I’ve been reflecting on the intense love of Jesus, so poignantly and so powerfully revealed through the Easter narrative. And I have become acutely aware of how hard I find it to hold in tension the personal and the universal dimensions of his love.
I find immense comfort resting in the deeply personal love that Jesus holds for me, and on the intimacy of his affection for me. Yet I can be so focussed on his tenderness that I can view Calvary solely through this individualistic lens. Yes, he suffered, died and rose for me, but it’s not all about me.
Then again I can easily be inspired by the cosmic narrative of redemption; the overthrow of the usurper-prince of this world, and the reconciling of the whole of creation through the cross. I am thrilled to comprehend the irresistible invasion of the age-to-come into this still-broken era. Yet how can I retain a grasp on this immense love-story that spans all of history and the whole of the cosmos, without losing sight of how that love intimately touches my personal life today?
I don’t have any easy answer to this. It’s not a weakness; it’s a feature of being finite. The metaphor that springs to mind is that of a photographer: they can choose to focus close-up, using macro mode to view the smallest details. Or they can zoom out to a super wide-angle to capture a vast panorama. But they cannot do both simultaneously.
Thankfully my Father has no such limitations. Nor does he settle for some compromised, middle view. His love can fully and passionately embrace the individual and the universe in the same instant.
Spirit of Jesus, my Companion, I simply trust you hold me within this tension. To reset my focus moment-by-moment, adjusting my angle of view and my depth-of-field, according to my daily hunger and your eternal purposes.
Master, outside a tomb which you had left vacant except for angels, you lovingly called a dear friend by her personal name and changed her life. And at that moment you launched a Kingdom that has changed, is changing, and will change the whole world.
Change me.
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