We often stop to think about our own circumstances - our own wants and needs. Our own desires are continually within a hairs breadth of our current thinking...
How often though, do we give any thought to what Jesus wants - to what He's allowed Himself to desire with a costly passion? Do those thoughts guide the response to Him that we're living out?
When Jesus began His ministry in human form on earth it was with the desire to please His Father. He knew what He wanted and He already knew beforehand what it would cost Him. The price was very high, but wrapped up in that desire to please His Father was another desire also - because what the Father loves with such passion, the Son loves passionately as well.
As Jesus ministered to the people that came to hear Him along with the others that He encountered during those 3 years of His adult ministry, He demonstrated His love for His Father by His obedience, but He also demonstrated the love that He had for people. It was and is a genuine love - pure, patient, unwavering and a love bound immovably to the truth.
As He came toward the end of completing His task of obedience, I have no doubt that the humanity Jesus inhabited at the time must have gone through a dread that you and I could only imagine knowing what was to come. The human fears we would experience, knowing the terror of what laid ahead of Him, would shake us to our core if we shared that same fate with foreknowledge... but He moved ahead in spite of it.
When the Roman soldiers spit in His face, clubbed and kicked Him, He moved ahead. When they mocked His majesty and position as the Son of God, He held His peace and moved ahead in spite of it.
When the soldiers ripped His flesh to shreds with barb tipped flagellums and laid Him open to the bone, Jesus held His peace and moved ahead in spite of it - knowing that even this was not the worst to come.
When the crowds gathered at the gates of the local seat of Roman power screamed for His death in the most miserable and horrific method they knew, and while Pilate rose from the judgment seat to pass that most horrible sentence on Him, Jesus still held His peace. He knew all the while that He had the power to stop it, but He also knew what He desired. He held His peace and moved ahead in spite of it. He knew that the price of His desire still lay ahead.
When Jesus, stripped down in humiliation before all to see, bore the weight of His own cross down the road to His own impending death under the Roman whips and when nails were thrust through His hands at the urging of Roman hammers, crude nails driving haltingly through the flesh of His feet, Jesus still clung to His desire and held His peace. He chose to allow the punishment to continue in spite of the pain. He knew that the price of His desire still lay ahead.
As they lifted the cross with Jesus' body on it and it fell into the hole made to keep it upright with a horrible thud - dropping all of His weight against the nails tearing at His hands and feet, and slowly smothering the life out of Him... Jesus held His peace. He knew that the final price of His desire still lay ahead.
As the only begotten Son of The Living God hung on that cross in searing and excruciating pain, gasping for breath - His body laid open and bleeding, cursed, beaten, rejected and humiliated for all to see, the final blow was dealt... Father God looked away... and the price was finally paid.
To be separated from the God who gave us life, though we may not fully realize the tragedy of it, is the worst possible thing that could happen to any of us. To be permanently separated from Him is fate far worse than our physical demise. Jesus felt it. He knew what was coming and He bore it. He bore it all - everything that the wickedness of humanity could deal out to Him, but when it came to the moment that Father God looked away from the dearth of our sin that was cast on Him. That's when Jesus cried out...
"At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”" Matthew 27:45-46 (NLT)
There's a death worse than the death of our physical bodies. We may not be aware of it while wrapped up in the cares of this life, but separation from the God that gave us life is a greater fate than we might imagine. Permanent separation from God is a far greater and more horrific death than the one that our humanity's most often tempted to fear. Jesus rose from the dead to conquered both physical and eternal death. He willingly chose to bear everything that both His own people and the Romans could dish out. He did it out of love for His Father... and He did it out of love for us. He did it so that we could have the opportunity to choose eternal life - never having to bear the horror of eternal separation from God because of our sin.
"“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
“I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!
“O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.” John 17:20-26 (NLT)
If we've accepted Jesus as our Savior - with His death in our place to pay for our sin, how we live now and what we choose moment by moment in obedience to Him, demonstrates a love that we've seen before. Jesus' love and desire was for His Father, but certainly for each of us also. As much as we may desire to see Christ, imagine how much more He desires to have a true relationship with the people that He paid so dearly for and to one day have them present with Him. Jesus' life, death and victorious resurrection here was a choice made out of unimaginable love and obedience. We now have a choice to respond to Him - to answer His desire.
"This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command." John 15:12-14 (NLT)
We live out our response to Jesus in part, moment by moment and day by day. Is the response that we're living out saying what we really want to say to Him? If not, we can change the message and tell Him what He desires to hear from us. He's made it clear by what He lived out that He desires relationship with each of us!
If Father God could look away from His only Son covered in our sin, He can look away from any of us presented before Him unrepentant and unclean on the day of judgment. But if we're truly His, we have cause for both unending, solemn gratitude and abiding joy at His resurrection... because Jesus didn't turn away from the price of what He desired. He was determined to make a way out of condemnation for what He still desires - us.
To Him is owed the unending gratitude and adoration of those saved by His loving grace.
"No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8 (NLT)
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