A Lenten Reflection
For whom did He die?
"I lay down my life for the sheep." -- Jesus speaking in John 10:15.
Jesus walked the long road to Jerusalem, to the Cross and unto death for all those who would be His sheep; those who would believe, repent of their sins, and trust in Him. Those who would strive to keep His commands, especially perhaps those which Christ called the greatest of commandments: to love God and to love our neighbors.
He didn't die for a specific denomination only, a way of worship, a select clique, but for those who believe, love and trust in Him alone for their salvation. He didn't die for the righteous (which is good, because none of us are!)....He died for sinners who repent and believe.
He died for outcasts and broken souls, for hurting people and misfits. (He certainly collected a good bunch of misfits to be His Disciples, after all.) He died for....us. We who are spiritually wounded, maimed, blind....we who cannot save ourselves.....we who are helpless and will accept a Savior's loving call.
“A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled." The Great Banquet Parable, told by Jesus in Luke 14:16-23.
We are the poor, the crippled, the blind and lame. We are who are invited, beyond our wildest dreams, to dine with the Master, to be brought into the house of the King.
"But especially I must speak to you who are poor, spiritually. You have no faith, you have no virtue, you have no good work, you have no grace, and what is poverty worse still, you have no hope. Ah, my Master has sent you a gracious invitation. Come and welcome to the marriage feast of his love. "Whosoever will, let him come and take of the waters of life freely." Come, I must lay hold upon you, though you be defiled with foulest filth, and though you have nought but rags upon your back, though your own righteousness has become as filthy clouts, yet must I lay hold upon you, and invite you first, and even compel you to come in." Charles Spurgeon.
If we are the beggars brought into the banquet....why do we then think we have the right to say who else might be invited? So often, once we are in, we try and shut the doors so that those we disagree with, those we may not like, can't enter into the same graciousness we have been so mercifully invited into.
But friend...I'll tell you a secret....we are not the gate-keepers, and God will bring in whom He calls. He will decide, not we. His love is so lavish, His mercy so deep we cannot comprehend the depth of it....we do not have the words to describe it adequately.
And God has a soft spot for sinning wretches such as we....if He loves us, how can we say He does not love another?
The redemption on the Cross was big enough to buy the salvation of all who would come to Christ, let us not try and make it small.
On towards the Cross,
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