And Yet, He Loved.

I’ve been reflecting on Jesus’s life during the week of His crucifixion. It is mind-boggling imagining the pain He suffered, the lengths God took to save each and every one of us, and the absolute perfection of His plan. As the day approached, Jesus walked straight into what He was about to suffer; being God, he knew His purpose and that He was the perfect sacrificial lamb, but being man he understood the agony that was coming. We get a look into his turmoil when we read these verses:

John 12:27 “Now my soul has become troubled.”

Mark 14:34 “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death.”

Luke 22:44 And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.

John 12:27-28 “What shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour?’ But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.”

This is what is amazing! He could have easily accomplished His plan in some way where He didn’t have to go through the pain of knowing what this felt like from a human perspective. Instead, He allowed himself to feel it. He chose to undergo the worst kind of pain, anguish, and abuse. He faced extreme rejection and humiliation. He was betrayed. He was insulted. He was beaten. He was murdered. Have you ever just felt like you were all alone in the world or that no one had your back? Can you imagine being so despised that your own people, community, and acquaintances would beg for your death, even in place of the worst criminal? While all of this was horrendous, the worst had to have been the abandonment of those He was closest to. John 13:1 states, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end”. Wow…this statement is powerful! It is touching and at the same time, heartbreaking. He loved his own to the end. And at the end, His disciples - His own - abandoned Him.

He knew this pain, and yet He loved so fervently and so radically.

As we lead up to the beautiful Resurrection Day, my thoughts, of course, are on what He did for each of us and how much He loved us. I am filled with thankfulness and praise. However, I have also been drawn in by the Holy Spirit to really reflect on what He wants me to learn from the events leading to His crucifixion. It’s important not to miss how these events should apply to our lives each day and how He calls us to fully love just as extraordinarily as He did.

HUMBLING OURSELVES AND REGARDING OTHERS’ LIVES ABOVE OUR OWN – Knowing He was just hours away from betrayal and agony, Jesus shocked the disciples by taking a lowly position of washing their feet as described in John 13. While this had significance of their own spiritual condition, Jesus, the King of Kings, was demonstrating what humility and love was to look like. In verses 14-15, Jesus tells them, “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you”. He calls us to be willing to show others that we care more about their needs or feelings over our own.

SACRIFICIAL LOVE – In the same chapter, as He is preparing His disciples for His departure from the earth, He states, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”. So, He commands them to love as He loved them. That’s a tall order! It’s a radical, sacrificial, pouring ourselves out, scary kind of love…but it’s what He is commanding. Later, He says in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends”. Jesus pushes us even further out of our comfort zone, by commanding us in Luke 6:27, “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,” and in verse 32 He says, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them”. No matter where our walk is in Christ, this is extremely difficult to do. We’ve all heard this message and in theory we think this is fairly doable, but when you put that person or name in your mind who has hurt you or someone you love, it’s much more difficult, and feels almost impossible.

MERCY – During the Last Supper, Jesus warned Peter that he was going to deny being one of His disciples. Peter refused to believe that he would do such a thing, but when it came to pass, Peter was wrecked. Matthew 26:75 states that Peter wept bitterly. Can you imagine this level of pain and regret? I would feel so unworthy of anything Jesus had to offer. However, Jesus, being full of love, saw beyond this and foreknew what Peter did not. God had a plan to bring Peter from this moment of failure as a follower, to being the Rock of the early church, boldly and confidently proclaiming Christ. It wasn’t that he deserved this mercy, but Jesus chose out of love and compassion to freely give it, fulfilling His purposes and bringing glory to the Father’s name. There have been specific moments in my life where I have felt that I failed Him, and that remorse and regret was so painful. Knowing how it feels to need that mercy should make me more willing to extend it to others. But still this is such a challenge.

FORGIVENESS - Luke 23:33-34 states, “When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing’”. The people were literally mocking, insulting, and putting Him to a cruel death, and He asks God the Father to forgive them. I just can’t even imagine! I have to admit, I have struggled with letting go when I feel hurt or wronged, but Jesus still commands this type of forgiveness. In verse 42-43, one of the criminals, coming to the realization that this was indeed the Son of God, asks Jesus to remember him when He comes into His kingdom. Jesus, without hesitation, and requiring nothing else, tells the criminal, “Today, you shall be with Me in Paradise”.

Jesus came with a message that should’ve excited the people – the Son of God, the Messiah, was there ready to fulfill prophecy with the message of healing, forgiveness, restoration, rulership, peace, and love. Why would these long-awaited promises induce such hatred and anger? This was what the people had been waiting for! Unfortunately, even though they had passed down the promises from generation to generation, they just couldn’t see it. Jesus knew there would be many who would reject Him, despite coming with signs and miracles authenticating who He was and fulfilling the studied prophecies.

John 5:46 “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.”

Luke 24:27 “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”

It’s hard to make sense why Jesus’s message of love would be so rejected and polarizing at the time, but still we see Him being rejected today. Is it possible, that we, His own, could be contributing to this by not fully giving ourselves over to the love that He demonstrated for us? It pains me to think that someone would reject the Savior of the world during their life because my actions and words showed them a different Jesus.

These attributes – humility, sacrificial love, mercy, and forgiveness – are not for Jesus alone. We are to be the reflection of Jesus. How else will those who have not believed know who He is? How can we be the hands and feet of Jesus if we don’t have the heart of Jesus? I know I cannot love, forgive, or have the level of mercy that Jesus commands of me. He knows I cannot do it on my own. This is where He meets us and provides a way. He has given us the Holy Spirit to call upon and ask for help in our weakness. He’s there to assist us, but we have to be willing to lay down our desires and let the Holy Spirit work at bringing our hearts into alignment with Him. We need to want Him and His Kingdom more than our fleshly desire to withhold the love, forgiveness, and mercy that he asks us to show others. Even though we will never achieve the perfect love and life of Jesus, we can commit to a daily, conscious decision to hand that over to Him and let Him do the work in us. It’s impossible any other way.

John 14:15-16 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.”

John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

John 15:4-5 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing."