‘Jesus, looking at him, loved him’ Mark 10:21
We are God's sons and daughters and we're going to God's glory. That's the wonderful truth of our faith.
We come from him, we belong to him, we go to him. We are going forwards and we should ‘hold fast’ to our faith as today’s epistle from Hebrews warns, pressing forwards and not being dragged forwards.
The main incentive to this ‘pressing forward’ as Christians is surely the love and mercy of the Lord.
We need to keep before us his all seeing eye. He sees what we are and he sees what we will be. Yes, as Amos warns, the eye of God sees our shortcomings, but these are no obstacle to his desire for us to cooperate in growing into his design, which is ‘the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ’ (Ephesians 4:13). We want more of God's vision of how things should be in our lives to dawn afresh upon us and this means searching the Scriptures which can ‘judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart’ (Hebrews 4:12). There is real power in this searching, power to shake off habitual sins and pessimism and see fresh dawning of God’s vision of how he wants us and how he wants the world.
Yet beyond the truth about us that he’s ready to reveal lies, as I say, his love and mercy towards us which, please God, we are called to capture in a more positive and relaxed attitude towards ourselves.
Someone once said "God picks his friends but he does not pick them to pieces".
It balances that saying of St. Teresa of Avila, whose feast is on Friday, when her horse threw her in the mud, ‘God, if that's how you treat your friends, it's not surprising you have so few’.
If you feel God is picking at you at this time it will be for a purpose and never destructive of your soul. Let the Lord speak as you examine yourself in his light, always remembering that you are already 100% his child and He is 100% your Father waiting to draw you into what is to be yours as his beloved daughter or son.
The same Teresa of Avila taught people to pray in this way. ‘Imagine’, she said, ‘that you see Jesus standing before you. He is looking at you lovingly and humbly. Prayer comes as you notice he is looking at you lovingly and humbly’. This insight comes from today’s Gospel which shows Our Lord’s look of love towards the rich young man.
Not only, says Teresa, does God look upon us with love, he looks upon us humbly. That means he thinks of himself as less than us!
Jesus our Lord and God bows down before us as he bowed before his first disciples to wash their feet.
Can there be any more wonderful or encouraging thing in the world than knowing Jesus loves me?
The miracle is this - God loves me even before I do what pleases him. I may love for what I can get out of people but he loves for what he can put in - pure, gracious, generous love!
Love that deals with me according to my needs and not according to my deserts!
Isn’t that true of the way we relate to our own children? I love my sons even when what they do isn’t pleasing to me. Why should that be less true of God my Father’s love for me? Rather it is a million times more true of him!
Now there are times when our children try to teach us something in the way children do. St. Peter was like that with Our Lord when he insisted on washing the Lord’s feet, refusing to allow Jesus to wash his own. ‘Peter!’ The Lord said, ‘If I do not do this, and if you will not let me do it, you have no part in me!’.
Could it be that Our Lord is challenging you and I this morning as a good parent challenges an overconfident child and says, ‘No - let me go first’? In other words recognise my love for you comes first in all you do. Nothing you do can earn that love. Nothing can remove it either - but things you do can hide it from your perception.
God wants us put in our place. He wants that so he can love and serve us effectively. This is so because only as the truth ‘God loves me’ enters deep into my being can I have the sort of security that removes the burdens and pressures of earthly life.
I end with a famous quotation from the great 18th Century Anglican Teacher, William Law. In his book ‘A Serious Call to the Devout Life’ he writes: ‘Would you know the blessing of all blessings? It is this God of Love dwelling in your soul, and killing every root of bitterness, which is the pain and torment of every earthly, selfish love. For all wants are satisfied, all disorders of nature are removed, no life is any longer a burden, every day is a day of peace, everything you meet becomes a help to you, because everything you see or do is all done in the sweet, gentle element of love.’
‘Jesus, looking at him, loved him.’ Mark 10:21 ‘Let us therefore approach (him) with boldness (to) receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.’ Hebrews 4:1
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