What Really Matters?

Something made me stop and wonder over easter - what is it that really matters to our precious little Bethany?  What is it that really matters to you - when the chips are down - when all else is stripped away what really makes a difference?  What is it that we remember about someone - what do we value after they are gone?  What makes something really lasting and really "great" that we remember it?

Why I started thinking about this is that at Easter we have a couple of pubic holidays - good friday and easter monday - to remind us about something.  There are many public holidays to remember great achievements, events or people. 

But only one man, Jesus, has not just one public holiday, but three spread over Christmas and Easter.  On top of that our calendar, our system of dating, is counted from the life of this same man - year zero - is based on his life and death.  Further, the "best selling" book of all time, the Bible, is all about this same person. 

For someone to be remembered so much, two thousand years after they lived, really shoud make you stop and think - what was so great about this man?  Look into it!  Open your Bible and check it out.

Why was this man so great, why did he shape the course of our world so significantly that we still remember him? 

Jesus wasn't the richest man.  He wasn't a great inventor, artist or musician.  He wasn't some great scientist or mathimatician that discovered something amazing.  He wasn't a military genius with a string of victories.  He wasn't political leader or a "famous" man per say.  So what was it that made him great?

It was simply who he claimed to be - he claimed to be the Son of God. 

Now if someone claimed that, they really should be able to back it up.  You really want them to be able to prove that.  Have you ever thought about what you would expect from someone who claimed to be God? Who claimed to be the creator?  Who claimed to have all the answers?

• You would expect they wouldn't just be like everyone else.  They couldn't just be the offspring of a mum and dad like you or me.  Jesus was born of a virgin.  He wasn't like you and me, he had no earthly father.
• You would expect first that they would have power beyond human ability.  Jesus demonstrated this in his power to heal all manner of disease and sickness.  It is significant to note that healing was Jesus's main occupation, not scheming new ways to make money, not trying to gain knowledge or make discoveries.
• You would expect that as God made everything they would have power over creation.  Jesus commanded the winds and the waves, spoke but a word to a tree and it died.
• You would expect they would have spiritual power as well.  Jesus commanded demons to come out.
• You would expect they would have wisdom beyond our wisdom.  They way Jesus handled things time and time again amazed people.  Lawyers could not entrap him in their questions.  Even as a child people were amazed at him sitting in the Temple conversing with the elders about things a normal child would not contemplate.
• You would expect they would have the answers as to why man is how he is - why there is violence, why there is crime, why there is death.  Jesus has the answers - from the very creation man had rebelled against God and sinned.  That we were not created originally to die - death was the penalty for sin - and that each one of us is still a sinner.
• You would expect God could not be killed - that they would have an answer for the one thing we all can't escape - death.  Jesus both raised the dead while he was alive, and he himself also rose from the dead being seen of hundreds of witnesses.  You know all the other "great" men of religion that claimed to have the answers are all where now?  In the grave.  Budda, Mohammed, Joseph Smith, the Pope(s), and every other religious leader and guru do not have the answer to death.  They are all in the grave.  But Jesus is not.

But this made me think - What would really matter to someone claiming to be the Son of God?  What would their purpose, their focus be? 

We all seem to have a drive and focus on gaining wealth and possessions - gaining more, achieiving more, becoming great in whatever we set our hand to.  But God would have no such purpose - he made everything - why would he need to research anything, acquire wealth, seek recognition and fame?

As so I started thinking.  What is it that really matters to me?

You know for someone like our precious Bethany, who may never walk or talk, we can say that she is never going to acheive much on the scale we normally think about.  She won't be a doctor or a scientist.  In fact, she won't even be worried about her career, whether she drives a car, how much she has in the bank.  What will make the difference to her?

And don't think you are any different.  She's as much a person as you are.  You could be struck down with a disease or in an accident today, and be totally paralysed, unable to speak, unable to move like her.  That doesn't mean you are any less a person - just because your body no longer functions has no bearing on the "real" you, that inner person.

So what really matters to her?  What makes a difference to her?  What would make a difference to you in that circumstance?  It is the same thing that was the purpose of Jesus, what he was all about.

Love.

Bethany knows and understands and values more than anything love.  Someone spending time cuddling and kissing and relating to her is the thing she values the most.  The smiles, her sounds, her responses to love, even with her body limiting her like it does are clear.  If you gave her a million dollars it won't make her smile.  But you give her one of daddy's squeaky kisses and you are guarantted one.

If you were trapped in your body, you would not longer care about your career, your house, your business, suddenly it would all drop away.  What would make a difference to you as a person would be your wife, your mum, your dad, your brother, your sister, your friend coming to spend time with you and recognising you as a person no matter what.

Jesus, the creator of everything took off his crown, stepped off his throne high in heaven, was born of a virgin, then died in your place to pay the penalty for your sin, because he LOVED you.  He wasn't interested in wealth, he went about healing people because he had compassion on them - he loved them. 

And you know this is right.  We all have a built in desire, a great need for love.  We all respond to it when someone shows us love.  This is what really matters to us at the end of the day.  It was what really mattered to Jesus - it was his purpose and existence.  He himself was the one that said "For God so loved he world, he gave his only begotton son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). 

Jesus came to give you life, lasting life.  To give you the answers you have been looking for.  To give you the love you have been searching for.  That's what really matters.  That's what will last beyond death.  Believe on him today.  Open up the Bible, start reading in the new testament, the book of John.  Read about Jesus, what he did, what he claimed, and what he wants to give you.