Would I sacrifice?

I was reading today about the crucifixion of Jesus.  Now the part of the book that I got to coincided with my lunch break, and I was moved to tears.  I cannot begin imagine the tremendous pain that Jesus went through.  It is hard to understand and comprehend how terrible of a death it was.

That got me thinking about who I would die for.  I would give my life for my baby nephew.  There would be no hesitation on my part.  If the loss of my earthly life would result in his life being saved, I would not need another reason.  If it meant saving anyone in my family I would gladly give my life as the sacrifice to save them.

However, if someone came up to me and said that a stranger was going to die or I could die to save them, I don't think I'd really likely decide that the sacrifice would be worth making.  It's not that I think my life is any more valuable than anyone else's but I just don't think I could make sense of that sort of exchange of life.

Maybe if I learned that this person I could save was a good mother, or had the intelligence and ability to figure out a cure for cancer, or was going to do something amazing for the human race should they survive, and I could take their place in death.

But if that person was a murderer or had done many heinous things then I would not likely think that I could trade my life to save theirs.

Likely though the main reason I would exchange my life for someone else would really only come down to love - who on this earth do I love enough to save?

Yet Jesus came and gave his life for all of us...no matter what sins we had committed.  He readily lived his life knowing that at the end he was going to suffer.  He knew that he was going to be tortured and put to death.  He knew that his death was going to wash us all clean, and allow our sins to be forgiven.  He gave his life for us, for people he had never met because he loved us all so much before we even came to be.

Thank you Lord for saving me.