This year I’ve learned that I am far from having a heart like Jesus. Yes, I know I’ve stated the obvious, but should knowing and admitting this lead us to give up on having a heart like Jesus? Or cause us to be okay with this flaw? I don’t believe so.
Here’s where this is coming from: I’ve heard a lot of Christians, especially in this last year, say they just want Jesus to return and everything will be well. I do not disagree. But when I hear this, I can’t stop asking myself: “Is this having the heart of Jesus?” There are millions, probably billions, of people who still need to hear the good news. Our hearts should be set on sharing Jesus with them. This includes people we disagree with.
So, I want to answer two questions in this article: First, how can we pursue the heart of Jesus? And second, how can we share and display the heart of Jesus to the world?
Love God
We cannot possibly have a heart like Jesus if we do not know the heart of Jesus. This means a daily pursuit of Jesus, diving into His Word and seeking Him in prayer. Think of this pursuit like any other relationship we have. Jesus desires to have a personal relationship with us. A relationship involves communication, intimacy (sharing our private and personal thoughts, feelings, and struggles), quality time with each other, knowledge about the other person, and a good understanding of who we’re in a relationship with. The Bible and prayer are how we do this with Jesus.
Love People
When we pursue Jesus, we will observe and experience His great love for people. He does not show favoritism. He loves all people. In the Gospels (the Books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), we see Jesus specifically spending time with and loving the unlovable. He would go out of His way to speak with the unpopular and the outcasts. He spent time with the blind, the lame, tax collectors, adulteresses, and many other people who were looked down on by the “holy” leaders of the day.
As Jesus followers, we are called to do the same. We are to love people as they are, without certain expectations or requirements. In so doing, we live with the understanding that we are no better than anyone else and God alone has the ability to change hearts. We can love and speak into peoples’ lives, but we are not the ones doing the transforming and should not expect people to change in the way we want. But we can expect Jesus to shape and mold them in the way He has planned from the beginning. We may simply be the instruments He chooses to use to reach people.
God’s Kingdom
Loving people unconditionally brings us to another point I’d like to highlight in this article. As followers of Jesus, our mission is to share the Kingdom of God with the nations of the world, inviting them into a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for all eternity. But we cannot share God’s Kingdom with the world without the heart of Jesus. So, what does this all truly mean? What is loving unconditionally? What is the heart of Jesus like? And what is God’s Kingdom like?
Let me begin the answer with a question: How would you feel if your least favorite person, in your day to day life, walked through the gates of God’s Kingdom? Or, with all the political tension going on in the United States right now, how would you feel if Donald Trump or Joe Biden (or pick your least favorite politician) got into Heaven? (This, of course, is imagining we have access to this kind of knowledge.)
Is this fair? How could someone who doesn’t seem to live a life for Jesus be invited to walk through the gates of heaven?
Let’s look at Matthew 20:1-16 (ESV) to help explain:
“‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, “You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.” So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, “Why do you stand here idle all day?” They said to him, “Because no one has hired us.” He said to them, “You go into the vineyard too.” And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, “Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.” And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” But he replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” So the last will be first, and the first last.’”
The Gospel
Jesus died for everyone—no matter the color of their skin, their social status, their financial state, or their gender. Our salvation doesn’t depend on anything we do or how “good” we think we are. Our salvation depends on Jesus alone. Nothing we do will earn us a spot at the front of the line to walk through the gates of God’s Kingdom. Our place in God’s Kingdom was bought with the blood of Jesus. All glory, honor, and credit go to Jesus Christ.
In this light, we are all equal under Christ. Not one of us is without sin. We all need a Savior. Jesus is our Savior who wiped away all our sins on the cross. With this in mind, we now are free to see all peoples on an equal playing field. There’s no title, status, race, gender, qualification, condition, or requirement that sets one person above another. There’s no first or last. There’s only Jesus. And we all need Him.
So, to drive this home, do you truly have a desire for every tongue, tribe, and nation to hear the good news and be saved? This includes your least favorite people. Thinking specifically of this election year in the United States, sharing Jesus with people does not mean winning people to the political party you favor. Sharing Jesus isn’t about winning at all. It’s about inviting. Jesus already won. We simply are called to invite people to join in His victory. Are you trying to win or are you inviting?
Next time you are around your least favorite person and hope you don’t see them in Heaven, remember, Jesus loves them enough to die for them, and so should you. Invite them into a relationship with Jesus.
That’s the heart of Jesus. That’s the gospel. That’s love. And it’s a love only Jesus can give.
