Did Jesus get hair cuts? Today's letter from John responds to this fairly mundane question and also touches on much deeper issues.

John's community was in conflict with a group (Gnostics) who held that Jesus was divine but was not truly human. Gnostics mistakenly believed that what is spiritual is good while all that is physical is evil. They argued that Jesus only appeared to be human.

John's community, and we as Christians, believe that Jesus is fully divine as well as fully human. He truly had a physical body just as we do. It was no illusion. Jesus had his hair cut, he felt hunger, and he got tired at the end of the day. Jesus also experienced the tensions of temptation and the loneliness of suffering in his life.

This is how much God loves us, that through Jesus, God takes on everything we are as human beings, except sin. Accordingly, Jesus has deep compassion for any trial we face because he is fully human himself. "…every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God."

We have much in common with Jesus. We can come to him and express anything.