Follow“And He said to them, ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.’”
(Luke 22:15 ESV)
We want many things. We should first know that it’s important to divide want and need. Just as important, we must define for ourselves the role that want plays in our lives. The want I refer to is this desire Jesus speaks of in this passage of Luke. In the Greek, it’s epithumia: “desire, passionate longing, lust.” In the verse, Christ earnestly desires to eat with His closest counterparts. He conveys a genuine and passionate tone. He is eager. His is more than merely sincere. He communicates a desire to experience His friends’ presence in a limited window of time. Can we relate to such a desire?
Do we desire such things as Christ did?
Our Christ desired a genuine relationship with those He loved, with those that loved Him. Jesus didn’t take for granted the small moments that are meals and the presence of good friends. He experienced life as He lived it. All the while Jesus maintained His mission.
Christ was to suffer. He was acutely aware that His time with the loved ones who followed Him was drawing to a close. He wasn’t motivated by legacy as we might be. His motivation was much greater. He was savoring moments such as the Passover meal.
We so often forget that we have such a great influence on the moments that we are given the opportunity to live. We have a chance to make moments to be something meaningful. We can see our fellow believers as our family, just as Christ did. Matthew says about Jesus, “Pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother’” (Matthew 12:49-50).
I imagine Christ looking around the rooms He would enter with a great deal of intention, absorbing the view of people and ambient conversation and taking to heart every meaningful word exchanged. He knew what was to come and He genuinely loved them just as He loves us and wants us to love others as He does. I’d like to be like Christ in this way in particular. It’s my number one priority when being with others. Christ would walk into rooms and be present, as I would like to do. Do I desire to be present?
We only have such a short time. But the experiences on our bucket list of life, those desires—are they worthwhile? Am we intentional in having conversation? Are we engaging others? Do we find ourselves desiring to be present with our brothers and sisters, as he has made all of us to be? Do you desire for those you see at Elim to be family?
I would like to eat with you. I would love to do life with all of you, as Christ would want us to as well. Life has so many hurts and sufferings. We have such little time. We must strive to see each other as family. We must believe that this concept is possible—to find belonging, acceptance, trust, and family in others who follow the will of God. Your Father supports you in this goal. He remains with us, so we remain in Him as well as with each other (John 15:15). After all, don’t they say, “To never have loved others like Christ, is to have never loved at all” (or something like that)?
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