God the Father is so very good. Like most good fathers out there, God is so forgiving. It does not matter what you do, God will still love you. It is who God is.
Even when we go astray; even when we wander away, even when we turn our face; God shows us mercy and makes in God’s house a place. God the Father is so very good. It is who God is.
It is in God’s very nature to be gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Even to the ungrateful and the wicked, God is kind. It is who God is.
And, my deepest wish is that I could be like God. Not in a pretend that I am God and make my brother clean my room or he will get thrown into hell sort of “be like God” way. Not that that ever happened. Rather, I wish that I could love like God loves; showing mercy to friends and the enemies alike. I deeply wish that I could have a love like that.
I deeply wish that I could have a love that would welcome the wayward child back home with open arms and no regrets or resentments.
I deeply wish that I could have a love that would care for the poor and feed the hungry without wondering if they deserved such grace.
I deeply wish that I could look into my enemies’ eyes and see the person who is suffering deep hurt and in need of healing. I wish that I could take a blow and turn the other cheek receiving another blow, yet never forgetting to look into their eyes, seeing their suffering and need for care and a cure.
I deeply wish that I could lend my shirt and not become bitter because of the cold. I deeply wish that I could be like God, filled with God’s amazing grace.
I think I had it once. I think we all did. I see how my little boy hears me say, “Wow, I’m thirsty” and he simply runs and gets me some water without being asked. That is pure, untainted love.
He reminds me of the day that well over 5,000 hungry people were fed by the hand of the Lord Jesus. They did not need to prove anything to be shown such love. They simply needed to be hungry. Love says, “Feed someone when they are hungry.” Love is simple. It shows grace and offers the meal. It simply runs and gets the water.
But, I think that the disciples had lost this simple love in the same way that we all do. We are taught that something else is more important. “Send the crowds away,” the disciples demand Jesus, “so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions” (Luke 9:12). Somehow, somewhere we learn that people’s self-reliance should be held higher than love.
Jesus does not let the god of self-reliance win the day. Rather, Jesus demands that love be given the highest place in our lives. “You give them something to eat.” Then Jesus takes their five loaves of bread and two fish and feeds the entire crowd. Love for the crowd wins the day, that day. But, there is still plenty of opportunity to forget the lesson of love.
I remember once when I was a kid giving one of my favorite toys to another child who did not have something to play with that day. It was love. When it was discovered that I had given the toy away, I was told that the child had parents of his own. I was not to give away gifts that others worked hard for me to receive. That day I learned that money which buys me things was important. I learned that money and things are more important than love.
And, just like that, our love is lost, little by little as we grow. Losing a sense of mercy is almost as automatic as losing teeth. We simply forget.
Someone who had just experienced a divorce came to me once, filling my head with the horrors of their former spouse; a person I had previously liked very much. They demanded loyalty of me. They demanded that their enemy be my enemy. They demanded that I not be friends. They demanded that I forget how to love. For them, loyalty was much more important than love, and compassion, and forgiveness. And, in convincing me of their truth, I lost a little more of that divine gift called love.
After-all, love can be dangerous. Turning the other cheek when one side is slapped can lead to two sore cheeks and an enemy retaining power. We cannot live in a society with no repercussions. So, love is thrown into the back seat.
If everyone in the ancient world were to give their shirt also when their coat was taken, the entire societal system of service and slavery developed so that the poor would pay back the rich would crumble. You cannot allow an entire society to crumble because of mere sentimentality. So, love is abandoned and God’s ways are lost.
There was a reason that Jesus was hung on a cross, and it was not because he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is because of his insistence that God’s love can transform and save. But, you see, love does not win wars or plunder wealth. Love does not maintain the division between the rich and the poor. Love does not allow people to be hated or used as scapegoats for other’s problems. God’s radical sort of love is a dangerous idea to the world, and ideas like that need to be stopped. The world does not desire transformation and salvation.
But, I do. I want transformation. I deeply wish that I could be transformed into a person who loves others just as God loves me. After-all, I have hurt others. I have taken what was not mine. I have been an enemy. And, so have you…if you are honest. All of us have. All of us at one point or another have forgotten what love is all about.
But, Jesus has never forgotten. And, Jesus has never abandoned the idea that love can transform and save. Jesus has looked upon us, as feeble as we may be, and determined that though we are sometimes ungrateful, and wicked, and misdirected, and unforgiving, and unloving, that he would be merciful anyway, just as the Father is merciful. He loved you and me all the way to the cross. The cross is the ultimate in cheek turns. Choosing death for our undeserving sakes is the very definition of loving the enemy.
Do you not see? Only love can win the day, every time. Only love defeats death. Only love is the answer. Only love saves the lost. Only love feeds the hungry. Only love raises the dead to new life. Only love leaves the mark of salvation on our souls.
So, take a moment to forget all that you have been taught by the world about what is important in life, and learn again the lesson you understood so well as a little child…the lesson of love. Hear now the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of love:
"Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you."
(Luke 6:35-38)
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