We had a great song service yesterday morning at North Heights. We’re blessed to have Caleb, Bill, and so many other song leaders here, and I especially appreciated Caleb leading “Jesus Loves Me.” It’s not commonly sung in a typical Sunday morning service, because it’s often relegated to being a “kid’s song,” but that’s silly, of course. It’s a kid’s song because it’s simple enough lyrically and musically for a small child to sing (as evidenced by our beloved Kix belting out a bit of the chorus in the middle of the Lord’s Supper!), but the fact that a child can sing it means an adult can, too.
I had a thought pop in my mind yesterday halfway through singing the song, and I hastily scribbled it down on a piece of paper:
If you can’t decipher what that is, I don’t blame you. Basically I was struck, not only by an idea to be fleshed out for a sermon (which I probably won’t get around to for several years), but also the way in which I would lay out the powerpoint for that sermon, built around the word “LOVE(D/S)” with three branching points connected to the D and three points connected to the S.
What on earth does that mean?
JESUS LOVED ME…enough to leave Heaven for me. Unlike the first Adam, who—because of sin—was forcefully expelled from the paradise Garden, the second Adam (Jesus) voluntarily left His paradise throne to save us from our sins. Love compelled that.
JESUS LOVED ME…enough to die for me. Unlike the death that comes upon all man, as a curse of sin, whether we like it or not, Jesus took that curse voluntarily upon Himself, and willingly went to the accursed tree to die to buy our eternal life. Love compelled that.
JESUS LOVED ME…enough to rise from the grave for me. Unlike other (false) prophets and leaders of other religious groups, whose heroes either never lived actual lives or who died and never came back, Jesus left the tomb, and in so doing, ascended back to the throne, in order to be my Mediator with God. He could have died and kept His spirit in Paradise, but He returned and then ascended in order to take His place as our Heavenly intercessor, because He wants us to have unity with God. Love compelled that.
But also…
JESUS LOVES ME…here and now, in the present, as I live and breathe and sometimes sin. He still loves me. Even when I occasionally forsake the paradise of His kingdom and indulge in sin once more, He still loves me. Even when I forget the blessings He offers and lose myself in the short-term pleasures of sin, He still loves me. Even when I make catastrophic blunders, and think that no one could ever love me again, or look at me the same way again, He still loves me.
He has loved me.
He loves me.
He will always love me.
~Matthew