Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time—Romans 5:6-11

Who would you be willing to die for? I suspect that most of us would say some rendition of family and possibly even a few close friends. But would you be willing to die for your spouse right after they had an affair and before they admitted it and apologized? Would you die for your adult child right after they disowned you? Would you die for that best friend who just stabbed you in the back? Those may be more difficult decisions. 

The Spirit reminds us this week of just how much the Lord loves us: “while we were still helpless,” “while we were still sinners,” indeed “while we were enemies” Jesus died for us. While we were in open rebellion against our Creator, he died for us. This is not a case of God always forgiving us when we are sorry. This is the Lord giving us everything he could even before we ever admitted we did anything wrong. No apology was necessary to inspire the Lord to act in such a dramatic way on our behalf. That level of sacrifice is, frankly, shocking. Jesus died for the religious leaders who had him condemned to death and the soldiers who carried out the orders even as they were doing it! And he died for you and for me in our darkest, most disgusting acts of rebellion against him. 

The Lord “proves his love for us” in an insane way. We cannot doubt his love for us in the least. Whatever is happening to you now, whatever hardships you are enduring, you can trust that God must allow it for a reason and is crafting it for your good because of the lengths to which he went to prove his love for you. He takes no delight in your pain, just as he took no delight in the pains of his sacrifice (see Hebrews 12:2). He endured them for a greater good: you. 

If you are holding on to your sin, large or small, the Spirit invites you to give it up. There is nothing you can do to make the Lord stop loving you or to love you any less. Even with your sin, Jesus died for you. That kind of incredible love is what our hearts yearn for. It draws us. The Spirit is inviting each of us to lay down our sin and to follow more closely the one who loves us most: Jesus Christ.