“Jesus… having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.”
(John 13:1)
In this valentine season I’d like to share something about Christ whose love surpasses all. Christ we know is very choosy of his friends and companions gives them conditions to fulfil first before becoming his friends (John 15:16, John 14:15). So what manner of person would be this choosy and despite being so choosy would give a set of commandments for those who want to be his friends to fulfil first? That may sound like a person with ego and ego related complexes right? It possibly can look that way but that is so far from the true nature of Christ. And it is a rule that when we study the Bible and perceive something contradictory, it means we haven’t understood it well enough. We must patiently continue studying the Bible for answers with an open mind until the seeming contradiction is demystified.
The first thing is that ego is very contrary to his own declaration about himself so that is completely out of the picture. He says, “I am meek and lowly in heart…” (Matthew 11:29). He also says, “For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.” (Luke 22:27). So meek is he that he’s willing to serve his own servants. The meek and lowly Christ would not be so driven by egotistic passions. If there is anything perceived as egotistic then it must be because one has a thwarted perception of his person.
As said, Christ is not interested in a casual friendship. All that he ever did all proves his sublime love for those who shall be his. And when we flip from page to page of the Gospels in particular, all we see is love at its sublimest state. From coming down to our world, dying on the cross, and everything in between and beyond all prove this. Beyond his mere utterances concerning his meekness and lowliness, he demonstrated his humility and love when he took a towel and water to wash the feet of his disciples as servants do (John 13:1-11).
Beyond this, even in the promise of what shall be in eternity, he says, “Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.” (Luke 12:37). He promises that though they be servants, he as Lord will prepare himself and personally serve them. This is not a servile love or something done as recompense. Rather it is a loving service. It is that service you render not for gain or coercion but because you love someone so much. Sublime love yearns to serve and find much relish in serving the object of its love. A person suffering for egotism can’t make such a promise and definitely can’t relish in the thought of it.
His love is also evidently seen in this statement, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:2 – 3). His sublime love also led him to the service of going to prepare a place for his own. This too is service.
At this point in my life, as I write these lines, I prepare for a married life, I see myself trying to prepare a place for my future family and I can say it’s one of the most loving thing to embark on such an endeavour to prepare for the comfort of others. Of course I’ll share in the comfort and may even be the major benefactor of whatever is prepared, but it were far less necessary to be so bothered about it if one did not have a future family in mind. The life of a single man is very easy and he could possibly exist even without a home. Christ lived that way. He said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20). So a man can exist well without a home, but he can’t possibly do that having a family. Christ (unlike me) doesn’t have a need for a place because worlds of worlds are his, but he goes to prepare a place specially for us. There is so much love in such a loving service.
Even in the seemingly hidden, little, and insignificant things, his sublime love still shines out radiantly. In the parable of the weeds which Jesus gave in Matthew 13:24-30, I didn’t really get to understand the logic behind the good man asking his servants not to take out the weed and preferring that they left them till the time of harvest until I began to do gardens myself. I realised that the essence of not wanting the weeds out is that the good man didn’t want anything to hurt the plants. Weeding out tares could cause shock to the plant though leaving them would work against a bountiful harvest. So he loved his plants so much he could forgo a more bounty yield just because he doesn’t want to cause them any shock.
You know, when I think about all these feminist movements and hear the activists talk, I see that most of them are just people who can’t just get themselves to truly love. They have a problem with submission and service. It is in such a state of character tragedy that the real egotism lies. And funny enough, it has been proven that women have a bigger ego than men, this despite the assumption that men exclusively have ego problems. When we understand the anatomy of ego we shall see that being cautious about friendship, setting conditions, and expecting obedience has nothing to do with ego. What it shows rather is that you are really in search of who to give yourself over to in loving relationship and you wish to be sure such a person or people are worthy of such loving relationship, that both you and them may experience joy to the fullest. Christ wants to give his all. So, when he talks about people not being worthy of him it is not done of vanity but of sublime love. He is a true lover that wants to lavish his love on the dear objects of his love. When we see his choosiness and his conditions, it can be erroneously considered to be done out of vanity, but when we reconcile it with his declaration of meekness and lowliness of heart, as well as his eagerness to serve, we can then see that truly everything was born of sublime love.
It is foolish not to be choosy about ones companionship. You must of course have seen instances of angelic women being married to wife beaters, and men as gentle as doves marrying women that are like dragons. They could set a house on fire with their words. While we must have sympathy for people who have found themselves in such a state, when you study whatever led to such a union you will almost always see loads and loads of foolishness in the whole thing. They were not choosy enough and when they’re choosy the criteria for their choices were drawn in foolishness and often vanity. I’ve seen women who say the reason why they married their husbands was because he was always wearing a white suit. How quaint! Others would say the man they’ll marry must own a mansion at a rich district, and others will say this and that. I once read a book on ancient practices of advertisements titled, “A History of Advertising from the Earliest Times,” by Henry Sampson, in which I got to realise that in old times people got spouses by adverts and there were a lot of amusing adverts on marriage and marriage issues. It is written in the book, “A lady advertises her desire to obtain a husband with “a Roman nose having strong religious tendencies.” A nose with heavenly tendencies we can imagine, but even then it would not be Roman.”
I also once saw a joke that a woman, wishing to marry a super wealthy man, was praying earnestly that God should give her a God fearing Yahoo Boy. Just so you know, Yahoo Boys are a type of fraudsters in Nigeria and they are known to having a lot of money. The point is their eyes are so fixated on money and material things that what they seek can only be found in a person who has the combination of being God fearing and being a fraudster simultaneously. They know the importance of being God fearing, but God fearing people who make money by honest sweat may not be as wealthy as their eyes covet at the age when most young men get married. Having such avaricious cravings they’re lured into the traps of evil men. For this reason even if the Devil came in the flesh dressed in white suit, having a nose with strong heavenly tendencies, or appearing as a God fearing fraudster, they’ll consent to marry the Devil. Then the man in white suit would transform later into a wife beater. Christ will not be so foolish as to take chances with the matters of his companionship. He is not only choosy, but has set right the criteria for his choices by his infinite wisdom so much that no God fearing fraudster can make it into his company.
How many times have you heard of guys who come together for some brilliant partnership only to get dissolved again. When I was a little boy, there were a number of music groups we used to love, but over time they all got dissolved and stopped singing together. Not that they lost interest in the music career, but they often had misunderstandings that would mean they can’t sing together anymore. Many of these people still keep singing, but they do it alone. This also happens in business partnerships, and almost in all areas of life. Even pastors pull out of a church to start their own church. All these speaks of lack of understanding among parties and comprehensive agreement at inception. Christ would not be in such a futile partnership.
It is because of the foolishness that characterises the selection of a life partner that gave birth to the saying that goes, “love is blind.” But Christ is not blind. If others are blinded by love yet Christ though he be the man of love is not blind. He sees well enough to choose and choose rightly. It is written, “… they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” (Revelation 17:14). They are first called, then they’re chosen, and those that are chosen are faithful. All the faculty of the reason are employed in choosing those that belong to him. He is so meticulous about this whole thing that he came down in person to seek out his loved ones and charted a way to heaven in such a way that only true love can see you through. Such is the sublime love of Christ.
Prayer: Dear Lord, as you have loved your own so sublimely, we look into your face, at your deeds, and listen to your words and declarations that we may know what love truly is. And having understood it to fullest through you, may we love truly and dearly as you loved. This we ask in this valentine season.
To wrap up this meditation kindly listen to this performance by London Oriana Choir.
This article is an excerpt from my book, “THE RESIDING MANIFEST PRESENCE OF GOD” which can be downloaded HERE.
