“And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva… So tweasure your wuv. ” — The Impressive Clergyman
This iconic line from the movie The Princess Bride brings knowing grins to those who have seen it. One can hear the Impressive Clergyman’s quirky, nasally accent, as the he speaks it over Buttercup and Prince Humperdink’s forced nuptials. Yet there was nothing true or loving about the scene. Prince Humperdink used his power to force Buttercup into a loveless marriage. Buttercup was in love with another, Wesley, and was prepared to kill herself right after the ceremony. However, her true love came to her rescue, saved her from death and they lived happily ever after.
The hilarious line was out of sync with reality, but it sums up the love Jesus has for us. “Tru wuv will fowow you foweva… so tweasure your wuv…” Jesus’ love for the world was demonstrated on the cross where he was brutally murdered, but His prayer for His disciples and all who would believe in Him is a demonstration of the kind of true love that is forever, a treasure that is irreplaceable. We can’t have the later without the first. We can only experience the true, eternal, and priceless love of Jesus because of His death and resurrection.
Jesus, who was about to go through the most excruciating death, to become sin for the whole world
(2 Corinthians 5:21) and to be forsaken by the Father while He took the wrath meant for us, PRAYED FOR US, in the Garden. He knew that the hours that lay before Him would be literal hell, yet He THOUGHT OF US. He was about to take the full wrath of God upon Himself, to have His Abba turn His face away from Him (Habakkuk 1:13), yet He prayed for His disciples and those who would believe upon Him.
This is “Tru wuv”, a forever love available to all who call upon the name of the Lord.
Jesus said,
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth (John 17:9-19).
Jesus’ death on the cross is enough to prove His love, yet there is something so intimate in that He prayed for us before He died for us. Prayer is intimate. Prayer is personal. Prayer is a demonstration of faith in a sovereign, loving God, who hears and answers. Prayer focuses our hearts on what is most important. Jesus prayed, focusing His heart on His Father, while placing us in His Father’s hands. Wow. Tru Wuv indeed.