What is love? I think that this
is the questions that all the poets, all the song writers, play writers,
novelists, actors; anybody has ever tried to answer. We see noble people all
the time telling us or showing us all that they have given for us, we see
messed up people and people who seemingly have it all together all struggling
for the same thing. Love.
At
the beginning of each year I take some time to pray and see what God has to say
about the coming year, I also do this at each birthday. Last year on my
birthday I felt that I needed to study the Gospel of John, also known as the
Love Gospel, and then at the end of December, just before the new year I felt
that God was saying that this is the year of radical love. I believe I wrote
something about that on my blog back in January, but I am not sure. Radical love, now that is different than
just love, is it not? What does that mean? We can get away with saying that to
love someone is to think of them before yourself, or to want to be with them
often, but radical love sounds different.
In
studying the book of John, you see why it is called the book of love, where it
tells many of the same stories that the other Gospels tell, it does not tell
them the same way. The words that are used to describe Jesus in His essence are
different. I remember reading in a commentary that a picture and a portrait are
two different things, where a picture captures the exact person, only a
portrait can capture the essence of the person, even if some of the details are
not the same. The Gospel of John is a portrait of Jesus where the others are
all pictures. Let me give you a quote by William Temple about the love of Jesus
for us:
The love that was always perfect according to the existing reality
Perfect in the manger, in the home, in the carpenters shop,
In the words of mercy, in the words of life,
Now reaches its culmination
in the absolute self-abnegation of love undimmed,
nay, victoriously intensified,
by agony and death.
Jesus
said “Greater love has no man than that he lay his life down for his friends.”
Yet Jesus also said, “I tell you love your enemies, bless those who curse you.”
Could that not be the radical love that He is talking about, to suffer for one
who you love, who may not love you? I have a friend who is very close to me,
and very precious to me. I love her with all my heart, and I know that she
loves me, however, she has also been very hurt by life, and I know that she
honestly does not know how to love. I realize that this may sound harsh, and I
am not saying that she does not love others, nor am I saying that she does not
do everything in her power to bless and love those around her. What I am saying
is that she does not know how to really receive the love of others into her
heart and soul, and that she does not understand what it really means to love
another with no strings attached.
There
have been many days when I have been very frustrated with this friend of mine,
feeling like I do all that I can for her and she barely even notices. I send
letters and messages, and she never responds, I tell her that she can always
come and talk if she needs too, and then later (after she does not come to talk
and ends up in a lot of trouble) she says “I wish I had someone to talk to so
that this didn’t happen.” She cannot see what is in front of her. I love this
person, she is sweet and kind, and always thinking of others, and yet not
always.
Perhaps
my standards of love are too high, we cannot expect everyone to love
unconditionally, to always think of others and never themselves right? Yet this
is radical love that we are talking
about, and doesn’t the word ‘radical’ make it different? Jesus said “Love your
enemies.” I get frustrated loving someone who wants to love me, but doesn’t
really understand, how much more difficult would it be to love someone who had
no intention of loving you?
How
many of you have ever been in love with someone (or even liked them) who was
simply not interested? Someone who just didn’t love you back, perhaps there was
nothing malicious about it, and yet it hurt to your core, because you loved
someone who didn’t want your love. How much more someone who hates you, an
‘enemy’? How can that possibly be? If it nearly kills me to love someone who
dosen’t love me back, what will it do to love someone who hates me? Remember
the poem? “Love undimmed, nay,
victoriously intensified, by agony and death.” Love is intensified by
death, death to ourselves, to what we want, that is radical love. To prefer
another to yourself is love, but to “hate your life even unto death.” That is
radical love, that is what Jesus was talking about, that is what I am learning
about. So, although it is a difficult lesson to learn, perhaps we should just
see how deep this rabbit hole goes. Will you join me?
