Day 21: John 18:1-18 - Unmerited Love
“When Jesus said to them, ‘I am he,’ they drew back and fell to the ground.”
Today’s Reading Passage: John 18:1-18
Jesus was a Jew. He grew up hanging around the Jewish temple, even teaching in the temple as a young boy. His family was Jewish, He kept Jewish traditions. It was part of who He was. THESE were His people.
So imagine how it would have felt for His entire ministry to be picked on by the Jewish religious leaders. These were people He was supposed to respect and admire, and instead, they ridiculed Him!
While Jesus knew this would happen, it would have made anyone else going through such a thing, sick to their stomach!
Have you ever experienced rejection from your own people? Have you ever experienced hurt from the ones you were taught to respect the most?
As Jesus entered the garden after being in the upper room with His disciples, He wasn’t surprised that those same Jewish religious leaders—the leaders of His very own people—were the ones to turn against Him and arrest Him.
Jesus had just told His disciples that the world was going to hate them for believing in Him. Who knew they’d get a front-row seat of seeing it for themselves right then!
Yet Jesus didn’t fight it. He didn’t turn away.
Instead, He showed love. The same thing He told His disciples to do in John 15.
He also nodded toward the fact that He was God, when He told them “I am,” a title for God that these Jewish leaders would have known too well.
Be encouraged friend, that even when your people reject you, Jesus gives us the hope and joy we need to show love in the midst of it all.
What does it look like for you to show love to those that reject you?
Written by: Heather Erickson