In this message we do not want to stress the Lord's cherishing us but our cherishing others. The model of Jesus as the Son of Man cherishing people needs to be reproduced in us so that we also will cherish others in His humanity.
When we go out to contact people, we must be persons living a human life in resurrection. In John 11:25 the Lord told Martha, "I am the resurrection." Martha complained to the Lord that if He had come sooner, her brother would not have died. But the Lord revealed that resurrection is not a matter of time but a matter of His person, because He is the resurrection.
The main vision of Jesus in the four Gospels, especially in the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, is that He lived a life that was human but in resurrection. Jesus was not a man living a natural life. He always put His humanity aside. He was in His humanity, yet He did not live a life of His humanity. Every day while He was on the earth, Jesus was in the flesh, but that flesh was in resurrection. Apparently, He was a Nazarene, a natural Galilean. He was in that flesh. But His living was in a humanity in resurrection.
When Nathanael came to Jesus, Jesus said something to him in resurrection: "Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you" (John 1:48). He saw Nathanael under that tree far away because of His divinity with the divine ability, but that divine ability was in His humanity. Divinity is resurrection. Resurrection is a divine person, God. Only God is the resurrection that can stand against death, overcome death, enter into death, have a tour of death, and come out of death.
The One who created Adam came to be a man and lived a human life in resurrection. He denied His natural humanity. He never did anything out of Himself (John 5:19, 30). He did everything in Himself but not of Himself. We also should not do anything in our natural life but in Christ's resurrection life. Jesus was living and walking on this earth in His flesh, but He rejected this flesh. He rejected His natural life.
When Jesus was twelve years old, His parents took Him to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of the Passover. When they were returning from Jerusalem, they did not find Him, so they went back to search for Him. When they found Him in the temple, His mother said to Him, "Child, why have You treated us like this? Behold, Your father and I, being greatly distressed, have been seeking You." He responded, "Why is it that you were seeking Me? Did you not know that I must be in the things of My Father?" (Luke 2:48-49). In His humanity He was the son of His parents, but in His divinity He was the Son of God the Father. This shows that He rejected His natural life. He was living as a young boy in His divinity. In other words, He was not living by His natural man, born of Mary; He was living by His life in resurrection. His cherishing others to charm and attract them was not in His natural humanity, but in His humanity in resurrection.
Some people are charming, attractive, and cherishing in their natural humanity by birth. When such a person walks into a room, the atmosphere changes. A charming person must be very warm, not cold. Those who are charming in their natural humanity, however, are not real. Actually, they are performers, like actors in a theater. When you get close to a charming man, you will find out that he actually is not that charming. He was born with a mask. When the mask is taken away, he is different. To cherish people in our natural humanity is not genuine. This is why we must cherish people in the humanity of Jesus. The Lord's charming and cherishing are not natural but are by His resurrection life in humanity.