Jesus is the Son of God, the ultimate messenger. But if he was only going to be a messenger, he didn’t need to become human. He could have thundered from a mountaintop or blazed from a burning bush. But thundering voices don’t suffer, and burning bushes don’t die. If Jesus only wanted to be a messenger, power would have been enough. But Jesus wanted to do more. He wanted to bring us into his presence forever. So his presence had to be more. Jesus became the Son of Man. He became fully human and became subject to suffering and death. He became our brother, and he suffered, and he died. And in doing so, he became our salvation from death.