God's unconditional love

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.  John 11: 5

Jesus looked at him and loved him. Mark 10: 41

And standing here beneath the shadow of the cross.

I'm overwhelmed that I keep finding open arms.  Kari Jobe ‘What love is this?’

I am sure we all know that Jesus’ love is unconditional but this truth seems always easier to grasp when we are doing well and got our act together. But when we fail, when we show the wrong attitude or when we just plain mess up God’s unconditional love seems to melt away.

Nothing, of course, is further from the truth as these two little Bible verses show. We are all familiar with the story of Mary and Martha with Martha doing her diligent, older sister hospitality and Mary just sitting at Jesus’ feet.  When Martha asked Jesus to tell Mary to help, this was the tender answer: ‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed – or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’

You see Mary was not just sitting at Jesus’ feet idly doing nothing.  She was being taught.  Her posture was one of pupil learning from her master. This was the better thing. Martha may have got it ‘wrong’ but Jesus loved Martha as we later see. He also loved her brother Lazarus and Mary but her name as the older sister came first.  In that culture, at that time Lazarus would have been the first name and then Martha. Even though Martha had not chosen the better way like her sister Mary, Jesus loved her. He loved her diligence, her servant hood, her desire to make people feel welcome and he loved her.

The second verse comes in the account of the rich young ruler or rich man who came to Jesus to ask him what he must do to gain eternal life. Jesus asked him if he kept the commandments and he said he did. Then Jesus looked at him and loved him. He saw to the heart of the matter, his wealth was a stumbling block to his relationship with God. Jesus told the young man to get sell his possessions and give his money to the poor. This was not a universal command to everyone. It was Jesus’s solution to this young man’s problems. 

Despite having this hindrance of wealth, Jesus loved him.  Like Martha he tried so hard and wanted the right thing.  Both his wealth and Martha’s desire for good hospitality were blocking their relationship with the Father.  Jesus in love showed them the better way, for Martha it was that sitting at his feet learning was even more important than serving. For the rich man it was getting rid of his wealth as it was a stumbling block.

When we get it wrong, when we miss it, Jesus will look at us and love us and then show us the better way.  In the shadow of the cross Jesus’s welcoming arms are always open.