Luke 10:25-37 (CEB)
A legal expert stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to gain eternal life?”
Jesus replied, “What is written in the Law? How do you interpret it?”
He responded, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.”
But the legal expert wanted to prove that he was right, so he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied, “A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He encountered thieves, who stripped him naked, beat him up, and left him near death. Now it just so happened that a priest was also going down the same road. When he saw the injured man, he crossed over to the other side of the road and went on his way. Likewise, a Levite came by that spot, saw the injured man, and crossed over to the other side of the road and went on his way. A Samaritan, who was on a journey, came to where the man was. But when he saw him, he was moved with compassion. The Samaritan went to him and bandaged his wounds, tending them with oil and wine. Then he placed the wounded man on his own donkey, took him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, he took two full days’ worth of wages and gave them to the innkeeper. He said, ‘Take care of him, and when I return, I will pay you back for any additional costs.’ What do you think? Which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who encountered thieves?”
Then the legal expert said, “The one who demonstrated mercy toward him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
16 years ago today the world was changed
A Hurricane had a direct hit on New Orleans
Katrina displaced over 1 million people from the Gulf coast to other places in the USA ---- Including I am sure Indianapolis --- and just down the street from where I lived in Munster the Nazarene Church took their empty parsonage and welcomed in a refugee family.
The population of New Orleans dropped 50% overnight and still today it is not back to its pre-Katrina level, nor is the city fully restored especially in the lower 9th ward.
16 years later --- another storm is bearing down on the city
Lord in your mercy . . .
This summer, I decided we needed to approach our faith a little differently.
Instead of focusing on all the problems of the world --- which frankly are bigger that you and I can really tackle
I chose to focus on something we can tackle
How we love one another
And my basic premise has been --- LOVE MATTERS MORE
Actually, I might say it a different way --- Love is all that there is
Without love --- nothing works
Whether we are talking about relationships
Or ministries
If I were to sum up the Gospel message of Jesus --- I would pick one of the variations of our story today.
It is found in all three of the synoptic Gospels --- Matthew, Mark and Luke
Jesus is asked: “What must I do to gain eternal life” in Luke’s Gospel.
Matthew’s Gospel has a lawyer asking: “What is the greatest commandment”.
And Mark has a scribe asking Jesus: “Which commandment is first of all.”
If you know your Hebrew bible the answer is simple --- it is a part of the Shema --- the core of Judaism found in Deuteronomy chapter 6.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
And in Leviticus 19 we are told: “Love your neighbor as yourself”
The Hebrew word used for love is ahava which means unconditional love.
We are to love God and neighbor unconditionally.
What I am going to try and do, is look at what we mean by unconditional love.
“Love” is a difficult and problematic term on its own.
We use it to refer to everything from preferences
“I love the Duke Blue Devils”
to appreciation
“I love the way you played the bells this morning, Beth”
to emotion
“I love Zeke" --- my dog by the way
to commitment
“I will always love you”
But we also use this simple expression “I love you” to mean an apology
I know I upset you but I didn’t mean to, please forgive me because I love you
to a demand
I do this because I love you --- so you owe me
to a promise
You know I love you and I will take care of you for the rest of your life
or a way of avoiding a promise
I love you, isn’t that enough?
But, when we add that one little word unconditional to qualify love, we narrow the possible range of meanings considerably.
I think that if we can really comprehend what constitutes a “condition”, we will find that the type of love which is truly unconditional is one with which we are not terribly familiar in our culture.
Yet I think, at a base level, we all like the idea of unconditional love.
We see it as the loftiest kind of love --- God's love --- but is it possible?
Does it even make sense?
Let me give you a couple of examples as we wrestle with this concept.
A mother is having a test of wills with her two-year-old.
The young boy wants to continue playing with his toys, but it’s time for bath and bed.
Mom has already given him a five-minute grace period -- after his first howling protests. Now she insists he will do as she says.
She is not being unloving; her firmness is an expression of her concern for his well-being.
Of course, the child doesn’t see it that way.
Or doesn’t care.
He simply wants his own will.
If he could speak his feelings, he would probably say, “If you really loved me, you’d let me do what I want!”
As adults, we have little problem identifying with Mom here.
We understand a child’s immaturity.
Mom really is expressing love.
But is it unconditional love?
Yes, in the sense that she will continue loving her son even if he disobeys (if she is a healthy mother).
But no, in the sense that, in this as many other situations, love itself requires conditions.
A harder case: Dick and Jane have been married for almost twenty years.
It’s been a good marriage overall, with a couple of healthy children.
But problems have sprouted in the past couple of years.
And recently Dick discovered that his wife is having an affair.
Jane wants to continue the adulterous relationship.
She also wants Dick to accept it, like an up-to-date, sensible person, and let the marriage continue.
What does real love mean for Dick and Jane in this situation?
If he really loves her unconditionally, won’t he accept his wife on her terms, as an expression of his love?
Or will genuine love here require Dick to say, in effect: “It’s either me or him.”
So does genuine love require conditions?
Maybe the first thing we have to ask ourselves is What does “conditional” mean?
Conditional --- limited by conditions
Conditions --- a restricting, limiting, or modifying circumstance
So, if the presence of love is limited by any particular condition (circumstance or requirement), it is not, by definition, unconditional.
So we could take those examples I just shared a step farther and argue:
The love of parents for their children and vice versa is not unconditional.
It depends on the circumstance of being related by birth or adoption.
Sexual love is not unconditional.
It depends on the sexual attraction between the participants.
The love of one’s friends is not unconditional.
It depends on shared interests, mutual support, communication, and all the other things that make our friends our friends.
So can unconditional love really ever exist??
The crazy truth is ----
Unconditional love is not personal.
If you love someone for their sense of humor, personality, the way they make you feel, or any other aspect of their identity, your love is conditional.
It depends on the presence of that characteristic.
If the person ceased to be or have all the things that you enjoy, would the love still be present?
And here’s the real kicker --- unconditional love does not come and go.
It just is.
That leaves us with the ultimate quandary . . .
If human love is seemingly always conditional --- is God's love truly unconditional?
The logical answer is NO --- even God's love is conditional.
And the church had argued this for millennia.
Howard Snyder, an evangelical theologian that I highly respect, especially for his views on social justice ---- wrote a blog piece on this a number of years ago.
He argues:
The love of God, “greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell.” Human love may fail, but surely God’s love is unconditional, right?
Wrong.
God created man and woman and put them in the Garden. Conditionality were there from the start: “You are free . . . . But you must not . . .” (Gen. 2:16-17 NIV). The same truth runs throughout Scripture. And the logic of it undergirds the whole meaning of Jesus’ coming, death, and resurrection.
If God’s love were unconditional, the cross would be unnecessary. God does not love unconditionally. He loved so much that he sent his Son. And he loves so much that he will not, cannot, forgive and accept us as his redeemed children except on the basis of Jesus’ sacrifice. To do otherwise would betray the integrity of God’s own character. Precisely for this reason, acceptance without cost or sacrifice would betray the essential nature of love itself.
The cross is the ultimate proof that true love is never unconditional.
Howard Snyder makes a persuasive argument --- especially if you come from a Calvinist background
And I hear it all the time.
I was at a funeral recently and the pastor actually talked about the need to get an "eternal life insurance policy"
The implication is --- of course, that if you do not have a relationship with Jesus --- then you are not getting to heaven --- but instead are going to hell.
So, is God's love conditional?
Does God only love us if we believe --- mentally assent to ideas that the church has authorized?
And if we fail to agree with those statements --- then is God going to assign us to eternal torment?
Unfortunately --- over the years I have come to understand that our answer --- or our perception --- to the question on whether God loves us unconditionally or not is predicated on the baggage that we bring to the table.
We could stand up here and begin a quote fest --- on both sides of the issue --- to try and prove our point
Is God's love unconditional or not
And many of the verses both sides would quote would be taken out of context to serve the arguer’s purpose.
Some of the verses I could quote would include:
1 Corinthians 13
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
1 John 4:10
“In this is love, not that we loved God but that God loved us”
Exodus 34:5
“The Lord, the Lord,
a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness”
Or Psalm 118 or 136 which reminds us over and over again that:
God's steadfast love endures forever
And I could go on and on and on -----
as could someone who wishes to argue the exact opposite
and we both can rationalize and explain away the other passages
But --- at the end of the day
I think we are left with a choice
What type of God do we choose to believe in?
What type of God do we choose to emulate?
A long, long time ago a church I was serving was wrestling with their mission statement.
They ended up with something along these lines:
We . . . are united with Jesus Christ in His ministry of compassion for all people by offering HOPE, UNCONDITIONAL LOVE and MEANING FOR LIFE.
The leadership of the church decided that they wanted to emulate a God who loves us unconditionally and who challenges us to do the same.
But what does that mean that we are to love "unconditionally"
I would suggest we frame it this way
First --- EVERYONE IS A CHILD OF GOD
There cannot be ANY asterisks by that statement
ALL are children of God --- ALL!
Second --- LOVE IS THE ONLY FORCE THAT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
We as Christians understand that Jesus is the embodiment of love. So for us, we seek to emulate his way of life which was one of agape love --- or what we might call unconditional or sacrificial love.
Martin Luther King put it beautifully:
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
My ministry has been one of trying to emulate God's love for us
I desire to see all people as God's children --- worthy of God's love --- worthy of our love.
Does this attitude --- this approach create problems?
YES
Will I ever succeed in doing it?
Probably not
BUT --- I am convinced that it is the call of Jesus in our lives!
It is the crown that Jesus holds over our heads and invites us to grow into!
I believe in a God who loves me without condition.
But I also believe in a God whose desire for me is to follow the way of Jesus --- not so that God might love me more --- but so that I might love more!
And, after almost 40 years of serving churches, I am even more than ever convinced that when love --- unconditional love does not exist --- good things cannot happen --- or if they do, they cannot be sustained.
LOVE is the glue and love matters more than anything else.
Without love we are lost!
May we embrace the God of love who wants to show us how to love one another
No comments:
Post a Comment