I recently enjoyed sitting with a group of teens around a roaring campfire. We ate, we laughed, we talked, we laughed! We sang praise songs together and we worshipped together. I asked them a question. “How could you best show love someone you meet on the street, someone you don’t know?” Several felt that hugging the person would be the best way to express love. Another thought that listening to them would be a good way to show love. Great answers, I thought.
God, the Father asked Himself the same question. How do I show love for people who don’t know Me? Worse than that, how do I show love for people who hate Me? How do I communicate the simple equality, that Me = Love, to them? How do I share with them a picture of what unselfish love really looks like?
In my Bible, I read many stories of God showing grace, mercy, love to a rebellious people who kept running away from Him. Over and over, He welcomed them back. Did more than that! He ran after them!
A couple of weeks ago, I viewed The Passion of The Christ, the 2004 film directed by Mel Gibson. In a very graphic and violent way, the film let me experience the last twelve hours of Jesus’ life. It was the best of films. It was the worst of films. It forced me to experience Jesus in a way that I had never done before. Although the spoken language is either Latin, Aramaic, or Hebrew, even without the supplied subtitles, the message comes through loud and clear.
What message is that? Our Father God sent His Son, His only Son, to live, and then to die in the most vicious, violent and degrading way known to man. And this death was at the hands of the very ones for whom the message was intended!
This movie is not for the faint of heart. If you don’t want to be affected to your very core, don’t watch it. Yet, I urge you to watch it and let the message wash over you, pierce you, trouble you, sadden you, anger you, amaze you. And change you.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5 NIV.
Father, I am amazed at Your message of violent grace and love. How could you give that way? How could you love that way? Help me to love that way. Help me to look more like Your Son.