Sacrifice: When Nothing Else Matters

It was not the obligation or duty of Jesus to die for us. His sacrifice was wholly a matter of love. It is His incomprehensible willingness to love the unlovable that staggers the mind. A love publicly manifested by His giving up heaven's glory to enter a hostile and sinful world as a man rejected, ridiculed and condemned to die unjustly. The innocent for the guilty, to set them free, forever declares His humiliation and voluntary sacrifice on our behalf.

There are only two reasons that love motivated Jesus to sacrifice Himself on our behalf. Namely, His love for God and His love for God's creation – nothing else mattered (Hebrews 10:5-7). We must understand this, without that sacrifice is impossible! Nothing else mattered in his love but God and people – not His physical comforts (Luke 9:58); not His personal preferences (Matthew 26:42); not even His intense longing to be with His Father in Heaven apart from going to the cross (Luke 5:16).

Only when nothing else matters but God and people will God's people come to know the true meaning of sacrifice. Until then, the work of the local church will suffer want at the hands of physical comforts, personal preferences and longing to be elsewhere. We are not called to duty or convenience but to conviction and sacrifice that willingly serves through love. "And he said to all, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. …No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.'" (Luke 9:23, 62) If we learn to sacrifice because nothing else matters but God and people, then our light will always shine.

“LOVE IS STRONG AS DEATH”

“… in order to love, we must be individuals; to be individuals, we must know death; therefore, in order to love, we must know death.” Peter J. Kreeft

Last week while flying back from Tucson, Arizona, I was thumbing through the American Airlines on-board magazine for June 2009. It contained a human interest piece on the late “Billy Mays.” In spite of his annoying infomercials, according to the article, he apparently was not only very successful but was a very personable individual. It is interesting that within a week of reading that article he died suddenly at the age of 50. I guess, in a sense, he was to infomercials what Michael Jackson was to pop music and what Farrah Fawcett was to fashion models/actresses in the 1970’s. But more than that, Mays, Fawcett and Jackson all share the common fate of all humanity – they are dead.

I know it seems too obvious to mention but it needs to be noted that neither, fame, beauty, talent nor voice recognition spared them from the inevitable and the irreversible act of death. No one wants to be morbid or insensitive to those who sincerely mourn their passing, but death is the reality for each of us regardless of our talents and wealth. Compiling all their wealth, fame and beauty together could not compete with death. In spite of that, the Bible, which speaks to the living, does remind us that there is something that is as strong as death in this life: “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD.” (Song of Solomon 8:6 ESV)

Solomon observes that love, like death, is both real and unrelenting as it pursues its purpose. Yet, it is not just any love, it is that committed love of marriage. As much as faithfulness preserves love, wisdom preserves life. Such committed love is jealous. Yet it is not a jealousy grounded in selfishness. To the contrary, the jealousy to which the writer refers, is that voluntary and selfless devotion, which seeks the protection and welfare of that one to whom we are committed. No amount of “water” (struggles, temptation, pain, suffering, et. al.) pouring over a committed love can quench its fires and no amount of wealth can purchase such committed love (see v. 7). The wisdom that preserves life, and the faithfulness of committed love, which sustains marriage can only be as strong as death, if it is founded on the “fear (reverence) of God.” (Psalms 111:10; Proverbs 9:10; 5:15-23)