Behold how He loved him
Christ’s love to man
This is seen
I. IN HIS ORIGINAL ENGAGEMENT IN HIS FAVOUR. By covenanting to live with us, die for us, and take our happiness into His hands.
II. IN HIS ASSUMPTION OF HUMAN NATURE.
1. He passed by the higher nature of angels.
2. He took our nature with all its poverty and trial.
III. IN THE TENOR OF HIS LIFE AND CONVERSATION.
1. His inspiration was that of mercy. When His disciples would have called down fire from heaven He told them that that was not His spirit.
2. This mercy was not a sentiment which dwelt in imagination on miseries it was not prepared to relieve, but was a vigorous active principle. “He went about doing good.”
IV. IN THE SOURCES OF HIS JOY AND GRIEF. Nothing reveals the character so much as the action of the passions.
1. We have joy when our health, friends, temporal circumstances are good. Christ’s joys turned not on Himself, but were connected with the happiness of men.
2. His griefs, too, were not connected with His own poverty and trouble, but with our misery. “Ye will not come unto Me.”
V. IN THE CHARACTER OF HIS MINISTRY.
1. Its subject--salvation.
2. Its invitations, so tender and winning--“Come unto Me.”
3. Its very threatenings are only hedges thrown up against the way to danger.
VI. IN HIS DEATH.
1. He died for us, which is a proof of love in any case.
2. He died when He had no need to die.
3. He died as no other could die.
VII. IN HIS LEAVING THE WORLD.
1. This was expedient for us, not for Him.
2. He establishes the ministry of reconciliation as He leaves.
3. He now governs all things for our good. (A. Reed, D. D.)
Demonstration of Christ’s love
If the Jews exclaimed, Behold how He loved Lazarus! merely because they saw Him weeping at the tomb, with how much reason may we exclaim, Behold how He loved us when we see Him at Bethlehem, in Gethsemane, and on Calvary! Christ’s love is demonstrated
I. BY THE SACRIFICES IT MAKES. The greater the inconvenience to which our friends submit for us, the greater do we take their love to be. To what has not love impelled affectionate parents and devoted servants. But Jesus, “Though He was rich,” etc., He laid aside His glory and lived a life of labour, poverty, and contempt for us. Persons who had seen heaven only would be able to estimate this sacrifice
II. BY THE SUFFERINGS IT ENDURED. Self-love makes us unwilling to suffer. Here again we labour under a difficulty arising from ignorance. We can know little even of His physical sufferings, which were the smallest of His agonies. His mental pain wrung from Him great drops of blood, the occasion of which was the curse of the law He bore for us. Of this He said, “If it be possible”; this extorted the “My God,” etc. “Greater love hath no man than this.” Should we die for a friend we should but anticipate what would come sooner or later; but Christ was immortal: and although as averse to suffering as we consented to die in a most painful manner.
III. BY THE GIFTS IT BESTOWS. Tried by this Christ’s love is great beyond all comparison. He gives Himself, and all that He possesses--pardon, illumination, grace, comfort, heaven. Nor does He give what costs Him nothing. If we measure His gifts by what He gave for them they are inestimable.
IV. BY THE PROVOCATIONS IT OVERLOOKS. To love the kind and grateful is easy; but to persevere in doing good to the ungrateful and perverse, to forgive again and again is the triumph of love. The love of Christ transcends a father’s or mother’s love for their ungrateful offspring. He came to a race which for four thousand years had been disobeying Him, and when He came He was persecuted, and so He has been ever since. Even His professed disciples treat Him with distrust, etc.; but He endures still the contradiction of sinners. Conclusion: Is the love of Christ so immeasurably great?
1. Then surely we ought to return it with a love which bears some proportion to His.
2. Those who have not loved Christ begin to love Him now. (E. Payson, D. D.)
Christ as a Friend
I. KNOWS ALL OUR CIRCUMSTANCES AND FEELINGS. Want of knowledge is a great impediment to friendship, and so is want of suitable expression. But Christ knows all, and needs no laboured utterances of ours.
II. HAS MANIFESTED SUPREME AFFECTION. No mother, sister, or lover can compare with Him. His love is neither impulsive, influenced by fancy, variable, selfish, or fastidious.
III. HAS HAD GREAT EXPERIENCE. He has always been in the world making friends. Abraham rejoiced to see His day; Jacob enjoyed His friendship; and He will continue to form new friendships as long as the world stands. Hence He knows how to treat different types of friends.
IV. HAS PASSED THROUGH GREAT AFFLICTIONS. In such a world as this an angel would be an unsuitable friend; there would be no minor key in his feelings, for what has he ever known of sorrow. We want a friend “stricken of God and afflicted.” Then we can tell each rising grief, knowing that He has felt it. In all points tempted as we are, and as Captain of our salvation made perfect through suffering, He has been wherever it must be our lot to go.
V. IS CONSTANT. “Having loved His own,” etc., He never gave up one friend for another. Those whom He loves once He loves forever. Amid the changes of life, and when we cease to move the affections once felt for us, the Saviour will love us as He did when we were young.
VI. IS KIND.
1. He never reproaches or upbraids. Who has not been subdued by the delicate methods of a true friend? “His gentleness hath made me great.”
2. We should have broken the heart of any other friend; but He is long suffering.
VII. IS ALWAYS WITH US. Some of our greatest trials are by separations. We land among strangers, but Christ is at our side.
VIII. CAN DO FOR US WHAT NO OTHER FRIEND CAN.
1. When the wisdom of friends fail He is the Wonderful,
Counsellor.
2. When our friends are dead He abides.
3. When friends are impotent, as at the hour of death and in the day of judgment, He is the hope of glory.
IX. IS EVER ACCESSIBLE. If we called on our best earthly friend as often as we call on Christ, he could not endure it. When we have stated our case to our friend we have to leave it; Christ permits us to state it over and over again. Conclusion:
1. Whoever may love us we cannot be truly happy with out the friendship of Christ.
2. We should be such friends to others as Christ is to us.
3. The greatest sin, which is not unpardonable, is ingratitude to Christ. (N. Adams.)
The tender love of Christ
He never flattered the friends who enjoyed His closest intimacy; but He made them feel His penetrating affection; “See how He loved him” was a testimony to the deep reality of a calm, unostentatious sorrow. (Knox Little.)
The love of Christ
“Behold how He loved him.” What? for shedding some few tears for him? Oh, how then did He love us for whom He shed the dearest and warmest blood in all His heart! (J. Trapp.)