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.

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