Who am I? It is the question of the age, in an age where we can so easily address or dress up the answer! We change our bodies like we used to change our wardrobe to fit our feelings. Do not laugh or mock, people are really confused. It is not sin, but the result of being sinners. What is the difference between sex changes and eunuchs, body builders taking steroids, or divorcing your family to marry the one you now love?
After years of so-called evolution, we finally have the luxury and time to chase our dreams. But it turns out our dreams chase us. Like a shadow they just move wherever we go, changing shapes and disappearing in the night. When Adam and Eve became lost from God and alienated from one another, they lost themselves also. No one is exempted. We are all born not sure who we are, some people can simply hide it better. We all live lives wanting to be something or someone else. We all answer the desire with wrong solutions. So, do not judge. Instead, repent.
God became man, a true man. The great I Am could say that about Himself in the flesh. The Devil questioned Him hard in the wilderness with the wild animals. Jesus did not hesitate. He is man. He is God. On Christmas we not only find out something about God’s identity, we discover ourselves. We are sinners who have pushed ourselves, others and God away. Yet, we are not animals. We are His creation. We were made in His image though we trade it for our own crooked caricatures.
God took on our flesh, our identity and perfected it in Himself both in substance and character. Jesus is man and He acted as a human should act. For all those who pursue oneness with nature, an admirable pursuit, Jesus is one with nature and one with God. He perfected us in life and death and life again. He is forever man and God, who has no identity crisis, completely happy with who He is.
Yet, He did it so you could enjoy that same beautiful harmony and singular identity, so you could finally be happy with yourself and no longer chase or be chased by dreams. He tells Nicodemus the answer. Nicodemus who was not so happy with himself had to come to Jesus at night, afraid of what friends would say. “You have to be born all over again!”
You cannot fix it with a 10-step program, vows of chastity, or religious chastising. There is no path to recovery, nor a journey to healing. You must be born all over again. I would bet there are some people who like the sound of that. It is way better than plastic surgery, a wardrobe change, or a new haircut. Jesus drowns us and brings us up alive, more alive than ever before.
Baptized in Christ we are truly ourselves. We are one with God. Our past is erased, and our future is certain. There are no longer any, “maybes.”
