One Solitary Life: A Choice to Make

Life is filled with choices:
paper or plastic, cable or satellite, dial up or high speed, regular or decaf, friend or foe, skim or whole, sugar or sweetener, regular or caffeine free, Pepsi or Coke, Wal-Mart or Target, drive thru or dine in, the choices are seemingly endless.




What if love was a choice? We tend to always think of love as an emotion beyond our control; therefore we fall in and out of love. But, what if we held the power to choose to love?

This week, like Jesus, we have a choice to make. Many years ago people began this week by joining in a parade with the crowd – swept up in emotion. A week of choices made by many begins with the choice by many to join the crowd.

Jesus spent most of His ministry in the area north of Jerusalem, but His fame reached Jerusalem. When He entered the city with His group of followers even more joined in the celebration. The crowds in the city were the largest of the year due to Passover. The people quickly learned that the famous one was here. The crowd was swept up in anticipation that Jesus could be the one to lead an uprising over the Romans. Jesus could be the one that would restore the kingdom.

The first choice made was a choice to follow the crowd. It is an easy choice to make and one that we often get caught up in. In this instance it seems a good choice to be in the crowd following Jesus, but by the end of the week this same crowd will choose to turn and run away from this same man – this Jesus.

During this week Jesus lives what He taught and that was not an easy choice. Jesus publicly declared which were the greatest commandments to be kept. He does so knowing that these are also the two that are broken by our choices every day.
Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:37-40 NIV (reference Deut 6:1-9)

In the garden this week, Jesus will pray that the horror and pain of the cross be removed from Him, but if it cannot be removed, Jesus chooses to love God with all that He has even to the cross.

Jesus makes the choice to love and honor God in all things (even the cross) and in so doing chooses to honor the second command by acting in love for others.

Despite the choices the crowd makes, Jesus still chooses to act in love towards those that oppose Him or flee from Him. In the end, Jesus chooses to humble Himself for us, Jesus chooses to become our servant, Jesus chooses to generously give His life for us, Jesus ultimately chooses to love us more than we love ourselves.

What an example! Perhaps the greatest lesson we can learn from this one solitary life is that love is a choice.

This one solitary life has taught us much on our journey: humility, generosity, service, and now love. They are all choices we must make in our lives.

We can choose to be humble,

we can choose to act generously,

we can choose to serve,

and we can choose to love.

Ultimately, we can choose to follow the crowd and all they promise or we can choose to follow the one that will lead us to the cross.

When it comes to the cross and the crowd, which will you choose?