Jesus In Love Series

All these years of preaching and teaching, and no one has

ever asked me why Jesus didn’t have a wife or a girl friend.

No one has even so much as wondered out loud whether

Jesus the man felt what most men feel. Are you afraid of

that question? Or do you just suppose that, after all, since

He is God, He wouldn’t have feelings of that kind? Do you

think of Jesus as some marble statue, some stained-glass

zombie, with no hormones? Before you settle into that view,

remember that He is God poured into a human body. Flesh.

And male. Age thirty when He started His ministry. Are we

to believe that He never had any sexual feelings? Were

there no comely dark-eyed young ladies growing up in

Nazareth? Come on, folks, get real! Have you ever thought

about Jesus in love?!

Now the truth is that the gospel accounts do not show Jesus

in anything like a romantic situation. There is no kiss-and-tell

story here. You cannot stretch the rumors about Mary

Magdalene or the touchy-feely scene of the woman pouring

out ointment on His feet to make them into romantic

encounters. Don’t get into guesswork about what He might

have done during His teenage years. Don’t jump to

conclusions about whether He was a little too close to certain

men, like Peter, James, and John. The text will not support

you in that kind of guessing.

But the Bible does say that He was tempted in all points just

as we are. It says that there is nothing that we feel that He

also did not feel. However, there is an important difference.

There is a serious distinction between what Jesus did with

His feelings and what we do with ours. Jesus was in control

of Himself. Jesus did not just act out what He felt. Jesus

was tempted in all points just as we are, yet without sin.

What’s cool about Jesus is that He experienced what we

experience, but it did not take Him over. He was in charge of

Himself. He ran His life as He was called to run it, and did

not give in to the whim of the moment. What’s cool about

Jesus? I submit to you that the ultimate “cool” is the ability to

do what is right, even when you are confronted with

temptation. “Cool” is not slouching on a street corner, half-

dressed, trying to get lucky. Cool is being who you are

called to be.

I want to speak to you today about Jesus in love. I ask you

to focus with me on what Jesus did about a woman whose

mistake was perfectly obvious. The Bible tells us that she

had been caught in the very act of adultery. Somebody had

evidence of her sin, and brought her to Jesus for judgment.

“Here, Jesus. This woman is a sinner. By the law of Moses

she should be stoned to death. Now what do you say? Do

you agree with Moses? How can you not agree with God’s

great lawgiver? So if you do, Jesus, well, shall we go and

pelt this daughter of Israel with rocks?”

Even today there are plenty of folks who live out their

sexuality in irresponsible ways. And still today there are

plenty of other folks who want to punish. So I invite you

today to consider this story and to examine with me two

sides of the equation: what Jesus did NOT do and what

Jesus DID do. What’s cool about Jesus in love? He loved

this woman and He loved her accusers. He loved Himself

too. And so what’s cool about Jesus is that He kept Himself

in control, under the will of God, in charge of His own life.

Jesus was in love. But it was not what pop idols call love. It

was different.

I

First, let’s notice a couple of things about what Jesus

did NOT do. What mistakes did Jesus avoid, even though

Jesus was in love?

A

First, Jesus in love did not treat this woman as an object

for His own pleasure. He did not make of her a thing to be

toyed with. Jesus in love did not look at her as simply a tool

for self-indulgence. Jesus looked at her and saw a child of

God, a creation of the Most High. Jesus saw someone to be

respected.

There is a huge difference between being in love and being

in lust! Much of the time when our hormones kick in, we

convince ourselves that we are in love, but actually we are in

lust. We want. We want for the moment’s pleasure. Jesus

taught that not only is sex outside of marriage wrong, but that

when we look at others with selfish desire, with nothing more