For the Love - Day 37

Remember the Three Musketeers?  One for all - and ... 

you know what they say.

Athos, Porthos, Arimis, and d'Artagnan.

Who didn't admire young d'Artagnan's eagerness to be part of the best - who didn't want what the Three Musketeers had - in terms of skill, expertise, camaraderie, adventure, heroism, altruism ... yet they remained human.

If you search "all for one and one for all" you will have to look pretty hard to find a single reference to scripture ...

Yet - Jesus was the original "one for all" - He, the One Son of God, died for us all. Paul says it like this;

"We are ruled by Christ’s love for us. We are certain that if one person died for everyone else, then all of us have died. 15 And Christ did die for all of us. He died so we would no longer live for ourselves, but for the one who died and was raised to life for us." CEV

Paul sees Jesus self-sacrifice as lifting off of us not only the burden of sin that we could not remove from ourselves for ourselves, but also so no one else would ever have to.  Jesus' death was the "easy" part though - the harder part by far was living. Because Jesus was willing to die - He was therefore able to show us how to live. His incredible example still compels people - to unite, to serve, to be heroic, to give of themselves. The same example that motivated Alexandre' Dumas to write his famous story, The Three Musketeers.

The funny thing is - Jesus doesn't just invite two other men to fight along side Him. He invites all of us - to fight for the all those who can't, to serve those who won't say thanks, to give of ourselves along with Him to those who didn't want to receive Him. He invites us into this world changing cameraderie - shoulder to shoulder with Him - compelled to do so as love is wont to compel. This isn't the work of weak, mushy love. This also isn't the work of that dreadful "tough love" that's neither tough nor love. Jesus example of Love is heroic, altruistic, and inspiring. Dumas actually had to shrink Jesus' goal to make a workable story. Jesus' story has room for all of us. Jesus' needs all of us - almost as badly as we need it.