“Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end.”
John 13:1 NLT
It must have been really difficult for Jesus. On the one hand He was facing a horrendous experience leading to His death just a few hours away. But on the other, He knew that he would be leaving His disciples behind, in a hostile environment where any followers of Jesus would be persecuted. And Jesus’ pain was made worse by the fact that He loved His disciples. Ever since the day when He chose them, even Judas who later betrayed Him, Jesus had shared His life with them. He had prayed for them, taught them, encouraged them, corrected them, all the while with a gentle but firm loving hand.
The Apostle John later wrote in his first letter, “But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” (1 John 4:8-10). This is a breath-taking Scripture, in that God not only said He loved human beings, but He demonstrated how much by sending His Son to die in our place, as a sacrifice for our sins. Romans 5:8, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners“. And all through His ministry here on earth, Jesus demonstrated God’s love without limit.
God has always loved His creation. After all, He created human beings in His image, as we read in Genesis 1:27, “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Isaiah declared how much God loves us, “For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken,” says the Lord, who has mercy on you” (Isaiah 54:10).
We pilgrims are the sole dispensers of God’s love to those around us. There is no-one else. Our secular politicians know nothing about God’s love. Neither do our medics or lawyers. God had a different plan, as we read in 1 Corinthians 1:16-29, “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no-one may boast before him.” That’s us, folks. We don’t need a PhD, or any theological credentials, no matter how impressive, to tell others about Jesus. A quote from David Pawson: “Every single person in your church could do something great for God and say something great for God, by the power of the Holy Spirit; even if you have no natural gifts, even if your heredity is all awry, even if your environment hasn’t given you a chance, everybody could do this, for the Holy Spirit is no respecter of persons and can use anybody who is willing”. Are we willing? Of course we are, with a resounding “Yes Lord!”.
Father God. We echo Isaiah’s words – “Here I am, send me”. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 