‘Christ’s pursuit of us' (part 1) – Song of songs 2:8-17

C. S. Lewis writes about how he was found by God:

“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet.  That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me.  In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England … The words “compelle intrare,” compel them to come in, have been so abused be wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy.  The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.”

The Song of songs is a love song about a young man and a young woman who are getting married.  But as Christians, who believe all of the Old Testament points to Jesus, we also see here a picture of Christ’s pursuit of his people, the church.  If you are a part of that body then you can take comfort in his continued pursuit of you.  He sought to make you his own.  He continues to seek you every day of your life.

I have three points:

            1.  Prayer is resting in the presence of someone who sees you as beautiful.

2.  We must get rid of everything that spoils intimacy in our relationships.

3.  We should seek to find our delight in Jesus.

Prayer is resting in the presence of someone who sees you as beautiful

Does it feel like no-one thinks you are special?   Maybe your parents never pursued your heart.  Has your husband stopped seeking intimacy?  Does your wife no longer want to be close with you?  Do you struggle to make friends?  If you are a Christian then Jesus sees you as the apple of his eye!

The young man comes seeking his beloved.  ‘Leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills’ (8).  He calls her to be with him, ‘Arise my darling, my beautiful one.  Come to me’ (10).  Their love is pictured as being like spring, ‘See!  Winter has past, the rains are over and gone’ (11).  ‘Arise, come, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me’ (11b).

Jerry, a student, was having a quiet time, but it was a struggle.  They had been studying the Song of songs in his church.  Then he thought of those words, ‘Arise, my beautiful one, come with me’.  He realised that Jesus wanted to know him more.  Christ was pursuing him.  Prayer isn’t just about presenting a list of requests to God.  It’s resting in the presence of someone who sees you as beautiful.

Get rid of everything that spoil healthy intimacy

But there are so many distractions that get in the way of my spending time with Jesus.  Facebook, Instagram and other social media are God’s way of telling us that it is not true when we claim that we are too busy to pray. 

‘Catch the foxes, the little foxes, that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom’ (15).  Remove those things that spoil healthy intimacy.  Be in control of your social media, your reading and your television and do not let them control you.

There can be little pestering foxes in our relationships with people too.  That resentment you have never let go.  That laziness where you would rather be on your own than be with those you love.  That pride that stops you from letting your guard down.  ‘Catch the little foxes that ruin the vineyards.’

She has been hiding from him.  He says, ‘My dove in the clefts of the rock; in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely’ (14).  Jesus loves to hear your voice.  It gives him pleasure to listen to you.  He wants to look us in the face.  He delights when we lift our heads from the screen and think about him.

Seek your delight in Jesus 

The psalmist writes, ‘In your presence there is fullness of joy’ (Psalm 16:11).  That doesn’t describe my prayer times, does it describe yours?  Can we slow down and put our distractions aside for long enough to start enjoying speaking to him and thinking about him?  What about turning the radio off at times in the car and talking to him?  Can we aim for growing intimacy with Jesus?

Look at how the teenage girl responds to the pursuit of her lover.  'My beloved is mine and I am his …’ (16a).

Which is more amazing, that we belong to Christ or that Christ belongs to us?  Jesus takes us into his family and calls us friend.  He sees us as sister or brother.  He thinks of us as a lover.  He also gives himself to us, so that we can say ‘he is mine’.  The creator of this universe in some way belongs to me.

This is a challenge for all our relationships.  The apostle Paul wouldn’t have shocked the world of his day when he taught that a wife’s body belongs to her husband, but then he also taught that husband’s body belongs to his wife.  So, we are to give ourselves to each other (1 Corinthians 7:4-5).  Are you more ambitious for your career than on improving your marriage?  What about your friendships, do you take more pleasure from your hobbies than spending time with people? 

Conclusion

Jesus taught that people don’t seek him by nature, they run from him.  They might like the thought of Jesus as a good teacher, selectively picking from his teachings, but they do not want him as their only Saviour from our guilt (the Christ of the cross) who demands we give him our lives (the Christ who calls us to take up our cross).  If you find that you are becoming interested in the Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible, then that is the work of the Holy Spirit pursuing you.  Don’t resist him.  Surrender to his love!

If you have surrendered to his love then remember that he sees you as beautiful.  All your moral filth is washed away by his blood.  He sees you as clean.  He has given you his Holy Spirit, he delights to see the change that he is making in you.  He loves to hear your voice.  He enjoys seeing your face.  Find your joy in that love.

One night, in a hotel in Manhattan, David Suchet, who is famous for playing Agatha Christie’s Poirot, found that for the first time in his life he had an overwhelming desire to read the Bible.  He knew that the Gideon’s left Bible’s in hotel rooms, but there was none there.  So, he went out onto the street to find a bookstore that might still be open.  When he got back to his room he opened it and read: ‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, nor anything else in all of creation, will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus’ (Rom. 8:38-39).  Those verses brought him to faith.  God had found him.