About once a year the Hub and I break out the 2003 version of Luther: the movie. It’s a wonderful overview of one of the great pillars of the faith. But one quote in particular struck me this week as I was preparing some lessons for kid’s church.
“Martin, what is it you seek?”
“A merciful God! A God whom I can love. A God who loves me.”
I have struggled for a long time to get a handle on Jesus. I am ashamed to admit that I have for a long time viewed His work for me on the Cross as only a cut and dried legal transaction rather than a work of great love by a huge God. It was only in the last few weeks when I have been forced to examine His life and works that I have been shocked at my feelings of superiority towards my Saviour.
I guess because I grew up in the church I have had a caricature of Jesus in my head. Various pastors have tried to teach me that Jesus was not just meek and mild, He was exciting but then they presented a picture of Jesus meek and mild. And let’s be frank, that’s not too thrilling is it. That’s not a person you can fear or respect. He always seemed more like a pushover to me.
As a consequence I had not read the first four books of the New Testament in a very long time. And with the deadline for the kid’s church lessons looming I was forced to confront Jesus. What I discovered in the book of Luke shocked me. Finally I found in Jesus the God that Luther found “A God whom I can love” and actually admire.
Jesus has such great power that with one word he can heal a paralytic, still a storm, and cast out a demon. When He raises Jairus’ daughter, He tells her to get up, just as though He were her dad getting her out of bed in the morning. It all seems so effortless, like death is nothing to Him. And Jesus being God and all, of course it is effortless! Duh! Yet for Jesus to be able to forgive sins and conquer death it will cost Him His life. And He did this willingly for us, even arrogant old me.
No comments:
Post a Comment