Today I was riding the F bus, when all of a sudden a homeless man wandered onto the bus and grabbed the last available seat-- right next to me. You know these people. The ones that smoke so much the carbon content in your lungs probably octuples just from sitting next to them. The ones that make you fear that you reek of the smell of urine even hours after contact. The ones that make you wish the bus would reach your destination just a little faster than usual.
But with Easter quickly approaching, this ride was such a poignant and striking reminder of the love that God has shown for us. It occurred to me today that this was the kind of person that Jesus came to die for-- filthy and unwanted. I mean filthy in more of a metaphorical sense, but I'm sure Jesus was just as accepting of the literally filthy as well.
Recently, a friend asked me what it was that made me so nice. I kind of just shrugged the question off. But what I wanted to say was "because I'm a Christian." Don't get me wrong. I don't mean it in the sense that you can't be a nice person unless you are a Christian. All I mean is that the reason that I personally am nice, is because I am a Christian.
Lately, I've been realizing more and more just how "filthy" of a person I really am. And even though people like to believe that I'm a nice person, the fact of the matter is I still carry a lot of dirt around with me. I still reek of hatred, anger, pride... you name it. But recently, God has been showing me that that is just the kind of person that He sent His Son to die for.
To me, that is an amazing and beautiful picture of love. It is easy to love someone who is clean and smells nice and is nice. It is hard to love someone who is dirty and reeks of that filth. And yet, the latter is the kind of person that Jesus died for. It's the kind of person he spent his time with, became friends with.
"I have come not to call the righteous, but the sinners, to repentance."
-Luke 5.32
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