The whole of Christianity rests on the basis that Jesus of Nazareth was both fully human and fully divine. While his divine attributes receive much attention (as they should), his majesty lies not only in his miraculous deeds, atoning death or resurrection - but also in his outright commonness. While Jesus the Christ remains anything but common, Jesus the man was very ordinary in his status and upbringing.

   Though conceived by the Holy Spirit,(i) Jesus was born the first son of a young Jewish couple, Joseph and Mary. Joseph was a carpenter by trade(ii) - a profession that kept the family from poverty, but left them far from wealthy. Their modest economic status is indicated by the sacrifice Joseph and Mary gave at their child’s dedication.(iii) The couple came to the alter with a pair of doves or two young pigeons, an offering made only by those who could not afford a lamb. The Son of God was not born to a family of wealth and prestige, but to a man and woman squarely working-class.

   On the instruction of the angel Gabriel, Joseph and Mary named their child Jesus.(iv) Although divinely inspired and prophetically significant (it means “He shall save”), the name itself was not at all unusual. It is the Greek form of Joshua, and was as popular in first-century Judea as “Michael” or “John” today. It was so common, in fact, that it might have been an obstacle for some during his later ministry. To put it in a more modern perspective, imagine a man named “Joe” claiming to be the Savior.

   After his son’s birth in Bethlehem(v) and following a period of refuge in Egypt, Joseph settled his family in Nazareth,(vi) an agricultural town in the district of Galilee. According to rabbinic writings from the time, Galileans were considered backwards country-folk and discounted by the rest of Israel. Residents of Nazareth were ridiculed even by their Galilean countrymen. When Phillip told Nathanael that he had found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael (a Galilean himself) retorted "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?"(vii)

   Even after he left the region, Jesus’ rural roots would have been apparent from his accent. He spoke the common language of Aramaic, but we know from words preserved in the earliest copies of the Biblical texts that he spoke in Galilean dialect. It was a distinct manner of speech, to Aramaic what a Southern drawl is to American English. It was the same accent that revealed Simon Peter as his associate in the courtyard after Jesus was arrested.(viii) In spite of his eloquence, Jesus’ accent was perceived as common and unsophisticated.

   And how might this small-town, working-class man have looked? Though there is no mention of Jesus’ physical appearance in the Gospels, many people (myself included) have created a mental picture of him as tall, broad-shouldered and handsome. But that likely wasn’t the case. It was improbable that a man in first-century Judea would be tall, and being strikingly handsome might have received some mention. Even John the Baptist, Jesus’ own cousin and the man called by God to proclaim the arrival of the Messiah, knew he would be able to identify Jesus only by seeing the Holy Spirit upon him(ix) - no mention was made of any distinguishing physical characteristics. In all likelihood Jesus was simply an average-looking Jewish man.

   It was through this very ordinary man that God - the Creator of all things - with all his might and glory, stepped into human history. He came as one of us; and not, at least in socio-economic terms, one of the greatest of us - but as one of the least. He gave himself no “leg up” on existence as a common man. He came with humility - not as a king, a general or wealthy aristocrat - in part because, to paraphrase one author, power can force obedience but only love can summon love.(x) But the implications extend even further.

   In Job’s anguish over the loss of his livelihood, health and family, he hurled the bold accusation at God, “Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a mortal sees?”(xi) ‘You don’t know what it’s like here’, he seems to be saying, ‘You can’t see how much it hurts.’ But through His advent in Christ, that claim can no longer be made. God has not only seen, but lived through much of the worst of the human experience.

   Our prayers are not heard by a distant ethereal god merely sympathetic to the human condition. Rather, we reach out to God who, through Christ, has lived as we live; labored as we labor; suffered as we suffer and been tempted as we are tempted. We ally ourselves with the Christ who has experienced tragedy and loss, and wept with sorrow; the Christ who has also rejoiced in joy, happiness and love. Jesus possesses an empathy that comes from having walked the peaks and valleys in the life of a common man. After all, “What does ‘he ascended’ mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?”(xii)

   Like Job and many others, I - more often than I care to admit - restrict myself to only the almighty, ethereal aspects of God. Though I’m unashamedly quick to call upon Him in times of great distress, I am far less likely to consciously involve Him in life’s everyday trivialities. It’s a rather skewed arrogance that allows us to think that He doesn’t care, or know, about the small things that we face in our lives - trouble on the jobsite or at the office, the worry at the end of each month when the last paycheck didn’t stretch as far as hoped, the aching back and tired feet or eyes at the end of a shift. These are all things that Jesus himself experienced. God’s understanding and love spans the intangible ethereal and the everyday - neither is beyond or beneath His grasp.

   It is precisely then, in the everyday trials and troubles that are heavy for a man, that we are to call on the uncommon Jesus of common experience to share our yoke, for the burden is light with him. "Come to me,” he instructs, “all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. [For] I am gentle and humble in heart.”(xiii) By neglecting the everyday aspects of his existence we are doing Jesus - and ourselves - a great disservice. Let’s not restrict him only to Sunday worship services and the confines of church walls. Jesus was, and remains, our companion in everyday living: a man gloriously ordinary.