For five days the cultural and Biblical masculinity map has lead us straight down a path to Jesus. To truly understand masculinity we must understand Jesus. If Jesus is the perfect Adam, perfect Moses, etc, it means He is our mandate on what masculinity looks like for He is what we as men should strive to be. Let us remember that Jesus was not only fully God but also fully man.
Let me paint a brief picture of the masculinity of Jesus. Jesus was emotional. The key, He handled emotions in the proper ways. For instance in John 11:35 it states that “Jesus wept.” What does that tell us about real men? They grieve. They weep. They mourn. They lament. Even though He knew that shortly Lazarus would walk out of that grave very, very shortly.
In John 2:13-22 we see Jesus overturning the money tables. Another side of emotions. He had passion, He had zeal, He had anger. The key, it was holy, righteous, just. He does not just let it fly and not care about the consequences. When oppression and injustice is taking place, a man must rise and take care of business. He must not sit idly by. In fact, a man should even be angered by oppression to the point of action – not rage or violence, but compassion and action.
One last picture of emotions, John 19:26-27. This is an example of how Jesus handles His emotions. Inside this we see beautiful picture of masculinity. Jesus is going through the worst torment a man can bare – crucifixion. An unjustified execution meant for guilty criminals in which He also happened to take upon Him the sins of the world and not feel His Father’s presence. In this torment, in His last moments, Jesus does not let His emotional mind get the best of Him. Instead He makes sure to not forsake His familial responsibilities as He asks John to look after His mother as if John where her own son. Even to the end, Jesus makes sure to keep leading, keep looking out for those closest to Him. He does not use His own personal problems as an excuse to not lead, to shed His responsibility. Even in the ending moments of His life Jesus leads and shows us how to have emotions without letting them control us.
These pictures paint us God-Man who is fully both. They show us He has the full range of human emotions: grief, sorrow, passion, anger, zeal. To see one final snapshot of masculinity (there are many more we could look at) let’s see what Paul defines as true masculinity, summed up in Jesus.
Even if you are not married, this is Biblical masculinity. In Ephesians 5:25-28 Paul essentially tells us to be men like Jesus: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” A man must love sacrificially – just like Jesus. Men must put others above themselves to the point where you are willing to seek their good before your own, even if that means death. For instance, what does Paul say the role of a man is? It is to treat your wife (or if you are single, women) with such respect that you would sacrifice your own life for their betterment.
Being a man involves sacrifice, and when it comes to sacrifice there is no better example of sacrifice then Jesus. In fact, Jesus is the true, perfect example of what true masculinity is. Jesus was humble. Men should be humble. Jesus put others first. Men should put others first. Jesus served. Men should serve. Jesus provided for His family. Men should provide for their family. Jesus was a man after His Father's heart. Men should be people after their Father's heart. Jesus spent time in solitude and prayer. Men should spend time in solitude and prayer. Jesus trained up other men. Men should train up other men. Jesus treated women with dignity and respect that was unlike anything they have ever seen before. Men should treat women with dignity and respect that is unlike anything they have ever experienced. To put it simply, men must live like Jesus. True masculinity involves making your life look like that of your Rabbi, your Teacher. True masculinity is not loving Jesus like some bumper stickers would make you believe, but becoming a disciple of Jesus and going on a journey with Him. It is in this journey that men will get to show the true form of masculinity and allow these Super Bowl commercials to dissapear; it will allow them to simply just be a "funny" commercial because they will no longer remind us men that we are not who we should be.
Are you ready to stand up and live like Jesus? Are you ready to stand up and be the man Jesus is calling you to be? Are you ready to stand up and be a man like Jesus?
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