Greater Love
Jesus set the example of love. In fact, that’s how He taught. He was the consummate teacher, teaching by example. He wasn’t a “Do as I say, not as I do” kind of teacher. He said and did what He expected us to do.
One of the major areas Jesus employed the “teach by example” tactic was with the topic of love. He exemplified love like no one else ever had up until His earthly ministry. It started before his physical birth, in His willingness to leave the comforts of heaven to willingly humble Himself and be “made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7). That was just the beginning of His demonstration of love that would culminate in the example of all examples of selfless love.
Jesus’ acts of love—large and small—during His time on earth are likely innumerable and not all recorded in Scripture. But imagine what His parents saw. Remember how proud you were to have your little toddler perform a selfless act of love toward another? We praise them, encourage them, perhaps reward them so they know that’s the preferred behavior. Picture Jesus’ parents being put to shame on a daily basis by His loving deeds from which they could only learn. It must have taken some getting used to.
It was an extraordinary kind of love. That was the nature of Jesus’ love as He demonstrated what love in a human body looked like. Every act, whether feeding the hungry, healing the sick, comforting the anxious, or raising the dead, was done in love. But there was one act of love Jesus classified as “greater” than all the others: laying one’s life down for another. He said, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).
Here comes the hard part. Jesus tells His disciples to follow His example. He tells them (and us) to “…love one another, just as I have loved you” (John 15:12). Not “sort of like I have loved you” or, “mostly as I loved you” but, “just as I have loved you.” That means all those little loving things He did, we imitate those. And the big loving things He did, those too. Even the ultimate act of greater love. Wait, does that mean we should be willing to die, like Jesus? We don’t necessarily need to be crucified, but so selfless in our Christlike love that we keep loving, even if it kills us.
Think about it. People have been willing to die for many other great causes. And some not so great. We’re about to celebrate a holiday that commemorates those who died for a great cause: the freedoms we enjoy as a nation. On Memorial Day we remember those who demonstrated that “greater love” and did a Christlike thing, many not even knowing Jesus. The great evangelist, Billy Graham, noted their sacrifice:
The freedoms we enjoy, the freedoms we take so much for granted, the freedoms we so often trifle with were bought not by the gold of our millionaires, nor altogether the genius of our scientists, nor the sacrifices of the people at home, but primarily by the blood, sweat and agony of those whose names on this day we honor—those who died that we might live!
Reverend Graham went on to put it in perspective;
Even though the sacrifices of our war dead have been great, yet the greatest sacrifice of all time was made by a man on a cross who died not only physically but spiritually that men might live.
One might say that Jesus demonstrated the greatest “greater love.” No one accomplished more with His act of sacrificial love than He did. No one ever will. Every time we follow His example, we help people to remember. Every day for the believer is a memorial day of His sacrificial love.
“…do this in remembrance of Me” ─1 Corinthians 11:24