“No one has greater love than this – that one lays down his life for his friends.”
–Jesus the Christ, Gospel of John
How blasphemous would it be to disagree with his statement here?
Kind of a rhetorical question, I mean you don’t need to answer it, but I did want to say that I wasn’t sure I was completely behind him on this one.
And what I mean is that I’m not sure that’s the greater love.
Now, there’s no arguing that it’s love, even great love, but the greatest love? It may be for some, but it’s not for me. For me, it’s not that he died for me (though my appreciation for that knows no bounds). The greatest love is that he lived for me.
There are many I would die for. My friends, family, wife and even strangers. I could die for all of them. For some reason that is easier for me to do than live for them. I’m not sure I would give up my job for them, for example. If my brother needed a job and the opportunity to just switch with him, me unemployed and him to have a job – maybe my job – is a hard thing to swallow.
Would you do that?
Hard to remember that Christ did.
“…but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature.” -Paul, Epistle to the Philippians
My wife brought something up the other day that really got me thinking and we talked more about it later. When we think of the sacrifice of Christ, it’s his death and resurrection that come to mind. The Cross. Calvary. Beatings. A host of images really. But with “sacrifice” there is definitely something that doesn’t usually come to mind.
Swaddling clothes. A manger. Arms. Hunger. Dependence. Actual physical form.
Christ’s sacrifice doesn’t just include his death on the Cross to free us from sin’s slavery and its wages, it also includes the life he lived.
His sacrifice also includes being born in the first place.
God humbled himself. He took on the form of a servant and served his created beings. He gave up all the omni’s of knowing all, seeing all, doing all and became limited. Which one of us would do that? Would you give up your freedoms so that someone else could have them? That would be tough for me to do. But I would die for you. I would jump in front of the bullet for a stranger, friend, family or foe. But I would have a hard time living for you.
That is why the greatest love that Christ showed me was that he came down at all. For me, it would take a greater love to live for someone else than to die for them.
He died for me. I thank him as often as I remember to for that. But lately I’ve been trying to remember to thank him also for deciding to be born in a manger, because that too is sacrifice. That too is love. That, for me, is the greater love.
Emmanuel. And I love him more for it.
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