In these Wednesday night services,
as some of you know, we’ve been looking at “Three Sixteens”, Chapter Three,
Verse Sixteen from various books of the New Testament. This is one of the
most meaningful. John writes, “This is how we know what love is:
Jesus laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives
for one another.”
You know, that’s one of those things
that we hear sometimes without thinking about it enough. “Jesus laid down
his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another.”
Have you ever been in a position
where you had to really consider this? Have you ever had to really think
about the possibility of giving up your life for someone else? Some of
you probably have. The example that always comes to my mind is people in
the military. If you are in the military, especially if you’re in a war
zone, you know that you may very well be asked to give up your life for others.
Other obvious examples would be police, fire fighters, people like that,
who are often asked to put themselves into dangerous situations, situations in
which they may be faced with the possibility of having to choose whether to
give up their lives for someone else. And I don’t mean to slight anyone
here. I’m sure there are many other times in many other occupations in
which this situation comes up.
I’ve never had one of those
situations come up. And that means that I really have no way to know
whether I’d be able to do it. We’d all like to think we could, but it’s
easy to think that way as long as the idea is just theoretical. I don’t
know that it’s possible to know how we’d react to a situation like this unless
and until we’re actually in it. I don’t think we can know whether we’d be
willing to give up our lives for someone else unless and until we actually have
to make the choice whether we’re going to do it.
Jesus had to make that choice, of
course. Jesus gave up his life for all of us. And as John tells us,
that’s how we know Jesus loves us. Because that’s the ultimate definition
of love: being willing to give up our life for someone else.
I think sometimes we don’t think
enough about what a hard thing that was for Jesus to do. We know about
the beatings and the torture Jesus went through, but we don’t like to think
about it. That’s why our focus tends to be on Easter much more than on
Maundy Thursday or Good Friday. We like to hear the story of Jesus rising
from the dead. We don’t really like to think about how hard it was for
Jesus to get to that point.
And even when we do think about it,
sometimes we think, “Well, but Jesus knew what was going to happen next.
Even when he was going through all that pain, Jesus knew he was going to
be raised from the dead. He knew he was going to live again and
eventually go to be with God the Father in heaven. So that made it easier
for him.”
Well, maybe, but maybe not. I
mean, Jesus did know he was going to be raised from the dead. No doubt
about that. He told the disciples about it many times. Still, I
wonder.
Matthew tells us that, shortly
before he died, Jesus said, “God, why have you forsaken me?” Those are
the last words Matthew records Jesus as having spoken before he died.
Now, I don’t know what that phrase sounds like to you, but to me, it
sounds like, in that moment, Jesus felt like God the Father had abandoned him.
I don’t think God the Father had actually abandoned Jesus, but when I read
that, it seems to me that Jesus seems must have felt that way just before he
died. Jesus appears to have felt like God the Father left him just at the
moment Jesus needed God the most.
So I wonder if, in that moment,
Jesus was having doubts. Did he wonder, at that time, whether it had all
gone wrong? Did he wonder if he was giving up his life for nothing?
Did Jesus, in that moment, still believe that he was going to be raised
from the dead and live again and be with God the Father again? Or was he
afraid, in that moment, that perhaps he’d gotten it all wrong, and that he
really was going to die and just stay dead?
I wonder about that because while
Jesus was the fully divine Son of God, he was also fully human. And fear,
and doubt, are two of our very human stumbling blocks. They get in the
way of our faith. They get in the way of our ability to love. And
they are, quite often, the reason why we not only are unwilling to give up our
lives for others, but why we quite often are unwilling to give up much of
anything for others. We have fear, and we have doubt.
Most of us, even if we have a really
strong faith, feel those things. Maybe some don’t, and if you’re one of
those who does not I salute you and I admire you. But I think most of us,
even when we have a really strong faith, have times when we feel fear, and we
have times when we have doubts.
We think we know what’s going to happen. We think we know
how things are going to go. And then, reality comes up and hits us in the
face. And we have to deal with the pain and the hardship that reality can
sometimes bring. And we don’t understand it. Or maybe we do
understand it, but we still have a hard time dealing with it. And so we
say God, where are you? Why have you abandoned me? Why have you
left me just when I needed you most?
But here’s the good news. Even if Jesus felt that way, even
if, while he was hanging on the cross, Jesus felt that God the Father had
abandoned him, he still went through with it. Even in his last moments,
even when his life on this earth was almost gone, he was still the divine Son
of God. He still could’ve used his power to come down off the cross and
stay alive on earth. But he did not do it. No matter what fears he
may have had, no matter what doubts he may have had, Jesus still laid down his
life for us. He was able to do that because God the Father was still with
Jesus, even when Jesus could not feel that. God the Father had not
abandoned Jesus. In the moment Jesus needed God the Father the most, God
was there. Jesus Christ was able to take the ultimate punishment in our
place, so that our sins could be forgiven, because of the strength that God the
Father gave him. Jesus took that ultimate punishment because of the love
that God the Father gave him. And Jesus was able to take that ultimate
punishment because of the ultimate love Jesus has for each one of us.
As I said, I’ve never had a moment when I was asked to lay down my
life for someone else. Maybe I never will. But I might. It
could happen at any time. It could happen for you, too. Even if
it’s already happened, it could happen again.
I don’t know how I’ll react if it does. But I know that if
it ever happens, God will be with me, just as God was with Jesus. No
matter what fears I may have, no matter what doubts I may have, God will still
be with me. Even if I cannot feel God there, God will still be with me.
Even if I feel like God has abandoned me, God will still be there.
And if you’re in that situation, God will be there for you, too.
And that makes me believe that, when the time comes, I may be able
to do it. Maybe not. I’m not trying to brag here or anything.
As I said, I don’t think any of us can know how we would react in that
situation unless and until we’re actually in that situation. But it makes
me think there’s hope that I would. And maybe it’ll give you hope that
you would, too.
Because God will be there for us when we need God the most.
God will be there to give us strength. God will be there to give us
love. And God will help us give love to others, too.
Fear and doubt are a part of life. The harder the thing is
that we’re asked to do, the more likely fear and doubt are to get in our way.
Fear and doubt are so powerful that even Jesus felt them. But Jesus
was able to overcome them. And so can we. No matter what the
situation is, even if we’re asked to give our lives, God will be there.
God will give us strength. God will give us love. God will be
there for us, just when we need God the most.
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