“You seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves” (John 6:26).
I have been reflecting on the perfect humanity of Christ.
When Christ was performing His miracles during His public ministry, He was as much perfect Man as He was Perfect God. And being a Man – albeit a perfect one – He was able to experience all the limitations that every other human man (and woman) experiences. He was able to feel tired, and hungry. He was able to feel pressured and annoyed. He was able to feel neglected and lonely. In His HUMANITY… And at times He experienced all of these things. He was often tired and hungry – devoting Himself selflessly to the souls who He came to save. He was angry in the Temple when the money changers were trading there – and also annoyed and frustrated with the Pharisees who wasted so much time arguing that they failed to LISTEN TO a word He actually said… And He was lonely on Holy Thursday, when even His dearest friends fell asleep rather than stay up with Him.
But there were times when Christ was completely surrounded by multitudes…
“Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed; also from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from about Tyre and Sidon a great multitude, hearing all that he did, came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they should crush him; for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him.” (Mark 3:7-12).
“He was in danger of being crushed…” He was so human and His physical body as frail as yours or mine. And that means that He could have been crushed by a mob. Inside that throng of people – those multitudes, Christ smelled all the smells and felt all the bodies. The sores and the scabs and the pus and the blood were all around Him. And in some ways the chaos could have felt much like a war-zone. No wonder He often took time away from everyone to pray… But He stayed available for the people even though He knew “you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves” (John 6:26).
And I have been thinking about that perfect humility of God, who made Himself so small and weak that a crowd of people could have crushed Him. And I wonder, if I am merely one of the throng, crushing against Him when I need something and completely ignoring Him on the Cross… And it occurs to me today that my Beloved became small and weak and vulnerable just for me. And instead of venerating that sacrifice for the true miracle that it is, I have forgotten it, because I am distracted by the multitudes that hustle around my God when they need something, and turn away when He asks them to contemplate the cost of His love…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.