Saturday, April 30, 2011

God is love

Are you interested in reading through the Gospels? Join me at anytime! Today's reading is Matthew 26:1-35.

Now as they were eating,
He said, “Assuredly, I say to you,
one of you will betray Me.”
Matthew 26:21

I know this text doesn't exactly say that God is love. It's more of a direct revelation as to the heart of one of Jesus' disciples. However, if you look at the context, Jesus is having His last meal before He dies. He knows it! This should have been a time of bonding the disciples together, reminding them of what was going to come, and talking of the promises of Jesus rising from the dead.

While some of that did occur, Jesus also revealed that one of the disciples is going to betray Him. Jesus doesn't kick Judas out. He doesn't condemn Judas to hell, though He does say in this passage that it would have been better if Judas had never been born. Jesus doesn't get angry and scream at Judas. Instead, Jesus reveals the truth with sorrow.

To me, that shows a huge amount of love. Jesus is facing death. Betrayal. Punishment for the sins of every single person who has ever lived. And yet He is still sorrowful over one person who makes a tragic choice. That shows me that God still loves us even when we sin. We still have to face the punishment of our actions but God still loves us. If Judas had repented, Jesus would have forgiven him. That is love.

Father, thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me even when I sin and disappoint You. Please help me to accept Your love, to love You more, and to share that love with other people. I pray for this in Jesus' name, Amen.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cassandra,

You have definately given me a new way of looking at this particular passage in Matthew. It's not something I would have immediately thought about. It is interesting that Jesus did not kick Judas out, for He certainly could have. Hummm . . .

I wish I could have started reading the gospels with your group when this started, but I was too tired from the 90-day reading challenge. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Blessings,

-L. Rose

Missie said...

Wow, so true. Thank you for your perspective on this verse!