Jesus: The Challenging Leader

In the life of every believer comes a time that is often very disconcerting. It is the time when the Holy Spirit chooses to reveal to us that the Lover of our souls and the King of the universe are one and the same Person. We are gripped by a sense of awe and wonder that is pleasant and exhilarating on one hand yet terrifying on the other, because we begin to see the implications of intimacy with this Man, Christ Jesus. Our Beloved is tender and gentle, but He is also the Challenging Leader, the Lord of Heaven and Earth.

To the surprise of the Shulamite, her Beloved appears one day in a thoroughly unexpected persona. She describes his coming in this way:

The voice of my beloved!

Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains,

skipping upon the hills.

Song 2:8

In these delightful phrases we are informed of the sovereign power of the King over all the obstacles of life, the hills and mountains that seem to us unconquerable hindrances to a life of faithful and single-minded fervency for the Lord. Her response to the king’s activity is filled with wonder and delight, and there is an initial sense of enjoyment at what he is doing:

My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall;

He is looking through the windows, Gazing through the lattice.

Song 2:9

Suddenly, though, her mood changes, because as the king draws near to the Shulamite in disclosing his sovereign authority over difficult things, he invites her to join him in the exhilarating dance of victory over the seemingly undefeatable realities of her life:

My beloved spoke, and said to me: "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.

 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come,

and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

The fig tree puts forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell.

Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away!

“O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff, let me see your face,

let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.” Song 2:10-14

In our parallel relationship with Jesus, we must confront a crucial question: Will He be allowed to draw us past the things that have regularly defeated us in our attempts to be faithful in following Him? But the wondrous emphasis here is clearly on the majesty of the king, his beauty and power, and his ability to take the Shulamite with him as he leaps and dances over the mountains of her life. He draws her after him, reminding her that she is hidden in the cleft of the rock—a euphemism for the riven side of Christ on the cross. It is in the context of his sacrifice and redeeming power that she is safe, and his voice draws her to come and follow.

In our next article, we will see how the Shulamite responds to this invitation from her Beloved.

Jesus, The Passionate Suitor Part 2

In our last article we faced this powerful question: How can God call me beautiful at the beginning of our relationship, before I become mature or do anything for Him? Read on to discover the answer!

In his wisdom and foresight, the king sees the Shulamite as she will be when his love for her has completed its work, and he relates to her on that basis from the beginning. He knows that the power of her true identity and the dynamic of his love will transform her as certainly as the dawn comes in the morning. In the place of intimate fellowship, he can speak these things in such a way that her heart will hear them and believe. And so he invites her to the place of nearness and intrigue, the banqueting house, and there sustains her with expressions of his deepest love.

This delightful and beautiful picture of the love language exchanged by these two is given expression in the life of Jesus, this time recorded for us in the Gospel of Matthew. But in the New Testament portrayal, the heart of Jesus is filled with pathos and grief. Matthew 23:37-39 is the record of Jesus’ lamentation over Jerusalem because the city, as the representation of the Bride of Christ, has refused His invitation to intimacy and instead has continued the historic practice of killing those who come in His Name to draw her to His side. The emotion of the heart of Jesus is palpable:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

Matthew 23:37

Jesus is here giving testimony to the passion burning in the heart of God, the same passion that caused Him to speak in such loving terms over the life of His dark but lovely Bride in the Song. He longs to gather His people to the House of Wine, to stir our emotions of being cherished and seen as fervent and single-minded. He deeply desires to speak to our hearts of how He sees us, of the delight that is within Him, of the confidence He has in the power of His love to do the things He has promised.

Those during the course of history who have experienced this “gathering,” this stirring of the Lord’s intimate love, bear witness: Nothing else matters when the touch of Christ’s love fills our hearts. This is why Paul the Apostle could cheerfully consider every other important thing to be so much refuse compared with the pleasure of knowing Jesus. It is why Stephen exulted as he stared death in the face, for he saw the Lord’s glory in the face of his Bridegroom standing at the right hand of the Father to welcome him into eternity. Because of this reality the martyrs of history have gladly given their lives for the sake of a better resurrection—one fully conformed to the life of the Beloved. Jesus fulfills the promise, and He calls you and me to that place.

Jesus, I will receive Your invitation to the place of intimacy in prayer. I long to hear Your voice telling me the truth of who I am, and how You love me. I long to live out of the place of affirmation that comes from Your heart, and that liberates me to love You in return and live in the beauty of Your holiness. Draw me, Lord, and I will follow after You.

Gary Wiens