REAL PASSION

Christians generally understand the “passion of Christ” as a reference to the final days of his earthly life (Holy Week). This makes some sense since “passion” comes from the Latin “patior, passus sum,” meaning to “suffer, bear, or endure." 

But frankly, I think this definition misses the real point of Jesus’ passion. It’s like the tail wagging the dog. Not that it doesn’t have its place, it just shouldn’t lead the way in our thinking.

Jesus didn’t have a passion for suffering (“Abba, Father...remove this cup...”: Mk 14:36). Rather, he had passion for freedom from it because suffering--in all its myriad of forms--keeps us from loving and living out our God-given passion for life. He didn’t have a passion for self-aggrandizement (“Away with you, Satan…”: Mt 4:10), but neither did he have a passion for humility. Rather, he had a passion for the hidden beauty of what humility can do in our lives (“Take my yoke...:”: Mt 11:28-30). He didn’t have a passion for servanthood. Rather, he had a passion for the restoration and healing that servanthood can accomplish (Good Samaritan story: Lk 10:29-37). He didn’t have a passion for justice. He had a passion for the dignity and wellbeing of all people and a reverence for all creation that justice upholds (Sermon on the Mount: Mt 6: 25-34). He didn’t have a passion for forgiveness. Rather, he had passion for what forgiveness is capable of creating: authentic community (“Father, forgive them…”: Lk 23:34).  

All of these things (suffering, humility, servanthood, justice, forgiveness) that we think Jesus was so passionate about are really just the means to his real passion: freedom to live and love abundantly (“I came that they may have life...” Jn 10:10). It was this overarching God-given passion that gave him the resolve to do what he needed to do.

It can do the same in us--so we can do the same for the world--live and love abundantly.

TODAY.

LET’S GIVE THE WORLD & OURSELVES A GIFT.

LET’S TAKE TIME TO THINK ABOUT HOW WE THINK.