The Wondrous Love?
What wondrous love is this, O my soul! O my soul! What wondrous love is this! O my soul! What wondrous love is this! That caused the Lord of bliss! To send this precious peace, To my soul, to my soul! To send this precious peace To my soul! (American Folk Hymn)
All eyes were on him. He was the object of their affection. He mattered for a few hours. Then, when it all went wrong, he didn’t matter at all. Was he even the main event at his own death, a death he shared with taunting strangers. The world is a cruel place, filled with disdain and indifference. Did the life and death of Jesus matter? Do I matter? Does anything or anybody matter? Our feeble assent is drowned in an ocean of indifference on Palm Sunday, except for a lonely, broken voice, uttered through parched and quivering lips, more entreaty than command, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Jesus mattered in the good times, when the crowd was chanting and acclaiming his achievements; however, as the crowds thinned and the applause faded, so did his friends and companions. In the end, a few women and a boy shared his inglorious end, and God knows they didn’t matter to anyone. Who can assert, with any assurance, my life matters when even the Son of God counted for so little to the Roman Empire, the Jewish people, or even his own companions? In the end, it was indifference that triumphed on that Friday afternoon. An indifference that confronts us with harsh realities on Passion/Palm Sunday.
The evidence that we matter cannot be found in the external world. Just ask Jesus. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. (Hebrews 11:1) Our personal significance is a statement of faith, evidenced only in the heart according to the biblical definition. The lust of the world is to rob us of any claim that our lives might have meaning or significance. “Who do you think you are?” is a taunt many of us have endured whenever we strive for something worthwhile. Most of us are living the Stations of the Cross, falling and rising, only to face an ignominious end. The world wants us to stay down, just like it wanted Jesus to stay down, but he picked himself up and struggled onward—as we must. Palm Sunday is the remembrance of the passion and death of our Lord, but it is also a reminder of our struggle as well. With every fiber of our being, we struggle onward because we know that our lives matter to him who struggled onward for us. Our struggle is his struggle, and his struggle is ours.
Even though we don’t hear about the Thief on the Cross (often referred to as St. Dismas) in the text of Matthew, we can feel his presence. He did not “deserve” to be significant to Jesus, but he was. So many strive to be significant through their personal efforts, and many resent the generosity of heart that Jesus displayed to that unrepentant sinner. What wondrous love is this, displayed to one so undeserving? ask the righteous. God’s love and mercy are profligate, given freely. Fortunately, we are all covered under the entreaty of Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. None deserve such a gift, such a love. So, if we realize how significant we are to God, we can say with all conviction, the answer to the question What Wondrous Love Is This? is simply, God’s love for me.
Chuck Andersen – Worship Council
