BEHOLD WHAT MANNER OF LOVE

John 12:24-26

Soren Kierkegaard said, “Anyone who has the faintest idea of what it actually means to die to the world knows that this does not take place without terrible agonies.”

I remember when Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion came out it was criticized because of the violence.  But the event the movie was about was itself very violent, for three days from the arrest of Jesus until he was laid in the tomb.  Now there are those who tell us that event didn’t really happen; God couldn’t possibly have done that, having His Son experience such violence to the point of death, for us.

If I don’t come to know the violence of the death of Jesus on the cross, I can’t know the passion of the love that God has for me and I can’t know the hatred God has for sin.  BEHOLD what manner of love the Father has given for us!  BEHOLD the terrible agonies Jesus walked through willingly and obediently for me…for us; the agony of betrayal by his friends, violent treatment from the soldiers, the rejection of the spiritual leaders and the worldly leaders, the humiliation of carrying his own cross through the crowds who turned against him, the feeling of separation and abandonment by his Father, and the shame of death on the cross.  BEHOLD what manner of love God bestowed on us!

God’s people were the ones who broke the covenant; they were the ones who disobeyed and dismissed God’s rule over them, a rule that was designed for their best; they were the ones who were in the wrong but God was the One who gave His Son over to humiliation and violence in order to make things right with them…with me…with us.  What kind of God does that?  What kind of person sees that, understands that, and yet remains untouched and unrepentant?  BEHOLD what manner of love.

Those who deny or water down the Gospel and clean up the atonement do a great disservice to the world.  When the impact of that act of absolute love is lessened, the intention and the passion of God’s love for His people are weakened.  It becomes a sloppy, fleshly sentimentalism that makes us feel good rather than the powerful force that alone can transform hearts and lives.  BEHOLD what manner of love that used death as the way to life, eternal life with God and His Son forever.