Love always protects

I had the privilege and the honor of attending a Women's Encounter last weekend. This time I went as a server for the first time, and it was amazing!

There are so many things that have been rolling around in my head all week because of my experience last weekend, but one stands out above the rest. Love. The never-ending, reckless love of Jesus never ceases to amaze me.

Now, married people, dating folks, couples, anyone with a heartbeat 😊 understands that love in its purest form is an action word, not an IT, not a noun. One of those words that mean very little if you don’t DO something to back it up. And I’m going to assume that I’m not the only one that has known someone that thought LOVE was just a nice word and never did anything to back it up?

How many times in your lifetime, in MY lifetime, have I heard the words “Jesus loves you?” Countless. I’ve heard those words countless times. Maybe so much so that I started taking them for granted? I had to really stop and think about that this week. What those words “Jesus loves me” means in my life.

Coming from my background, I THOUGHT I had a pretty good concept of those words. I have never taken for granted what Christ has done in my life. My birth mother gave me up for adoption when I was 5 days old. She was a young teenager, and I was not her first baby. I know it was Him that made her choose life for me. I know it was His hands that kept me alive through the domestic violence and the rape, and the drugs and the alcohol and the suicide attempts. I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that was all Him. Because NOTHING else and no one else could have saved me, because I didn’t want to save myself.

And I’m sure some of you are going through your list in your head of all the things Jesus has done for you and how grateful you are. That’s awesome. We should all have a list. But this week, I had to stop and think about what my list cost Him. The price Jesus paid for me.

I know the story, we probably all do. But sometimes we hear those stories so many times that the words become just that… just words. And they end up all in our head and never truly settle down in our heart. That 18-inch journey from head to heart is sometimes a rough and rocky road.

Let's read John 19:1-16. Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face. Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.” When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement. It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. Finally, Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

So, I think we can all agree that this is already an unpleasant scene. Unpleasant and uncomfortable. At least it is for me. But last weekend’s Encounter experience made me do some homework and it set a scene that I was not prepared for. Verse 1: Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. One sentence. No description, no mental picture in your head. Just Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. But I think we should have a mental picture.

The Romans reserved flogging for non-citizens. Typically, the one to be punished was stripped naked and bound to a low pillar so that he could bend over it or chained to an upright pillar so as to be stretched out. Two lictors (An ancient Roman officer who was an attendant and bodyguard to a chief magistrate. It was his duty to make arrests and carry out sentences. He was the bad guy.) so, two lictors alternated blows from the bare shoulders down the body to the soles of the feet. There was no limit to the number of blows inflicted—this was left to the lictors to decide, though they were normally not supposed to kill the victim. Flogging was referred to as "half death" by some ancient authors, as many victims died shortly thereafter.

And I think we need to understand flogging. It is whips with small pieces of metal or bone at the tips. Such a device could easily cause disfigurement and serious trauma, such as ripping pieces of flesh from the body or loss of an eye. In addition to causing severe pain, the victim would approach a state of hypovolemic shock. Hypovolemic shock is when your heart can't get your body the blood (and oxygen) it needs to function, so basically, you’re dying – a slow, painful death.

We also need to keep in mind, all of this happened BEFORE He carried the cross (or the cross beam) up the hill to Calvary, which would have been about a third of a mile.

And the fact that Jesus could speak from the cross is an act of God, but we know He did. He said, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” He also spoke to Mary and John and the thief on the cross beside to Him. All a miracle from the Father himself.

I know that all seems very graphic, and part of me wants to apologize for that, BUT I can’t. I’m not going to apologize for the price He paid for us. For me. To apologize, somehow makes it feel like He did it all for nothing… and He did not!

He took that beating and those nails in His hands and feet for ME…and for YOU! All of that He bore upon Himself... I deserved that! Those were MY sins He traded His life for. My Savior was sinless, blameless, and He loved me so much that He said – I will take your place, so that you may live forever.

Romans 5:8 “But God shows His love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Jesus took on my guilt, my sin, all those years ago, knowing I couldn’t do it on my own. That the day would come when I would make such a royal mess of my life that I would have only two choices - die on my own or live with Him. People make that sound so simple, don’t they? It’s the hardest, simple choice, you’ll ever have to make.