Stock Media Courtesy of Pond5

Thank you for coming to our One Word at a Time blog carnival, which this week is on the word ‘down’.

Share this post

No matter how you’ve come to be here or where you’re coming from, you’re welcome and we’d love for you to come back and visit us again soon.

The idea of the carnival is simple. We pick one word every two weeks and all write a blog post inspired by that word. It’s fascinating to see the range of different trains of thought that can come from just one word.

Below this, you’ll find a little widget called Simply Linked. All the participants add their links to the widget and that way, we can all find and read all the entries into the carnival. You’re welcome to join us, the carnival is open to anyone.

To see all of the upcoming words and their dates, visit http://peterpollock.com/category/faith/carnival/

Jesus Was ‘Down’

Stock Media Courtesy of Pond5

Christmas is the time that we celebrate Jesus coming ‘down’ to Earth…. but I started wondering today if the bible actually meant something else when it used the word ‘down’.

In John 6:38, Jesus is recorded as saying:

For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.

The Urban Dictionary defines the word ‘down’ thus:

1. To be ‘With It’ or in ‘the know how’, knowledgeable about something, or to give respect/recognition to something.
2. To be keen for something.
3. To be friends with someone or to spend time with them. ‘Gettin Down’ means to sleep with them.
4. To have something ‘Down Pat’ or well perfected.
5. To be in agreeance with someone or something.

Now, when Jesus used the word ‘down’ could he actually have meant it in one of these senses?

Was Jesus actually saying that he was ‘with it’ or in ‘the know how?’

Was he reminding us that by living a life on Earth, he was learning what it was like to be one of us? He was ‘down’ in the sense of becoming knowledgeable about the human experience?

Or maybe he was saying he was ‘keen’ to come save us, as in ‘I’m down with dying for their sins’?

I sincerely doubt it.

I think it means exactly what it appears to mean, but I do love that Christmas time reminds us that Jesus knows what it’s like to be human. He’s walked a mile in our shoes. He’s been here, experienced it and thus, when we talk to him, we’re talking with someone who’s ‘down’ with what it’s like to be one of us.

Are you ‘down’ with God?