As a pastor, one of the biggest questions I wrestle with is: how do we effectively carry the Gospel that, Jesus is Lord to the secular, Canadian (Western) context we find ourselves in?
Just before Jesus tells the parable of The Good Samaritan we read the following exchange with an "expert in the law" who had been sent to test (read trap) Jesus:
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Now, if this expert were smart, he'd have stopped when Jesus said "You have answered correctly".
But, he wasn't smart...
What follows is the parable mentioned above. The parable that proposes everyone, even your enemies, even the lowest of the low, the most despised by the world, is our neighbour.
What makes it even worse is the word Jesus uses for love.
The word is, ἀγαπάω. Agapaō. Agape love.
In Greek, there are four words we translate as love. Agape love is: unconditional, unmerited and unchanged by circumstances. Jesus says we are to love our neighbour in the same manner we love God.
That's difficult enough, but over time the Jewish people had taken that to mean "people like us", Israelites. So, when the "expert" asked Jesus who his neigbour was... he was not expecting the response he got.
What I have been stuck on is... how much has Western Christianity become like the "expert"? How often do we miss the point or the meaning of Jesus' teaching here. The parable of The Good Samaritan may be the most well known parable of all. (Perhaps we have become too familiar with it?)
Perhaps we have lost sight of the kind of love Jesus meant? Unmerited, unconditional and regardless of circumstances. That means there is no out. There is never a time, reason or person that is exempt from this type of love...
The Old Testament makes it clear that God's intention is to save all nations through His people Israel. An expert in the law ought to know that! Yet, somehow, over time, it came to be accepted that what God meant was "only people like us". Jesus came, because God's own people had missed the point!
As I look at social media feeds, news stories, or just talk to people... I see how deeply this issue has infected our own context. Not only are we a people divided along countless lines... but we condemn the condemners. We hate the haters. We double-down on our not-love for people based on their not-love for others...
If I understand what Jesus says in the exchange above, and the parable that follows. Then... we are called to love, to agapaō, everybody. Especially the worst of the worst. The lowest of the low. The most un-loveable people we know.
If I'm reading this right... then that means that even beyond our particular denominational stance on LGBQT+ issues, or abortion, or our political affiliations, we are clearly called to love the people who don't fit that stance. We need to figure out what that means, and get to it!
What's more... and this is where I have gotten really stuck... we are called to love those who hate others. Love our enemies. Love those who drive us crazy by spewing hate, fear and disrespect of people because of their beliefs, politics, convictions sexual preference or race.
That thought... frightens me. It scares me because... well.. I'm not sure I do that.
I feel good about the fact that I know that even when I don't agree with someone's opinion, sexual preference, beliefs or political stance, I'm called to love them.
But what about those who pour out hatred, perpetrate violence against another race, or look at people as sub-human because they don't vote "the correct way". If I'm reading Jesus right... I'm commanded to love them too. with the same kind of unconditional, unmerited, unlimited love that I'm supposed to have for God.... these people too, are my neighbours.
I decided to write about this mostly because, well... I don't know where to begin, except to get on my knees and ask God to show me how to love like this.
I'd like to quote Brian Zahnd from his blog last month that started this whole thing off for me. He writes:
"Yes, this is hard; but when we decide that some sinners are unworthy of being loved, we have sided with the crowd against Christ. The phenomenon of the satan can operate just as diabolically among those who are on the right side of the issue." (emphasis mine)
THUD! That's what I felt in my heart when I read that...
In fact, I think I'm going to close this out by posting a link to Brian's blog and let you all start the journey in the same place I did.
I'm asking you to give this a read, a thought and a prayer and ask how you can begin to bring about this kind of love in our world today.
God help us all as we seek to do what Jesus commanded and agapaō everyone not adding to the hate that we all know satan is laughing gleefully at, as he watches us pitted against each other.
Happy reading: https://brianzahnd.com/2018/12/trying-hard-not-ugly/
God word man, appreciate it!
ReplyDeleteThanks "unknown"!
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