BIf you are like me and believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, as he is described in the Bible, than you might be interested in knowing why it is that he had to come to Earth and stay here for so many years. If all he had to do was fulfill Old Testament prophecies about himself, find disciples christian mysticism, appoint apostles, teach them the new covenant, explain God’s Plan of Salvation and die on the cross to pay for the sins of humans, couldn’t he have just come for a very short period of time to accomplish those things?
When Jesus visited the earth, he fulfilled many Old Testament prophecies regarding the birth, life and death of the Messiah. His miraculous birth is described in the King James Version biblical book of Isaiah, chapter seven, verse fourteen: “Therefore the lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. ”
His bodily appearance, life filled with troubles and ultimate rejection by most people that lived during the time of his sojourn here on earth was described in several Old Testament books including the KJV biblical book of Isaiah, chapter fifty-three, verses one to three: “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ”
Even if we consider all of the prophecies concerning the birth, ministry and death of the Messiah on earth, he still didn’t need to stay here for thirty-three years to fulfill those things. And I often wonder why he chose to be born, instead of just appearing somewhere as a full grown male. After all, if the Old Testament prophecies hadn’t predicted a virgin birth, wouldn’t the sudden appearance of a man who was able to perform supernatural acts be just as miraculous? Why stay among humans so long? Like everything else that he did, I believe that Jesus chose to stay on the earth as long as he did for our good, not his. The Son of God took human form and lived on earth for thirty-three years so that he could experience, first hand, the things that we experience during our lifetime. He was born, grew up and died with a human body. He knew hunger, starvation, pain, rejection, homelessness and all the things that are part of the human experience for better or for worse. This allows the lord to understand our prayer requests. He has literally been there, done that or saw it all happen first hand.
One of the accusations often hurled at our beloved Savior was that he was constantly in the company of sinners and those who were most despised in society. The Bible states in the King James Version New Testament book of Matthew, chapter eleven and verses sixteen to nineteen: “But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented. For John (John the Baptist) came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children. ”
Jesus answered such an accusation in the King James Version New Testament book of Matthew, chapter nine and verses ten to twelve: “And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. ”
Jesus likened SIN to a sickness and described himself as a Physician. He knew the people that needed him most were not those who thought themselves to be rightous, but admitted sinners who understood how others felt about the things that they did. The King James Version Old Testament biblical book of Isaiah states in chapter sixty-four and verse six: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. “.