The Person of Christ

For the Son of God, the incarnation meant a whole new set of relationships: with his father and mother; with this brothers and sisters; with his disciples; with the scribes, the Pharisees and Sadducees; the Roman soldiers and with lepers and prostitutes.  It was within these relationships that he lived his incarnate life, experiencing pain, poverty and temptation; witnessing squalor and brutality; hearing obscenities and the hopeless cry of the oppressed.  He lived not in sublime detachment or in ascetic isolation, but 'with us', as 'the fellow-man of all men', crowded, busy, harassed, stressed and molested.  No large estate gave him space, no financial capital guaranteed his daily bread, no personal staff protected him from interruptions and no power or influence protected him from injustice.  He saved us from alongside us."

-Donald Macleod, The Person of Christ