Came down with a sore throat yesterday morning and by mid-afternoon I was stretched flat on back with body aches, chills and a self-diagnosis that I'd been tetched by something heinous.
The symptoms got worse today, leaving me feeling like I'd stayed up for a week and then been pushed backward off a two story building. With nausea. Around 1:30PM I finally turned off my phone, slid the little curtains over the hatches to make the cabin dark and tried taking a nap.
I never did fall asleep; I started thinking about the crucifixion instead ... and how, knowing the terrible pain and agony that lay ahead, Christ ended his prayer in Gethsemane telling his Father "May your will be done." (
Matthew 26:42)
Then something hit me: Christ was willing to be crucified and die such a horrific death in our place
because he loved us in just the same way that God loved him. Dying in our place not only revealed, but
proved, how much Jesus loved us.
Sure, you might be thinking, we already knew that. But what's it got to do with you and with me?
Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.- Deuteronomy 11:1
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I tried to imagine the priorities Jesus had in life ... did he place importance on becoming wealthy or focus on being a bigshot and having lots of influential friends in the Sanhedrin? Did Christ adhere to the commandments and worship his Father on the Sabbath but then turn his back on God, gawk at women, tell off-color jokes, lie to his customers and curse his subordinates at the carpentry shop ... worshiping his own priorities and agenda during the week?
No. We know Christ did none of those things (even though some of us feel we're entitled to, despite Christ's example).
Because Christ was entirely divine it's hard for us to remember that Jesus was
also 100% human and that he faced
exactly the same temptations as thee and me face every day. Yet Scripture tells us that Christ lived without sin. How is that even possible?
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Christ came to earth to save us from our sins that we may have eternal life in Him, but I don't believe for a picosecond that Jesus' Number One priority was creating a bunch of rules, regulations, rituals and procedures to keep people from sinning.
(I say this because if rules, regulations and restrictions saved us from sin, then we wouldn't need Christ. And also because unlike the Commandments, rules, regulations, rituals and procedures are 100% man-made.)
I do believe that
Christ had just one priority (and that it wasn't wearing the right sandals or the most expensive cloak to synagogue, riding the nicest donkey around town or insisting that synagogues read only from Scroll 33B "The King David Version"):
Christ's Number One Priority was loving God with all his heart, all his mind, all his soul and with all his strength ...
all the time.
That's how Christ was able to live without sin: because he loved God in just the same way God loved him. Perfectly. That's why Jesus willingly died for
our sins ... He loved us just as God loves us. To paraphrase, God's love is contagious. It grows in those who love Him. God's love moves mountains, forgives sin, raises the dead and promises eternal life. God's love is unstoppable.
Loving God as he loves us... not trying to outdo each other by piling on religious rules, tedious traditions and "just in case" restrictions ...
is the answer to sin. But love doesn't stop there.
Christ commanded us to
love one another.
Not to worship our religious smugness, our self-righteousness or our pious reverence. Neither did Christ command us or say it's OK to argue, bicker, provoke, ridicule, gossip, mock, scorn, judge, humiliate or condemn one another any time it suits us because all those things are fun, entertaining and do no harm.
God is Love.
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'- Mark 12:28-30
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."- John 13:34-36
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.- 1 John 4:15-17
