Westside Church of Christ

It exceeds our capacity of comprehension. Perhaps, that’s why we have turned it over to the little people without realizing that we are all little ones when compared to the Lord. It is so magnificent that we cannot grasp it. We read the relatively brief accounts of His life and learn some facts, but do we really grasp the ultimate reality: He did that for me?

He surrendered a place in glory and took on flesh to accomplish His mission of bringing the possibility of salvation to every single soul. He was with God, was God, on equal footing with God and relinquished that to step into the world. What must that be like? Whatever it is, He emptied Himself because of His enormous love for us. That motivation undergirds everything that He did. Jesus loves me. This I know.

We see Him healing the sick, commanding demons and they obey, ordering storms to stop and they do, even yelling at a corpse and it responds. He demonstrated extraordinary power through His words and actions. He took twelve ordinary men and commissioned them. They all failed at one time or another. Yet, His love never wavered. It really doesn’t make much sense to us. How could He possibly love someone like me? Maybe we doubt that He does. We shouldn’t.

His remarkable life and death were totally intentional. The creation had lost its way. Darkness was deepening. There was a tremendous need tugging at deity. Weakness. Sinfulness. Stubbornness. A host of attitudes warred within the mind of man and it would take a dramatic, almost unimaginable, act to save us. He loved the lost. Still does. Jesus presented that love in flesh and blood. He wasn’t the least bit surprised at anything He encountered when He arrived.

It was precisely why He came.

We tend to sidestep the undesirables. He left heaven to seek them. The self-righteous are scandalized by such a fact until they figure out that they are the undesirables. Perceptions change with that realization. It humbles the proud to realize how lost and helpless they are, and how much they need Jesus. “They” turns into “we” when we look closely at ourselves compared to Jesus. He is so pure and holy, and we bring a flawed and sin-scarred version of ourselves to Him. The difference is vast. He never failed to live up to holy standards, and we consistently do. It is hard to imagine, but

Jesus really does love us. Yep, warts and all.

Call to Praise: Matthew 9:35-38

His word on it: 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Sermon: “What Can We Do?”