Do I WANT to love the Jesus Way?

Reflecting on Luke 9:21-26

"Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23)

Yesterday I reflected on how I know and experience Jesus.
For me, Jesus is the humble, gracious God of love as a human.
In today’s reading we see that humble gracious love in action.
In humility, for love, God puts Himself at the mercy of human violence.

The God of love as a human must suffer many things.
God in love has been suffering because of humans since the Fall.
Think of how parents suffer when their children suffer, or do bad things.
God in love has been rejected since Adam and Eve’s first act of rebellion.
God in love did not impose the expected death penalty warned about.
Instead God in love has endured the murder of His identity and character.
All this comes to completeness when God in love becomes human.
Violence, rejection and death are inflicted on the God of love.
It is humble, gracious love that defines God’s relationship to us.

Why then does Jesus demand that His disciples suffer as well?
How is denying ourselves, enduring the cross, losing our lives loving?
Jesus seems to be making following God hard, even deadly.
But it is not God and Jesus that make following hard and deadly.
It is the cruelty and violence of other humans, and our sinful world.
Jesus is not calling us to suffer; Jesus is calling us to love.
We are to follow Him in living out the character of divine love.
It is as we join with Jesus and God in humble, gracious love that we suffer.
We suffer with and like God and Jesus do, at the hands of a sinful world.

When we refuse to love, or are ashamed of love, we put ourselves against God.
When we reject the way of humble gracious love, we reject the way of God and Jesus.
In effect, we cause them to suffer, we reject them, we crucify them.
Being a Christian, or a Jesus follower, or a child of God, all comes down to this.
Will we accept the humble gracious love of God for us?
Will we choose to share the humble gracious love of God with others?
All of our theologies and orthodox confessions mean nothing without this.

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” ( 1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

I find the humble, gracious love of God in Jesus challenging and convicting.
My love is nowhere as strong as God’s love for me, yet this is what He wants.
It is hard to love opponents, enemies, critics and jerks with God-like love.
It is hard to be patient (literally ‘long-suffering’) with such people.
It is hard to forgive them, to treat them with kindness and compassion.
Not just hard, it is humanly speaking impossible for me; I don’t have the strength.
And honestly, I don’t have the will or desire to either.
I believe love matters, but I can’t (or won’t) do it.

Yet this is where the comfort of God’s humble, gracious love comes in.
God knows my human weakness and limitation, yet still comes to me in Jesus.
God is willing to be patient (long suffering) with me.
God chooses to walk with me, to work with me, to help me grow step by step.
God in Jesus chooses me as His disciple, just like He did the first disciples.
He puts up with our slowness, our flawed obedience, our weak love.
He holds us firmly, even when we hold Him weakly.
All that He asks is…
(1) that I humbly admit my weakness and inability to love
(2) that I sincerely affirm the value and rightness of love, and
(3) that I actively desire and seek to be more loving that I am, with His help.

Jesus is calling me toward these steps, to commit myself tom love.
This is what makes us Jesus followers, or disciples.
Disciples are students, those who are learning and growing in the right direction.
It is not the perfection of our love, but our desire for love that counts.

We can be sure of this: if we pursue God-like love, we will suffer.
We do not choose suffering, we choose love, and love leads to suffering.
We will struggle, we will fail, we will suffer, we will be mocked.
But every step of the way we are with Jesus, and Jesus is with us.
This is what Paul means when he desscribes knowing Jesus.

“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10)

We don’t experience His resurrection power unless we also suffer and die with Him.
The way of love, though it leads through suffering, always overcomes in the end.
To know Jesus is to both experience and express this cross-shaped love.
If we pursue God-like, cross-shaped love, we will rise up in the end.
For love wins, because God is love, and God wins.

The question is, do I WANT to want to be a student of Jesus-like love?
Do I want to love like God and Jesus, even if it makes life harder?

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, though I cannot love like You, I want to love like You because I believe humble gracious love is the only true way to live... the God way! I admit my weak love, I affirm Your strong love, and with Your help I choose to aim for actively loving others like You do me.