By Dr. Kari Vo
It’s not easy to explain to your non-Christian friends why you follow Jesus. If they know anything about His story, they will probably wonder why you’re interested. After all, He’s the One who got crucified, right? He’s a loser with a capital L. Why would you follow someone who couldn’t even keep Himself alive? What good can He do you in this world where the strong and powerful win and the weak and disabled get crushed?
St. Paul understands the problem very well. He writes, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:18-25 ESV).
We follow Jesus because we love Him because the Holy Spirit has planted faith in our hearts, and we can do nothing else. We didn’t set out to follow Him because we chose our God in cold blood, like someone doing a job interview for the position — “And what exactly can you do for me? Can you heal me, give me money, promise me peace, guarantee me a family that will always support me and never fight?”
No, those are all good things, but they are why we follow Jesus. We belong to a God who willingly got Himself crucified and not for any advantage to Himself. He did it for us. And why? Because He loves us. Because He wanted us to be with Him forever because heaven will not be enough for Him without us by His side to love Him and enjoy His glory. Jesus said so when He prayed the night before He died: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24 ESV).
And so, we love and trust Jesus Christ crucified, the one who got Himself killed for us. That act of weakness, of foolishness — because you know he could have saved Himself anytime He wanted to! — that act of love is the reason we have hope. Because Jesus chose the cross in order to bring us home to Himself — to rescue us from the power of death and evil so that we can be His own dearly beloved children forever.
So, we put our hopes in a “weak” God, a “foolish” God — at least, in the eyes of our world. But, we know the truth — that He chose weakness, shame, pain, and death so that He could claim us to be His own. That is how much He loved us — how much He still loves us and always will. He has written our names on the palms of His hands (Isaiah 49:16).
Jesus has joined us to Himself so that our suffering and death become His own and His resurrection and life become ours. We are His beloved — His body, His bride (1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 5:25-32). Nothing will divide us from Jesus — not suffering, not disability, not old age, and not death. Even if we develop dementia, even if we lose our memories of Him, He will not forget us! We are His forever because He loves us. And nothing is strong enough to take us away from Him. He has walked through suffering and death before, and He will do it again with our hands safely clasped in His.
And this means we have something to look forward to because Jesus has risen from the dead, and He lives forever, never to die again. We go where He goes because we belong to Him. And so, our future is assured. We will be with Him, and we will see his face (1 John 3:2). And we will rejoice in Him forever.
Jesus will allow nothing to separate us from Him — on earth or in heaven.
As St. Paul reminds us, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-39 ESV).
Dr. Kari Vo is an author and a theological writer for The Lutheran Hour Ministries.