Am I the only one who sometimes wonders if God actually likes me? I mean I know that He loves me – we’re taught that as Bible basics and have sung many a song about it, but sometimes a little niggle creeps in, that maybe He only loves me because He has to, and that He doesn’t really like me. 
We know His nature is to love, that’s who He is, but it’s not because I’m particularly lovable or even likeable, but more because He IS love. Somehow the liking part, the cherishing, the wanting to spend time with me, feels more intimate, more personal, more affirming, more unlikely….
Of course, a proper exploration of ‘love’ might well reveal all these aspects contained within, but in our fallen state, residing in a fallen world, sometimes we fail to grasp the fullness of who God is or we fall prey to doubts about our position as beloved of God. If our experiences in this world do not all involve cherishing, acceptance and welcome, and if we are only too aware of aspects of ourselves that might be a little bit tricky to like, then it can be only too easy to allow our thoughts to run off to the place in which God doesn’t actually like us.
But when I read Hebrews 12 verse 2, a word caught my attention and challenged me to take captive those thoughts and banish the lies within!
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Whenever I have read this before, my attention has been on my eyes – how I should keep my focus on Him, which is of course of foundational importance in navigating this world! But this time, it was the word ‘joy’ which leapt out, the reason why Jesus did what He did. There was a joy set before Him and that joy was us.
There is a song by the Proclaimers called ‘I’m gonna be’ which drew many onto the dance floor at parties in my youth – and not so much to dance as to sing! Belting out the chorus and better yet the “Da-da dum diddy dum diddy dum” part was such a fun crowd pleaser, and those memories of laughter and raucous singing are precious. But I also remember finding the words a bit far-fetched – something I couldn’t really relate to:
“But I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more. Just to be the man who walked a 1000 miles to fall down at your door.”
Walking 500 miles and then 500 more – well that was just bonkers – and all because he wanted to fall down at someone’s door! He must have really really liked them to do that! I mean wasn’t there a bus or a train or something he could take? And as a slightly awkward teenager, I guess I just couldn’t fathom ever being prepared to do that for anyone, or even less likely, anyone ever doing that for me.
But maybe one of the reasons we all enjoyed belting it out so much (asides from the catchy tune and general silliness it inspired) was that yearning somewhere deep down, that there would be someone somewhere who would want to walk 1000 miles to fall down at our door – or that we would find someone that wonderful, and be so smitten, that we would make that epic quest.
Because I think deep down we all long to be loved in that way – for someone to value and treasure us so much that they would go to extreme lengths to be with us.
And that is exactly what Jesus did for us. He didn’t walk 1000 miles to fall down at our door, but He did walk to the place of the Skull, so that He could knock on the door of our hearts. He walked to His death at Golgotha, even carrying His own cross some of the way, having been stripped and beaten, scourged and humiliated, to an excruciating and shame-filled death in which he bore the weight of all the sins in the world.1000 miles would have felt like a stroll in the park compared to that.
The verse in Hebrews 2 really blessed me, because it explained that Jesus was able to do that, to follow through with something so unutterably painful and awful, because He was doing it for the joy set before him. And this joy wasn’t just sitting down at the right hand of the throne of God – as glorious and as wonderful as that must have been, because Jesus had been with the Father before He descended to the earth in the first place. He had laid down that joy in pursuit of an even greater one – He chose to walk the earth as a man and to suffer because He considered that the prize of the redemption of mankind was worth the cost.
The joy was the making of a way for man and woman to be in fellowship with the Triune God. We are a part of that joy! He did it because He chose to – He thought that we were worth it – it brought Him joy to think about what He was achieving and establishing in dying on the cross. That is not a dry and functional love, operating to fulfil a necessary purpose, a mechanism to enable mankind to get to heaven. No, this was a passion-filled mission of longing and joy and such desire for relationship that He would quite literally die to make it happen. What He was achieving and establishing on the cross was a way for you and me to be with Him.
Jesus did a lot more that walk 1000 miles to be with us, and I don’t think anyone would do that if they didn’t really like you or want to be with you. Being with you brings Him great joy – enough joy to endure the cross.
That little word ‘joy’ brings me so much joy. God’s love for us is not dry and functional, but living and vibrant and affectionate and life-changing. It changed His life and now it can change ours.
