Jesus Quality Lovefeatured

During the Christmas season, I spent some time thinking about the enormity of God’s love. God asked his Son to humble himself by taking on the limitations of the human body and beginning his earthly life in a dirty barn. About thirty-three years later, that Son sacrificed his life on the cross, paying the price for my sins and yours. God’s lavish love for mankind required both humility and sacrifice.

The apostle Paul describes Christ’s humility in Philippians 2:6-8: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

It is hard for me to imagine the magnitude of the sacrifice that Jesus made that Christmas morning. Because of his great love for us, he surrendered his unimaginable power and majesty and accepted the limitations of a human body. He humbly sacrificed the beauty of a throne for a smelly manger.

We see Jesus’s humility and sacrifice not only in his birth but throughout his life. During his forty days in the desert following his baptism, Satan appealed to Jesus’s pride with an enticing offer: “…the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.  ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me’” (Matthew 4:8-9).  Jesus’s response in verse ten (“Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”) shows that Jesus humbly accepted the path that his Father had planned for him and sacrificed earthly fame and fortune.

As Jesus faced death on the cross, he wrestled with the cost of humbly accepting God’s plan. In Matthew 26:38, he says “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” In the next verse Jesus prays, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus’s love for us was so great that he sacrificed his own desires for his Father’s plan and willingly sacrificed his life so that we could live in his presence eternally.

So how do we respond to God’s lavish love demonstrated in Jesus’s humility and sacrifice? In Philippians 2:5 Paul tells us, “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” Christ’s mindset or his motivation was perfect love for mankind. From Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem to his death on the cross, Jesus demonstrated that humility and sacrifice are essential elements of love. They are inextricable. There is no true humility without sacrifice and no true sacrifice without humility. The love that we are called to share with others (Jesus quality love) demands personal humility and sacrifice.

I find loving people with Jesus quality love very difficult. Relinquishing my plans and desires is not my natural response. Placing someone else’s needs ahead of my desires doesn’t come easily.  My “Sharon quality love” is tainted with self-interest. Ephesians 4:1-2 reminds me, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” We find another reminder in 1 Peter 3:8-9: “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.” It is easy to read this, but oh so difficult to carry out when someone is stomping on my last nerve!

Only through the power of the Holy Spirit can any of us conjure up the Jesus quality sacrificial humility to which we are called. I am beginning to learn that the benefits are profound. In Matthew 11:29 Jesus promised, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” My soul at rest with Jesus – sound like a wonderful outcome to me. May you experience and share plenty of Jesus quality love during this new year!

P.S. The two trees in this painting represent the humble construction materials of Jesus’s manger and cross. The intertwining branches symbolize the humility and sacrifice of his lavish love for each of us.