How Low Will Jesus Go?

Jesus left heaven and came to the earth and was born as a baby. He was dependent on His mother for everything. That’s pretty low, isn’t it? But He was just getting started. The God of all creation worked with His earthly father, Joseph, and became a carpenter.

Instead of selecting the best of the best to be His disciples, He chose ordinary common working men. He stooped to write on the ground before the accusers of the woman caught in adultery, placing Himself lower than her.

He travelled miles in the scorching heat to sit at a well in Samaria to meet the village nobody and ask her for a drink of water. He lowered Himself to eat with sinners, prostitutes, and tax officials – the lowest of the low, to save them.

Time after time Jesus put others before Himself. He endured the hate, ridicule, false accusations, belittling words, and disgust of the very people He had come to save. But He would go even lower to that of a criminal’s death on a cross and finally, lower still, to a tomb in the rock. Even then He could still stoop lower to the very gates of hell to declare His victory.

Why go so low, why suffer so much? The truth is astounding. He did it for you and me. Of the many times Jesus went low for us let’s just think of the woman caught in adultery. He places Himself between her and her accusers. He stoops and turns from her not in disgust, but out of respect and love. He writes in the dust, with His eyes focused away from a sinner standing before Him, ashamed and fearful expecting the worst. When He speaks, it’s not to pronounce judgement but to challenge her accusers. When they finally leave shamefaced and embarrassed, and only Jesus and the woman are left, He simply tells her to go and sin no more.

Often, I find myself in her place. Not because I have actually committed adultery, although my mind and heart are far from clean, but because I hear the voice of the accuser wanting to list my many failings and failures.

Maybe you feel the same. But Jesus stands between me and Satan and silences the voice of my enemy and tells me to stop listening to him (which I am prone to do). Because of His death and resurrection Jesus asks me – “where are your accusers?” - meaning I really don’t have any now. He tells me yet again, “Go and sin no more.”

He doesn't tell me to do penance, work daily to pay off my sins, or prove to Him by fasting and prayer for a week that I am repentant. No, it's just “Go and sin no more.” That’s how low Jesus is prepared to go for me and for you.