A Moment With Pastor Fred

I have always loved the narrative of the rich young ruler and  Jesus found in Mk 10:17-22. While the end of the encounter is sad, the man leaves Jesus unconverted, I never cease to be encouraged by the words of verse 21, “And Jesus looking at him, loved him …” Let me share with you Jared Wilson’s commentary on the event. He’s a professor at Midwestern Seminary in Kansas City.

“The ‘looking at him’ part is notable … Jesus wasn’t weighing the man’s works to see if he had earned enough credit to be loved. He was certainly about to call the man to repentance, because he knew what idol was keeping the man from truly  loving Jesus. But there was nothing the rich young ruler could do to merit Jesus’ love. The Savior saw him as he was. He saw the sin beneath the surface. He saw him in his idolatrous state. He saw the real man, not the polished version of himself which the man wanted Jesus to accept. And the same is true for us. Jesus doesn’t love some put-together religious version of us. In our lowest, meanest, most desperate moments, Jesus sees us. At all times, he sees through the facades, through the makeup we put on so we look spiritual to everybody else, and through the personal avatars we send to church each Sunday hoping, everyone else will be fooled and impressed. He sees through it all, and he sees the real us. And he loves us.”

One of the Apostle John’s themes in our study has been God’s love for us. Whatever is troubling you today, stop and thank the Lord for his faithful abiding love. Isaac Watts said it well. “Love so amazing, so divine. Demands my soul, my life and my all.”