Love for the Individual
John 19:16b-27
16So they
took Jesus, 17and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place
called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18There
they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus
between them. 19Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the
cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20Many of
the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was
near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21So
the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the
Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’ ” 22Pilate
answered, “What I have written I have written.” 23When the soldiers
had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts,
one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in
one piece from top to bottom, 24so they said to one another, “Let us
not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to
fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for
my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things, 25but
standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary
the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother
and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27Then he said
to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from
that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
I am often overwhelmed and amazed that God, the Creator and
my Savior, should love me – personally. The Scriptures tell us over and over
that God loves us as individuals and in today’s reading we find that personal
care in action. Of course Jesus loved His mother. Of course Jesus loved His
disciple, John. But here we see that He loved them so much He took care of them
as He struggles through gruesome death by crucifixion.
As we look out across the vast expanse of the creation and
the mass of humanity it boggles the mind that God loves us as separate people.
He doesn’t just see a massive population needing His care. He sees each one of
us as His unique creations and we are completely incapable of understanding how
He does that. They (whoever they are) say that our psychological make-up is
such that we can have only about 12 people that we know intimately and only 40
that we can truly handle as close friends. Everyone else falls into the
category of acquaintance. I don’t know if that is really true or not but it
sounds logical. The people who fall into those categories might shift
throughout life, but the numbers remain fairly constant. There is yet another
proof of our human limitations. But God knows no such limitation. He is able to
know each of us intimately. Our limitations are great and one of our challenges
it to refrain from imposing them on God.
As Jesus takes care of Mary and John in the physical world
it cannot be lost on us that He is also taking care of their greatest need –
the forgiveness of their sins. His death atoned for their sins just as it
atones for ours. Once again we are forced to recognize that Jesus was All in
All for each of us. And while He meets our deepest need He also cares for us
and all the little details of our lives. Perhaps we can ask the Spirit to
increase our love for the individual as well. Maybe our prayer should be that
God would help us to see those in our lives as He sees them and love them with His heart.
Dear Lord Jesus, please help me to daily remember that You
care about me. That is sometimes easy
for me to forget as I feel small and insignificant in the world. And while the
world may not care about me, I know that You do. You proved it on the cross.
Please keep me in mind of that truth every single day. And Father, please open
my eyes to see others as You see them and love them with Your great heart. Because
of Your great love I pray. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment