God demonstrated the ultimate vulnerability

I am writing this 10 days before Christmas. When you read this, it will be two weeks after Christmas. But whatever the date, I am struck by the enormity of what we celebrate — both at Christmas and at Easter. God, the Almighty, the Holy One, has become one of us. And in so doing, God has made himself vulnerable.

When he became flesh, he was laid in a manger. To be human, we already are vulnerable to death, to disease and to other inevitabilities. But to be born in a Bethlehem cave is to take vulnerability to another level. He experienced the plight of the poor, the refugees and in general, the “have nots.”

When Christ ended his life, he experienced our human vulnerability in a way that is striking. He came to his end with no political capital, with no one to share his sufferings or to offer comfort. He ended his life stripped naked and publicly executed as a criminal. How vulnerable is that?

Being vulnerable means many things. It means being exposed, nowhere to hide. Being vulnerable means you are not insulated; you feel pain — your own and that of others. Being vulnerable means you are not “above it all.” Rather, you are sweating blood in a garden called Gethsemane.

Vulnerability means leaving oneself unprotected, defenseless and assailable.

We spend our entire lives trying to reverse our human condition. We spend a good amount of time trying to make ourselves invulnerable. We try to project strength and a sense that we are in control. We try to fool both Father Time and Mother Nature. But alas, as the Psalmist says, “my days dwindle down like a shadow, I feel as dry as hay,” (Psalms 102, verse 11).

Why did God decide to make himself vulnerable in the person of Jesus Christ? Because that is what love does. Love makes us vulnerable. Love means we open our hearts, open ourselves and take others in. Love means I expose my feelings and I am affected by your response.

The popular quote, “Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all,” is another way of saying that love makes us vulnerable. Love makes us human. Maybe they’ll be able to program robots to love, but it will not be a human love, because there will be no vulnerability.

God, by usual definition, is invulnerable. But that definition of God suits philosophy more than it does scripture. In God’s relationship with Israel, there is tremendous feeling expressed by the Lord who has chosen Israel for his own. These feelings include a whole range — from tenderness, jealousy and compassion, to anger, regret and deep love.

Ultimately, the God of Israel reveals himself in the flesh and blood of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the ultimate revelation of humanity, divinity and vulnerability.

This story was originally published January 10, 2017 at 4:41 PM with the headline "God demonstrated the ultimate vulnerability."