Is Jesus More or Less?

More or Less?

British/Greek evangelist J John once said, “God did not make himself bigger to impress us, rather he made himself smaller to attract us.”

You know, the more I think about that, the more it becomes a wonderful truth. As this Christmas season passes and we venture tentatively towards the next year, I began t think how we might apply that truth to our life in the coming year. Not a New Year resolution – that would be broken in a heartbeat. No, this is more a determination to go a little deeper in the Lord day by day by day for the rest of my life.

The way I look at it, bigger is scarier. Bigger is off-putting. Bigger brings more responsibility – and even more the bigger it gets. Smaller, on the other hand, is easier to handle. It’s easier to understand. Actually it really is somehow more attractive.

We admire those giant sportsmen like basketball, or American football, or rugby players and yet they are so big, so larger than life, that they become kind of scary don’t they? Smaller is much easier to get to grips with. You only have to think puppy, or kitten, or baby and most people are automatically attracted to them.

So it was with God at Christmas. He had no need to make Himself bigger. After all He was always pretty big to us anyway – He created the entire world and everything in it didn’t He? That’s impressive enough, so He really didn’t need to impress us by making Himself even bigger. To the un-initiated, God is so big He is terrifyingly big and scary, whereas a baby – well that’s attractive isn’t it?

So God made Himself smaller, a tiny new-born baby, just so He would attract us. Better still, as we have great empathy and sympathy with the under-dog, He arrived not in State with a fanfare of trumpets, but in an animal shelter because there was no room available anywhere in town. Oh sure, God arranged for some wonderful signs of His own – angels, His own star, wise men travelling miles just to see Him, but nevertheless, He was born miraculously and quietly, to a humble carpenter and his wife, in a stable, in the middle of winter – and 2000 years later we still celebrate that birth with great joy and thanksgiving.

How will I apply this truth to my walk with Him these coming days? I will simply praise Him for His birth, life, death, and resurrection, and all that it means for us. Then I will praise Him every single day of my life and give Him thanks for who He is – King of kings, certainly. Lord of lords, yes. But more than these, wonderful though they are, He is my Saviour and your Saviour too.