Grenade of Love

As I was driving down the road today I turned on my radio to hear the popular (for now) song "Grenade" by Bruno Mars. When I first heard this song a couple of months ago my initial reaction was "are you kidding, this song is so absurd and over the top!" But today as I listened it dawned on me that this love that this song tries to talk about is the love that Jesus demonstrated for us 2,000 years ago on the cross. "Grenade" is the popular/modern/humanized version of what Jesus is all about.
In fact as I looked and thought about the lyrics more it could really be a song that Jesus sings to us. For example from the first line it emulates the heart of the human spirit:

"Easy come, easy go
That's just how you live, oh
Take, take, take it all,
But you never give"

Is this not just how we are with God sometimes, coming and going as we please. Giving and serving Him as it "suits us" or "feels good." Loving Him above all else when we don't have another idol that we would rather put in front of Him. 

Or how about the next couple of lines:

Gave you all I had
And you tossed it in the trash
You tossed it in the trash, you did
To give me all your love is all I ever asked

Really, all Christ asks from us is to love Him. The most important thing according to Jesus was to love the Lord your God above all else and love your neighbor as yourself. And what's our problem when this God who loves us is willing (and did) what the song talks about next:

Cause what you don't understand is
I’d catch a grenade for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Throw my hand on a blade for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
I’d jump in front of a train for ya (yeah, yeah , yeah)
You know I'd do anything for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Oh, oh
I would go through all this pain,
Take a bullet straight through my brain,
Yes, I would die for ya baby;
But you won't do the same


Christ is not asking for us to jump in front of a train or take a bullet to the brain. He is asking for us to realize that He did that for us. That He took on the explosion of our sin on the cross in the greatest act of love ever demonstrated. He turned our grenade of sin, that was displeasing and disgusting to God into a grenade of love by sacrificing himself as a pure and holy to cover our sin. His love explodes and covers us daily. The ramifications of this explosion changed everything. This explosion is bigger that any atomic bomb, eruption or explosion ever recorded because it changed the course of history.
His love created a way.
Now, as His children, it is time for us to catch a grenade for Jesus. To die to ourselves, our desires and flesh and take up our crosses. To follow Him, love Him and serve Him above all else. It may seem like a huge sacrifice, but look at the Lamb and all He has done for you. Don't you want to run toward a God like that with abandon. To drop everything and run toward Him?