Now That’s Love

I just watched a short video on the love of Jesus. It caused me to think about who Jesus loved and for who he died. It wasn’t just for his disciples and followers. It wasn’t for his mother, Mary. It wasn’t for his half brothers and sisters, it was for everyone from the point of his death and into the future. There was not one person excluded from his love.

He loved the Sadducees and Pharisees who dogged him and tried to find cause to destroy him. His love extended to the High Priests, Herod, and Pontius Pilate who accused, judged and sentenced him to the cross. He loved the Roman soldiers who flogged and flayed him with a cat-o-nine tail whip and drove the sharp crown of thorns on his head. Crowds spat on him, hit him, mocked him, and plucked out his beard, and yet he loved them.

His love was offered to the Roman soldiers even as they drove the spikes deep into the cross through his wrists and his feet. He loved the man who betrayed him with a kiss on the cheek for twenty pieces of silver, Judas Iscariot. If Judas hadn’t departed and killed himself, I am sure that Jesus would have forgiven him.

Jesus would even now, open his arms in love to all mankind: Moslem, Buddhist, Jew, Hindu, Atheist, Communist, or Agnostic. Jesus is the epitome of love. He died to destroy the sin of each and every person on the earth. He allowed himself a death on the cross to have men set free from their bondage of sin. Jesus could have called ten thousand angels to lift him off the cross and to lovingly minister to his wounds. He could have had ten thousand more to destroy those who sought his death if he chose to call them.

Yet, he willingly bore the pain, agony, and shame of dying like a criminal on the cross to save you and I from the punishment of Hell that we have earned. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what it is.