“It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus
knew that the hour had come for Him to leave this world and
go to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He
loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the
devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to
betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His
power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God; so
He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a
towel around His waist. After that, He poured water into a basin and
began to wash His disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that
was wrapped around Him (John 13:1-5).”
Jesus...knowing that He was about to
endure the painful torture of the cross (the most painful death the
Romans ever concocted)...knowing that He would experience the
betrayal of His closest friends....knowing that His body would be
beaten to a pulp – literally...knowing that it was just a matter of
time before the Roman guards came to lead Him away...found a nice,
secluded place away from people to meditate His impending doom.
Can I just say (or write) NOT!!!
Jesus, our King, knew His end was
coming, and what does John's Gospel say that He did? He didn't run
away to contemplate or be concerned over what was going to happen in
the near future. Instead, He did the same thing He commands us to do
by example. He loved them, by serving them “to the end.”
We get so busy with our own lives,
meditating on what we are going through or having to deal with at the
moment, that we forget to LOVE to the end. We feel “the right”
to find a place to hide away from the rest of the world. We've
convinced ourselves that we need that much MORE than we do and end up
treasuring those times of “get away” MORE than we should.
If you are anything like me, and
hopefully you are not, you tend to draw back...to pull away when
things get out of control. I want to run and find some quiet place
to pull the covers over my head, sometimes giving the excuse that I
simply need some time alone.
I'm not saying that time alone is
necessarily a bad thing. What I am saying is that I think sometime I
use it as an excuse not to push through and LOVE. Jesus pushed
through. He sat at that table and heard the disciples wondering who
was the greatest. He sat there, looking at each one, knowing that
they would all eventually desert Him. He knew it all...their
hearts...their minds...their misconceptions about Who He was. And to
top it off, He knew His imminent, horrid death was approaching
quickly. It was time...and yet, He didn't use that as an excuse to
not love. Instead, He loved them - even to the end.
I think that's one of our problems as
Believers, today. We don't love to the end. We love until it gets
uncomfortable or makes us frustrated. We love until we're too busy,
but not to the end. We don't put everything that God has put into us
– His own presence and power - into our relationships with our
family, our friends and definitely not our enemies.
If you don't belong in that
description, I applaud your walk with the Lord and pray that He
continues to use you mightily in the lives of those you serve. Yet,
if you are like me, and find yourself lumped into the earlier
paragraph, let's change. Let's decide to take our lives that were
purchased with the precious, precious blood and suffering of our
Savior and use them for Him.
I've always heard that the highest
complement one could be paid was imitation. Let's pay Christ the
highest compliment. Love...to the end.
Father, forgive me for when I
don't love and don't love till the end. I desire to make You
proud...to show others what a great and loving God You are. Help me
do that through service for You and to You, alone. I love You, Lord.
