“I am a Man.”

What does it say about a society,
when certain men have to wear signs that say,
“I am a Man” in order to remind other men,
that they are really people, too?

What does it mean, that the same society,
after decades of scientific and technological “progress,”
seems to have made little or no progress in the arenas
of compassion, justice, and understanding?
So that we still need a slogan “Black Lives Matter,”
in order to remind people that black lives truly do matter,
even though our economic, political, and judicial systems
continue to insist these lives matter less?

In the incarnation,
The God who was not a man becomes a man.
He becomes like us.

Through is his entire life
and through his death on the cross,
The God of creation identifies with
the marginalized and the oppressed,
the voiceless and the undocumented.

God becomes the human victim of
a religious system trying to protect itself
and a prosperous, military nation state.
He is crucified under a government that never offered him citizenship.

He wears the sign,
saying to everyone,
“I am a Man.”

It is a protest sign,
demanding dignity,
worn only by those
who have been dehumanized by the powers.

The Passover is the holiday
which commemorates the Exodus,
when God hears the cries of His people,
and rescues them from slavery and oppression,
in the land of Egypt.

Christ is crucified at Passover.
On the cross,
Jesus becomes Passover lamb,
signaling the Exodus for all oppressed peoples.
God hears the cries of His people.
He joins them in their suffering,
He becomes the oppressed to end oppression.
He dies to destroy death.

Taking on our nature
so that we might share in His,
He says to us
“I am a Man.”

This blog was adapted from a meditation by Jon Ziegler, a pastor of Gold Line Church.