Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. – John 15:13 (KJV)
Giving up one’s life for a brother, or sister, or comrade must be the singular manifestation of profound love.
Doing so for the stranger within our gates must be the stronger show of selflessness and brotherhood; dying for one’s country, the ultimate sacrifice of all.
As frail human beings, we relish in the greater good that others of firmer will or much less selfishness do. We praise them, reward them and write their names in stone.
Yet, oft-times, we fail to appreciate how great God’s own love is in sustaining the more valorous among us. We even take for granted that Jehovah in the divinest of love sent His only Son Jesus, who Himself gave up his life on the Cross that we might be saved from sin.
The lesson is given that so sinful had the men and women of the world become – and worse would be – that only a perfect sacrifice could cleanse us of our sins. No man could be the perfect sacrifice, for we were all sinners. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, would be the only one – the perfect sacrifice – to redeem us from death.
So it behoves us when next we so easily question challenges thrown our way, or that of our beloved ones, that we consider the one good thing God has guaranteed us in life – that which we are not capable of accomplishing for ourselves: righteousness, purification from sin, through the sacrifice of His only Son.
Christians the world over, celebrating Good Friday today, have long accepted that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became man to save us from the sin that entered the world through Adam. We may debate who Adam was, and if he represented one man or many; we may ponder even upon Reverend Charles Morris’ interpretation of it: what to some is a conundrum; but we will not gainsay that it is Jesus’ Crucifixion – memorialized today – that secures us.
We accept that the Son of God became man to taste death for everyone, destroy the power of that death, and atone our sins.
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Hebrews 2:14-15 (KJV).
When Jesus spoke thus about the laying down of life, it was not so much about sacrifice as it was about the greatest love of all.
A blessed Good Friday!
