God understands humanity, limitations
We all have physical bodies and bodies, even those of the world’s best athletes, have limitations. You can run, swim, jump, ski, wrestle, box and dance fast and far, but for only so much, and only for so long.
Putting our minds into the effort along with a willing spirit propels us into areas beyond the norm. Professional athletes train for top-notch performances, and it is proven that when faced with a stress-induced challenge, our body’s regular limitations can be exceeded. Yet, no matter what, at some point each body will hit a wall and cannot go any farther.
Food and drink will be needed for rejuvenation. Stress will have to be eliminated, and rest applied for recovery. In the normal course of everyday living we sustain our physical humanity by want and need.
Usually we satisfy the want before it becomes a need. Simply by being alive we all require food, water and rest. The body functions and has needs, whether big or small.
We acknowledge the deity of Christ being 100 percent God. This article will glance at the physicality of Christ as being 100 percent man, also having his humanity and limitations.
Matthew 4:2 says that he was hungry after he fasted for forty days. Who wouldn’t be? That incident reveals that God got hungry. Christ understands what it is to go without food and to feel the pangs of that most human need.
In Matthew 9:10, Jesus had dinner at Matthew’s house, and others ate with him. He wasn’t a stranger to sitting down with others and breaking bread.
Matthew 21:18, tells us that early in the morning he was hungry. The body desires food. Putting nutrition into it is part of being human. In that instance Christ looked at the fig tree for sustenance. God had to receive from the Earth that he created in order to uphold his own body. There was a limitation to his humanity. It’s acknowledged in scripture that God identifies with us in our hunger and food issues. He knows what it is to want and need to eat.
John 4:7 finds Christ requesting a drink from the well the Samaritan woman was fetching water from. In John 19:28, as he was being brutalized and tortured, the physical demands on his body forced him to make this declaration: “I am thirsty.” God knows what it is to be parched, for a body to not only crave water, but for that body to be taken to its outer limits, into a despairing state of being. Christ understands the dryness accompanying an output of energy.
In Luke 7:34, Jesus says to his critics, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.'” Eating and drinking are two things we do for social activity and necessity.
That same story from John 4:6 says, “Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.” Here we find evidence that God understands what it is to expend energy and grow weary.
We all get tired out from the work and travails of life. Jesus was no exception because he lived as one of us, God had to take a break. Like us, he experienced sleepiness, droopy eyes, aching muscles, sore feet and a body that wanted to shut down and get some desired rest.
Three gospels record Jesus’ sleeping in a boat during a storm (Matthew 8:23-24, Mark 4:37-38 and Luke 8:22-24). his wasn’t just relaxation; this was out-and-out sleeping. His disciples had to wake him up so they could alert him to the danger they felt.
What wears us out? What wore Jesus out? Could it simply be that he was human and ran up against his normal limitations and his body demanded rest? God knows what it is to reach physical limits because of our humanity.
As one of us, he was hungry and ate, he was thirsty and drank, and he got tired and slept. Does God understand our humanity and limitations? The evidence proves yes.