“Love… as I have Loved”

I think we can all agree that the last words a person speaks are very important, perhaps the most important words they have ever spoken. Today we remember the final hours of Christ's life before He was crucified. Scripture tells us that the night before He died, “Jesus knew that His time 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)

In His final moments with His disciples, Jesus took one last opportunity to give them His most important object lesson, and leave them with His most important commandment. He became their servant by washing the feet of each one of them and he told them, “Love one another, even as I have loved you.” (John 13:34–35)

Of all the things Jesus could have done and said, why did He leave them with this action and these words? I think the key lies in the statement, “… and now He loved them to the very end.” He wanted to leave them with the very best that love could provide… the Truth that would set them free. He was demonstrating to them what real love is, how real love acts.

Real love is selfless. It empties out itself in the service of others, and understands that abundance in life is obtained through giving, not getting. Real love experiences the peace and joy that comes by focusing on the needs, rights, and feelings of others and living to see them fulfilled.

Real love understands that self-centeredness is a cancer in the soul that consumes our personality and wastes our life. Just like cancer in the physical body, the cancer of self-centeredness crowds out everything and everyone else. It has a voracious appetite that can never be satisfied, no matter how many toys we have, how much fame, power or wealth we may acquire. In the end, just like physical cancer, self-centeredness will feed on our life until it destroys us.

Jesus wanted to show His disciples a more excellent way, a path to perfect freedom and complete life. He understood this way because He has lived it throughout eternity in the community of the Godhead. He knew that only selfless love could release His disciples to live forever free and be forever blessed with the riches of an abundant life beyond anything they could imagine.

He knew that in our own strength of character, none of us could attain this type of love, so he went to the cross, bore our weaknesses and failings, and gave to us the gift of real love. Through His death, we are all invited to die to our own self-centeredness and come alive to the reality of selfless love. In His sacrifice, we can all be set free from preoccupation with our needs, rights and feelings, and be filled to overflowing with life, joy, peace and contentment.

If you have never said “yes” to Jesus Christ, I encourage you on this Good Friday to take a few minutes and ask yourself, “Is my life consumed with me or am I fulfilled with real love?” If you're being consumed by the cancer of self-centeredness, come to the cross and allow Christ to immerse you in His death and fill you with His real love.

Come join us this Easter Sunday at 9:00 AM, 11:00 AM or 1:00 PM. We have a powerful theatrical presentation, “What Did I Do with the Cross?” My message is, “Resurrection Life.”