Guaranteed Human

If you’ve been listening to any iHeart stations online or over the air recently, you’ve certainly noticed a new tagline that they’ve added to their hourly on-air disclosures, “Guaranteed Human.”  It’s a strange thing to hear, evoking some dystopian “Blade Runner” vibes.  iHeartMedia, of course, is simply trying to set itself apart as a business that doesn’t use any AI music or AI DJ voices. 

However, it’s also worth noting why a company would want to make that a part of their image and branding.  People crave what’s real.  Surrounded by digital and synthetic and artificial realities, we are naturally drawn to what is genuinely human.  We’re weary of the fake and manipulative stuff constantly coming at us from our screens, and we want flesh-and-blood connection. 

This is precisely what Christmas is about; the incarnation of our Lord speaks directly to this need.  This season is not about magical and ethereal feelings or the warmth and glow of our hearts—as nice as those things might be.  Rather, Christmas proclaims to us that the humanity which we sense we’ve lost has been reclaimed for us in Jesus.  “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14).  This is not God floating around far away up above us somewhere.  This is Immanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23), the Son of God fully entering into human existence, willing to move into the mess of our lives and bear the curse of our sin in order to break the curse for us.  He embraces our humanity fully in order to redeem our humanity fully. 

Human beings, cut off from God by sin, are reconnected in Him who is both God and man in one undivided Person.  This is what’s real.  Here is the tangible, concrete mercy and love of God.  Here is the Man who is more human than any of us, for He hasn’t lost any of His humanity through sin.  Baptized into Him, we are reconnected with God and also with one another as members of His body.  Partaking together of His true body and blood, we share in His divine life. 

This is no artificial reality, no hologram.  This is Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary.  He has connected Himself to you, made Himself to be your blood brother, to redeem your humanity—guaranteed.