on the multitude of stories in the Gospels where Jesus is reclining at the table with friends, going off to rest, retreat, and pray, taking a leisurely stroll from here to there and chatting with friends, or attending a party with the wider community.
Even Jesus’ signs and wonders occurred mostly in the flow of everyday life. They certainly were not programmed or scheduled.
This approach is foreign to us, but in the Way of Jesus, our incarnational ministry allows us the great gift of merely being present with marginalized neighbors, building relationships, and seeing what emerges from listening. This approach is important in every form of ministry, but especially so to neighbors who have barriers to flourishing, because the values of our faith are not empty words, but rather embodied experiences. The very presence of a ‘holy one’ (in Christ, through the Holy Spirit) changes the environment.
This may seem silly to state, but without Christmas, there would have been no Cross or Empty Tomb.
We believe that generational poverty can be erased, that injustices can be made right, that every neighbor can experience a flourishing life – we believe that because Jesus said he came so that we could have abundant life, and what Jesus proposes to do, he will complete.
Yet, without that first move, that step out of comfort and onto the missional frontier, we cannot bring with us the completed works of Christ. When we follow Jesus, we bring his presence to a place and people, with the correct posture, and pray expectantly for God to reveal His coming kingdom.
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