But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ From that hour the disciple took her into his own household (John 19:25-27).
Two sailors were trying to tell another sailor named Danny about the love of Jesus. Every day they looked for ways to share with him. But the stubborn fellow wouldn't hear of it. He ridiculed their faith in Christ and made life miserable for the two believers at every opportunity.
Finally one day he shouted, “If either of you ever mentions the word Jesus to me again, I will break your head.” One of the men stepped forward and said, “Danny, we can't stop telling you about Jesus. He loves you too much.
Danny didn't hesitate. With all his might he swung his fist, hitting the man squarely in the face. He fell to the ground, blood gushing from his nose. Danny towered over him and snarled, Now tell me how much your Jesus loves me.
Slowly the sailor rose to his feet. He wiped some of his blood onto his fingers, held out his hand and said, “Danny, Jesus loves you this much.”
Soon after this Danny gave his heart to Jesus. It's hard to resist true love.
We hear a lot about love today. Real love. True love. Most of it is counterfeit love.
Jesus shows us true love. He was born because God loved the world too much to let us die forever separated from Him. For God so loved the world He gave. During His three years of ministry the love of God flowed constantly through Jesus into the lives of lepers, thieves, prostitutes, fishermen and tax collectors.
On Jesus’ final night with His disciples, we read, Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. (John 13:1). That word end is telos. It means perfection, completeness. Jesus loved His disciples to the fullest measure of God’s capacity to love.
On that night Jesus humbly washed the muddy feet of His disciples who were proudly arguing about who would be the greatest in the kingdom of God. He washed even the feet of Judas who would betray Him before the night was over. During the Passover meal He instituted Holy Communion and promised a New Covenant. He prayed for them that night, that God would deliver them from the evil one who was approaching.
In the Garden of Gethsemane His friends slept while He prepared Himself for the coming sacrifice. When the mob arrived to arrest Him, the disciples denied Him, deserted Him. But Jesus loved them to the end — fully, perfectly. That’s true love.
That love drew Him to a cross where He took upon Himself the sin and failure of a sinful world, the curse of a cursed world and the brokenness of a broken world. That’s true love.
As He hung on that cross, rejected, with the weight of the world’s sin and the eternal judgment of God against sinners pressing in upon Him, Jesus looks out and sees His grieving mother Mary. In the midst of His anguish He responds to her broken heart with tender compassion. He commends her into the care and keeping of His beloved disciple John.
That’s real love. The future of the world, all of history hinges on the unblemished Lamb of God dying for the sins of a lost world. Yet in the wrenching anguish of this sacrifice, the Lamb of God, God in the flesh, pauses to love His family.
Only because His heart was centered on His Father's love was there such gracious room for His family. Because His heart was filled with His Father's love, there was room to love His family.
In this He gives us an example. In the pressures and trials of life, our love for one another need not grow cold. If our love for God is the all consuming love of our life, then this love will also be the center and source for every other love and there will always be enough love, for there will always be enough of God.
The saying is true:
He loves his loved ones best
who loves his Lord most.
Why Have You Forsaken Me
Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani,’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?’ (Matthew 27:45,46).
Jesus, who had enjoyed perfect fellowship with His Father from eternity, is now forsaken.
Jesus, who had abided in His Father as His Father had abided in Him, is now forsaken.
Jesus who spoke only those words which He heard His Father speak, who did only those
works which His Father did, is now forsaken.
Jesus, who rose long hours before daylight to commune with His Father, now is forsaken.
Why?
In Galatians 3:13 we read, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’
He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21).
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross (I Peter 2:24).
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried (Isa. 53:4).
Jesus, the unblemished lamb of God offered for the sins of the world, took upon Himself our sins, our curse and the eternal judgment that should have come upon us. He became a sin offering on our behalf and in doing this, experienced the result of sin. He experienced complete separation, alienation from God the Father, who, in His perfect holiness, cannot look upon sin. God therefore turned away from His beloved, only begotten Son who became sin on our behalf.
There is a deep, unfathomable mystery here. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit exist as three Persons, one God, perfect in unity and substance and nature, eternally perfect in unity of purpose, will and power, eternally One, indivisible.
Yet in some way far beyond our ability to understand, for the first and only time in all eternity, God the Son was separated from God the Father. Rejected by the world, abandoned by His friends, now forsaken by His Heavenly Father, Jesus, though perfectly sinless, took on the sin of the world and endured humanity’s separation from God.
Have you ever been abandoned, alone, forsaken?
Jesus understands your experience. He can minister grace
to you because He was abandoned, alone, forsaken.
But more than that, He carried our forsakenness for us. We need never again be separated from God. Jesus carried our eternal separation. He says, I will never fail you nor forsake you (Hebr. 13:5). He is able to be present to us even though we sin because He atoned for that sin. Because He was forsaken, we need never be forsaken again.
Thanks be to God for His great mercy.
I Thirst
After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture would be fulfilled, said, ‘I am thirsty’ (John 19:28).
Who can fathom the depths of the mystery of God? Jesus, the pre-existent, eternal Son of God, by whom, through whom and for whom all things were created, by whom and for whom all rivers, springs and fountains of water were created, said, I thirst.
Who can fathom the mystery of God? The very rain that falls from heaven is ordained, created by and for God the Son. And Jesus said, I thirst.
Who can fathom the mystery of God? Jesus said, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger and he who believes in Me shall not thirst (John 6:35). Now He says, "I thirst."
Yet it was necessary that Jesus thirst. As the holy Lamb of God, He took upon Himself all of the thirst — spiritual, emotional and physical — all the thirst of all the fallen sons and daughters of Adam from of all the ages of humanity.
Of course the world is thirsty — it is separated from God the Source of all life. But now no one needs to bear their thirst alone. Jesus understands it, identifies with it. More important, He bore that thirst, thirsted in our place.
Jesus said, I thirst, taking upon Himself the thirst of a world of lost sinners. And a glorious, life giving river was loosed.
Now Jesus says, If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes on Me, out of his inner being shall flow rivers of living water (John 7:3738).
Now the water of everlasting life is available to all who thirst, who seek, who ask. Now we, the Bride of Christ, join with our Lord and with the Holy Spirit calling the world to come and drink, But now the Spirit and the Bride say come and let the one who hears say come and let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without cost (Rev. 22:17).
We have sung this old hymn,
Jesus keep me near the cross, there a precious fountain
free to all a healing stream flows from Calvary’s mountain.
Jesus, as He died, said, I thirst. Now all may drink and be filled.