Topic Scriptures: John 2:13 – 17; Psalm 69:9; Luke 2:49; John 4:34, AMP; Matthew 9:35 – 36, NLT; Matthew 15: 32, AMP; Acts 10:38, NJKV; Luke 4:16, AMP; Matthew 14:22 – 23; Luke 11:1
In our quest to become more like Jesus, there are several things about Jesus that we must seek to emulate. Today, we want to look at one of those things. It’s something that doesn’t often get mentioned. Today, we’re going to look at Jesus’s passion.
Jesus Christ had passion. He had passion for God, for the people of God, the house of God, and the things of God.
But what do we mean when we say “passion”?
Passion means a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for a person, cause or object. When you have passion for someone or something, it means that you deeply like that person or that thing. It means you are excited about that person or thing. It’s not just an ordinary liking or fondness. Passion, by its very nature, is strong. It is extravagant. It doesn’t hold back; rather, it goes the extra mile.
Passion can also mean a barely controllable emotion towards somebody or something. This dimension of passion is often represented by the word “burn”, as found in 1 Corinthians 7:9. It is like a raging fire, often difficult to control.
I say again that Jesus, the Person we want to become like, was a person of passion. So let us look at a few Biblical examples to illustrate this fact.
In John 2:13 – 17, we see Jesus acting out in passion against those who were trying to turn God’s temple into a common marketplace. When He saw the situation, the deplorable state the merchants had put the Temple into, He couldn’t remain silent. He couldn’t not act. His passion (or zeal) for His Father’s house had consumed him (v 17; Psalm 69:9).
Then in Luke2:49, a twelve-year-old Jesus gives an interesting answer to His parents, who had been searching for Him for three days. The family had journeyed to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. On their way back home, Mary and Joseph realized Jesus wasn’t with them. They returned to Jerusalem, searching, and after three days found Jesus. And where was He? In the temple, debating the teachers of God’s law and learning from them. When they told Him that they had been searching the whole town, Jesus replied that they should have already known where to find him. In His mind, anyone who knew Him should immediately know where to find Him—in the Temple. His passion for God was so strong that it drew him to his Father’s house as surely as a magnet attracts metal.
In John 4:28 – 34, AMP, we find Jesus’s disciples concerned about His health. Many people were coming to Jesus to hear Him, but the disciples knew He hadn’t eaten. They tried to get Him to eat. But look at Jesus’s response. He said “My food (nourishment) is to do the will (pleasure) of Him Who sent Me and to accomplish and completely finish His work.”
Jesus was saying here that what satisfied Him was doing the will of God. It was so essential to Him that He likened it to food! If you’ve ever watched someone who loves eating food, you’ll understand what Jesus was saying here! Talk about passion!
Let’s look at some more scriptural examples.
Matthew 9:35 – 36, NLT, shows us Jesus traveling through all the towns in a certain area, teaching in the synagogues, announcing the good news about the Kingdom, and healing every kind of disease. When He saw the crowds, the scripture says, He had compassion on them. There is nobody who came to Jesus for help that He didn’t help! And let us note that the word compassion has the word “passion” in it.
This is again demonstrated in Matthew 15:32, AMP, where we once again see Jesus having compassion on people and refusing to send them away without taking care of their hunger. Why? Because He was “deeply moved” for the crowd.
Acts 10:38, NJKV speaks of Jesus as someone who went around “doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him.”
Luke 4:16, AMP, shows that the passion Jesus had for the house of God in His youth was not dimmed by the passage of time, because this scripture shows us that Jesus went into the synagogue as was His custom. Even as an adult, He kept going to God’s temple!
Matthew 14:22-23 reveals how Jesus prioritized prayer and communication with His Heavenly Father. Immediately after performing a big miracle, Jesus sent everyone away so that He could go alone to pray. For hours. This attitude to prayer was so significant that it even prompted the disciples to ask Him to teach them to pray like He did! (Luke 11:1)
I can tell you for a fact that if you don’t have a certain kind of passion for God and the things of God, prayer will not be a part of your life. It won’t be easy. That’s the reason most of us struggle to pray: because we lack a certain passion for the things of God.
This Jesus, the One we seek to emulate, had passion for God and for the things of God. So then, if you and I insist that we truly want to become like Jesus, then this is one area we must strive for.
The sad truth is that a lot of us are lethargic when it comes to God. If we will examine ourselves honestly, we will realize there is very little zeal in our pursuit of our God. So as a result, we struggle. We struggle to pray. We struggle to read our Bibles. We struggle to serve God and to witness to others about Jesus. Because there is no passion in our hearts for God.
And if even we, as human employers, know how awful it is to employ workers who have no passion for their work, then how much more does God feel when we show so little passion for Him after He bought us with the blood of His precious Son? How much pain does it cause Him, when He offers us so much love and we respond with cold hearts?
Beloved, make no mistake: God is looking for our passion. God is waiting for us to be passionate about Him. Next week, we will be looking at some of the signs of passion to look out for and develop so we can be truly passionate toward God and the things of God. I trust that it will be a great blessing to you!
