“Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father.” Jesus knew he was going to die very soon. Jesus had heard the dark words, “you only have a few days left, make them good ones.”
I was told of a woman who heard these words come from the lips of a very sullen doctor. The words transformed the woman in a matter of minutes. This normally calm, complacent, stay-at-home woman turned to her still shocked family and said, “I am going skydiving. I have never been skydiving. My husband would have never let me go when he was alive. But, I want to go.” The shocked family just stared at their mother. “I only have a few days left. What is it going to matter if I die tomorrow with a thrill on my face or in this bed just a few days later? I am going skydiving. You are taking me skydiving.” And they went. And she survived the thrilling fall. And she died happily a week later.
Knowing the time of your death can change things a lot. Your old life, with all of its daily concerns and problems, fades away and dies its own quiet death. None of those worries seem that important any more. At the same time, a new life with new priorities emerges and controls your life. For this woman, skydiving…the thrill of the fall…the thrill of something she would have never allowed herself to do before took priority.
Jesus had a priority also. It was not skydiving. It was not traveling to a foreign country to see sight never seen and experience tastes never tasted. It was not even to spend every waking moment with his family. He wanted more than anything to show his disciples one thing.
Jesus stood up from their meal, took off his outer robe, tied a towel around himself, bent down, and washed his disciples feet. He the teacher, washed the feet of his students. He the King, washed the feet of his servants. He the Lord, God, showed his disciples that he was willing to do anything so they would know they were loved. Jesus did not expect his disciples to do things to comfort him in his final days, instead, Jesus showed the disciples through the care of dirty feet, that they could expect a great deal from him. He would go to any length, for their sake.
Jesus and the woman who chose skydiving did have one thing in common though, they had both become comfortable with the thought of dying. But, it is amazing that Jesus fear of death did not cause him to focus on himself and his bucket list of 1001 crazy things to try before he died. He had one item on his list and death was not going to get in the way of it. Death was not going to get in the way of showing love and devotion to those he cared about. It is amazing how easily love triumphed over death for Jesus.
It makes me wonder if I need to be a little more comfortable with the idea of death. It makes me wonder, “What would I be willing to let go of…to let die…in order to let the love of Christ burst forth from me?” Are their long cherished grudges that I must let pass away before Jesus’ love bursts forth? Are there expectations that I think I must fulfill first, that I have to let die and go unfulfilled? Is there a proud persona of Jirahood that I must let shrivel away? What must we allow to die in order for the priority of love and the heart for serving others (especially our enemies) to burst forth? What must we let die?
Accepting the reality of death has a way of rearranging our priorities. May Jesus’ priority of love shape our lives until the very end…and beyond. May nothing get in the way of Jesus priority in life, to love one another just as Jesus loves us.
All Scripture quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyrighted, 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and is used by permission. All rights reserved.
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