Jesus looked him hard in the eye - and loved him! (10:21)This was Jesus' response to the rich young man who thought he'd kept all of God's commandments. Amazing.
Loving the man certainly wasn't the first thing that came to my mind as an appropriate response to such arrogance. I thought of a sarcastic "yeah, right,"or a harsh rebuke. Judgment, yes. Love, no. But Jesus looked past the outward behavior into this young man's heart.
"What we're told here is that Jesus saw into the very heart of this man and decided to do what was needed to make him whole. He offered to extricate him from the clutching tentacles of sin that were strangling his life. He offered to rescue him from the wasteland of self-righteousness that was impoverishing him and to make it possible for him to receive God's love and return it...
"That's what Jesus does for each and every one of us...Looking us hard in the eyes, Jesus understands all the ways that things have gone wrong in our lives; then he isolates the particular sin that has entrenched itself in our hearts and touches it. And with that touch comes the offer of salvation." Eugene Peterson, Conversations, pg. 1561God's been revealing to me lately how sinful my internal responses are to prideful people like this rich young man. Rather than trusting God to help me see past their arrogance or self-righteousness, I've been responding with prideful judgment of my own, as if their sin excuses mine. Instead of trying to lovingly discern what's going on in their hearts and respond with Christ-like love and grace, I've been trapped by the same sin for which I'm judging them.
It is humbling to examine the perfect life of Jesus and see how dreadfully far I am away from Christ-likeness. Yet at the same time, I'm encouraged by how Jesus responded to this young man. In spite of His sin, Jesus loved him and offered to make him whole.
And I know Jesus offers me the same thing today. Wholeness. Love in abundance. Freedom from the tentacles of sin strangling my life. Rescue from the wasteland of self-righteousness that prevents me from giving and receiving love.
From this story, I know that in spite of my sinful desire to hang on tight to a lot of things (10:22), the last word is always God's love. Hallelujah!
1 comment:
:) So thankful for His love. His grace for me. His truth that protects. His freedom. His Spirit that leads and guides me to not walk in my old ways. I feel like the blind sick man that the others have to say to me as I call out for Jesus, "Take heart, get up, he is calling you."
Also just praying today that I would be someone who is like Christ, who has not come to be served but to serve, to give my life too as a ransom for many!
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