He always took the first step

The triune God is complete; the three are perfectly united in one, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They have everything they need in each other, they have perfect love and perfect unity, and they have no need for anything or anyone else. But amazingly they want to extend that love beyond themselves and draw others in. They didn’t need us, but they chose us; they chose to make us in their image and draw us into their love, even though they knew, from the beginning, the cost this would involve.

Because their desire from the moment we were created has been for us to draw near, they have always taken the initiative in this. They have always taken the first step to make this possible. It started with creation itself, when they formed a perfect place for us to walk and talk together with them. Though they didn’t need us, they kept drawing us in to participate in their love and perfection. And as we are made in God’s image, we are also made with the capacity to love and the need for relationship. So God made Eve. And ever since humans have needed to be together; as we are discovering at this time of lockdown, we were not made to be in isolation.

I don’t need to dwell on how we messed all of that up, or describe all the first, second and multiple other steps God took, throughout the history of Israel, to bring about reconciliation, to draw us back into relationship with them. As this is Easter weekend, I am thinking especially about how Jesus took the initiative each step of the way in his journey to the cross. So great is his desire to do his Father’s will and to draw us into their love, to make a way for us to draw near despite how we have turned our backs on God, that he steps out resolutely to walk towards his own death; he runs to, not from the cross.

We glimpse this in so many details of the last hours of Jesus’ life. There is the moment when Jesus tells Judas, “What you are about to do, do quickly” (John 13:27), and off Judas goes. To do what? To betray him! I think Judas would have done it anyhow, in his own time, but we see Jesus doesn’t wait for others to force him to his death, but he takes the first step at each stage of the journey of bringing about our reconciliation, through his death. (A side note, he was specifically orchestrating it to happen at the time of the Passover, to declare that he is the fulfilment of the Passover, the Passover lamb).

Then there is the arrest in the garden of Gethsemane. Even though Jesus is fraught with grief, he wakes his disciples up from their slumber and takes another step towards his death, saying, “Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” (Mark 14:42). He heads towards his betrayer, not away! Now you would expect that those sent to arrest him would be the ones to identify him, interrogate him and force him to come with them. But instead, Jesus again takes the first step. He asks them, “Who is it you want?” He tells them that he is the one they are looking for, and when they fail to do anything, he initiates his own arrest by asking them again, “Who is it you want?” (John 18:4-8). He could have taken their delayed reaction as a chance to flee, to prolong his life, to put off the inevitable, to leave it to human chance and timing, but he doesn’t, he doesn’t back away but hands himself over.

(A side note, in handing himself over he was protecting his disciples (John 18:8-9), and so we see not just God’s general love for the whole world, but his specific and personal love for each individual in their unique circumstances. Here Jesus was concerned for his friends even at this time of great trial. We see this same characteristic of God’s love at the cross as he asks John to take care of his mother (John 19:26-27). In his time of greatest pain and anguish, which he suffered because of his love for the whole world, Jesus also showed love and concern for the individual.)

And we shouldn’t think for a second that any of this was easy for Jesus because he was God. Far from it! He was also fully human, and so the pain of parting from his friends was just as great as it would be for us, he experienced genuine heartache knowing that one of his friends would betray him and another deny him and real distress over the sadness he would cause his friends by his death. As any human would, he had a very strong desire to avoid the cruel death ahead of him (Mark 14:35-36).

What great love. Jesus, the Son of God, who doesn’t need us, chose to love us and took the initiative at every step to ensure that we can draw near to God, that we can be enfolded in His perfect love and one day be right there with him, in a renewed world, everything as it was always intended to be. When Jesus died, this reality was symbolised powerfully in the tearing of the temple curtain, from top to bottom – the barrier between man and a holy God torn away (John 15:37-38). Jesus is the curtain (Hebrews 10:20) and our high priest (10:21), so we can draw near (10:22) with confidence (4:14-16).

Can I really comprehend the magnitude of this love, of our Creator for his created beings, of Jesus for his friends? Jesus was willing to go through the ultimate agony of a painful, shameful death and of feeling forsaken by his Father (that one with whom he was in complete and perfect unity and love) so that we, who have taken all the first steps, all the initiative in ignoring, rejecting or even mocking God, should be able to draw near to God once again. Unfathomable love.

(Acknowledgements: Some thoughts were inspired by meditations from Pastor James Tydeman, The Lees Chapel, Lapworth. Images taken from the LUMO project - www.LumoProject.com)