SHADYSIDE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

You came to us as the Son of Man and the Son of God.  We have never understood this.  If you came with only one identity, you would be much easier to manipulate.  Had you just arrived as Son of Man, as this passage calls you, we would have enjoyed the empathy you offered, but that would have done nothing for our sin-filled predicament.  (Empathy feels good, but it cannot offer redemption.)  And if you were only the Son of God, we would always think of you as the emotionally distant superstar who doesn’t understand the limitations of mere mortals.

We keep betraying your incarnation when we see you only on our side of the great divide our sin has created.  Unlike the other Sons of Man, you really don’t care if we are happy.  What you care about is if we are returning to our home with you.

So please do whatever only you can do as the Son of Man-God to bring us home.  Our souls will never find rest in any other place.  Amen.