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[James the Just]

God could have created Jesus as any status of man; rich, politically powerful, but he created Him as a poor, humble carpenter. Why was it important to God that the savior of the world be poor?

[jimwalton]

We are not told specifically, so any answer is speculative. Let me try a few possibilities:

1. Generally we could say that he came to save those who were lost, and poverty was a better connecting point. Poor people are more aware of their need, inadequacy, and vulnerability.

2. Scripture teaches that God is repulsed by the pride, disregard, and often abusive lifestyles of the rich and famous. It would be hypocritical, then, for him to come to earth as rich and privileged. Remember in the OT God chose an enslaved nation, not a powerful empire, to be his special instrument of revelation and salvation.

3. Affluence is often associated with power, but God didn't want anything in his revelation of himself in Jesus to be associated with earthly forms of power.

4. God identifies with the weak and destitute. He is an advocate for the underdog because he is an opponent of the injustice, unfairness, and the abuse that often puts them there. Jesus' poverty makes that identification concrete. Matt. 25.35-40.

5. His identification with the poor was a sign that he was the Messiah. Zech. 9.9; Isa. 53.

6. He could have come as a powerful emperor or a prominent teacher. But his coming humbly and insignificantly is a way of saying that the salvation he offers is for all people, not just the important or the powerful.

7. Because God wants us to have special regard for the poor, weak, disenfranchised and disadvantaged, it speaks loudly that he came to us in the form of a servant.