God Loves You Anyway

"A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." -John 16:32-33 (NIV)

My devotional last Friday, about people not being able to fool God, wasn't meant to be a threat. In fact, it's rather comforting if you think about it. Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him and yet he still invited him to participate in the Last Supper. Jesus still washed Judas' feet. Judas was probably even sitting in the seat of honor at the table with the Lord. We can't fool God, but God still loves us. We can't fool God but that's why we shouldn't even try. We don't have to act like we love Jesus in order to get him to love us. God loves us anyway. That's grace.

It's a grace that's evident in today's suggested scripture readings. Jesus is telling his disciples that they will be persecuted because they are his followers. They will be thrown out of the synagogue. People will want to kill them, thinking that doing so is a service to God. Then he predicts that the disciples themselves will abandon him, each going to their own home. Surely Jesus will follow this prediction with some stern rebuke of the disciples, right? If his own disciples, with whom he's spent the last three years of his life, will run, a good tongue lashing before he dies might be in order, don't you agree?

Not so. Jesus says that he warns the disciples of their abandonment not to reprimand them, but so that they might have peace. It's as if Jesus is saying, "I love you. And I know you love me. But you're still going to make mistakes. You're still going to sin. And when you do, don't despair. Don't think that your sin precludes my love. I'm totally aware that you'll still sin. But I have conquered sin! So take heart, my disciple, and have peace."

We should strive to become more Christ-like, not in an effort to earn God's love, but as an appropriate response to it. May God grant you the grace to experience his love and respond to it by turning away from sin. Don't beat yourself up about your sin; just look to Jesus. Take heart and have peace, precious one: God knows you're a sinner and loves you anyway.

Tomorrow's suggested scripture readings are Jeremiah 18-20, Psalm 93, and John 17.