Why Love Jesus?
“The Christian Life” can very quickly become nothing more than a set of tasks that we perform and good habits we exercise. But because the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind,” we know that God’s primary goal is not to simply modify our behavior. His goal is real love. What I’ve been really challenged by lately is a simple question: “Why do I love Jesus?” This is what I came up with…
Because Jesus helped those who asked him for help. He healed those who asked him to be healed. He was endlessly loyal to 12 men who sometimes didn’t give a rip. He was gracious to the humble and opposed to the proud. He was pure, holy, intentional, and inclusive; he always made time for everyone.
Because he turned over tables of men who disrespected his father, trampled on the name of his dad, who cheated and swindled and lied and stole in His name; and then he spoke where those men once stood and stole, and he taught them about His great love for them. He healed people I would want nothing to do with. He embraced a crowd of thousands and served them after one of his best friends in this world had been beheaded. BEHEADED! Not imprisoned, not threatened, not beaten, not murdered; BEHEADED!
Because he silently stood as people taunted him, screamed at him, degraded him, punched him in the face, spit on his face, called him a liar and a fake; and then he walked into the cross. And then he stayed there when he didn’t have to and died for the sins of the whole world; not just my sins, but the sins of the whole world. He died for the sins of Judas who had just betrayed him, for the sins of those scum of the earth guards who had just spit on his face, dressed him in a crown of thorns and hit him in the face, taunting him; yes, those men, those sins. He died for those actions, he paid for those sins; and not years later, not after he had time to cool off, but moments later. He died for those who hung him on that cross. And he died for me who once made himself equal with God by claiming to have all I would ever need by my own strength, who spread lies to his sheep and lead others astray, and who still to this day cannot walk in obedience to even the simplest of God’s commands.
Because Jesus was perfect; and he walked the walk. Because the days of his life are the greatest display of God’s holiness and perfection, of God’s character, and of everything I am not. He loved God above anything else without a shadow of a doubt. He took a stand for God and nothing and no one else; he represented God alone, and brought nothing of his own plans or agenda. Everything he did was an extension of God. Because his love for God was unshakeable; his love for others was inseparable. He was a bold speaker of the truth and he always said what needed to be said.
Jesus was incredible, indescribable, worthy. Do you know him? Do you love him? Why? Who is he and what has he done?
