Wednesday, March 13, 2013
John 10:17-18 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
STRONG LOVE
Nothing short of amazing are the things that people will do because they love someone!
+ A Syro-Phoenician child is tormented by demons, and her mother goes down on her knees before Jesus, willing even to be called a "dog" in order to get help for the daughter she loved. In our day also there are certainly many examples of people's love for another person making them willing to suffer humiliation, ridicule and even death!
+ A child slips under the waves and a father dives down after him. A grandfather also submerges in the rescue attempt, and all three die in the storm-tossed Saginaw bay.
+ And when a Father is willing to sacrifice His own dear Son in order to rescue someone, how He must love the person He is rescuing! And when that Son gladly carries every burden the Father lays on Him, when He eagerly waits for every word from His Father, and when He gladly does anything and everything that His Father tells Him -- just to rescue us -- how He must love us, too!
+ In His presence the mountains leap like rams, the hills like lambs (Psalm 114:4) but He lies down in the grave for us!
"Yea, Father, yea, most willingly
I'll bear what Thou commandest;
My will conforms to Thy decree,
I do what Thou demandest."
O wondrous Love, what hast Thou done!
The Father offers up His Son!
The Son, content, descendeth!
O Love, how strong Thou art to save!
Thou beddest Him within the grave
Whose word the mountains rendeth.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 142:3)
