One Life for one person; the Cross of Christ

One Life for one person;  the Cross of Christ

We’ve been told that if I was the last person on earth Christ would have come to save just me.  That should be an awakening reality to how valuable God considers each of us.  Although when Jesus walked the Via Dolorosa struggling to bear with all the strength he had left to support that tree he was doing it for just me.  Is that how valuable I am to God?

At each moment Jesus healed one person at a time, he was not performing a miracle for all to see as much as a personal gesture of intense love for that one lonely person.  The woman at the well, as soon as his disciples left to get food, he encountered this one singular person, a sinner, and the one he came to save.   (Jn 4: 4 ff).

Certainly Jesus’ different appearances such as coming on the water during a storm (Jn 6: 16 ff), or feeding thousands, his foreshadowing of the Eucharist, (Jn 6: 1 15) are but two signs of his divinity, and shows his personal concern for everyone.  But for the most part, it was an individual account that made a difference.  This difference is the most important for you or me in that Christ is a personal God to each of us and that is where we need to be; making a personal relationship with Jesus during our every day walk. 

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life.  Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live.”  (Jn 5: 24 - 25).  

This again, can be interpreted to be an individual premise that Jesus was speaking to me alone.  If we place ourselves outside of a group of thousands and hear the words of Jesus as if we were alone with him, the message will feel like being in a dialogue with the Son of God.  

This is what so many evangelists mean when telling us to make Christ a personal friend and get the promise of his Incarnation for me alone.  Yes Christ came to save the world, but as we are sent to spread the good news, it is through one one person at a time.

Even as he was dying on the cross, he spoke to John individually when he said, “Son behold your mother.”  (Jn 19: 26).

As we remember his Passion during the next couple of days, get personal with the Christ who came to find you and place your sins on the Cross and cover you with his Blood.

Ralph B. Hathaway