Loving Like Jesus

          “Children, I am with you for only a short time longer. You are going to look high and low for me. But just as I told the Jews, I’m telling you: ‘Where I go, you are not able to come.’         “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other."

John 13:33-35, The Message

Years ago, I was working on Sunday's worship service on a Tuesday afternoon in the Monaghan UMC church office. I spent time selecting hymns, reading over scriptures again, and asking God for guidance and insight.  I have often hears the expression "be careful what you pray for…"

My office door was open and I heard noise coming from the hall.  I glanced up to see bird swooping over my head and smash into my office window that faced outside.  Needless to say, I quickly left office, ran down the stairs and found the custodian working on the church grounds. To remove our fine feathered friend from the office would take teamwork. I told him we should close all the doors in the church first, and then try to get the bird outside. Since this was a multi-level building, I went down the steps and he went up.  I closed off all the downstairs doors and reached the top of the stairs back at ground level.  The custodian told me that the bird was now in the secretary’s office. 
Before could do anything else, bird flew down the hall, and instead of going toward the open, beckoning doors, the bird flew into the doors of the sanctuary. This was a traditional, rectangular sanctuary with high, vaulted ceilings and exposed beams.  It was beautiful to see, but a puzzle with a bird flying around inside. What a scene we made! Two grown men, waving brooms, yelling, making noises into microphones -- we did anything we could to keep that bird moving so that it would fly out the front doors…I remember saying more than once, “I don’t want to hurt the bird, but we have to do something to get it out of here…” After over an hour, the bird landed on a back pew, saw the light of day through the front doors, and quickly flew to freedom once again.  

I have thought about that experience many times. I didn't want to hurt the bird and yet had to get it out of the building. It would die without food and water. I wonder what bird thought about these two huge monsters waving sticks, making noises.  I am sure that it was scared to death and could not recognize what we were doing.  We were not trying to hurt and scare the bird out of feelings of hate. Instead, we were trying to help as an expression of love for one of God’s creatures.The only problem was that in order to truly love this bird, we had to frighten it.; we had to keep it moving toward the doors and keep it off of the high rafters and from plowing into the stained glass windows. This was not what bird wanted, but love’s call was to do what the bird NEEDED.

Jesus says to his disciples “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another." Jesus points to a love that goes far beyond our wants to our deepest needs.  The love of God in Jesus Christ saw us buried beneath the burdens of sin and death.  Instead of bringing us a life of temporary happiness filled with empty and passing pleasures, Jesus loved us at a much deeper, and much more painful level.  Our need was to be reconnected to God – our sin had severed our relationship.  The end result of our sin – certain death.  

Jesus could have chosen to love us in two ways. We could have remained in sin and been (as I call it) doted upon by our benevolent Santa from on high. Our days could be filled with fun and totally carefree; our nights an ongoing celebration…and yet in the end we would all die and spend forever separated from God.  So instead of giving us what we might have wanted, Jesus offers us what we need.  He took death upon himself, what was supposed to be OUR punishment, and then destroyed death in rising again from the dead. Through his self-sacrificing love,  we receive what we truly need  -- a restored relationship with God through faith in Christ.  Our faith may not save us from this world, but it insures that death is not the end, but only the beginning of our life forever with him.

I wish that I could say that living Jesus’ words “In the same way I loved you, you love one another” would be easy, but they’re not.Look what Jesus’ love for you and me cost him; his love cost him his very life. So too when we go to live our love, putting our faith into action sometimes hurts. It can cause us pain…

Years ago,  an older gentleman came to our door who had gotten lost and needed a ride home.  He said that he needed to get back home from a hard day’s work, that he was new in town, and all he could remember is that he lived in an upstairs apartment across from the Berea Plaza.  He said he would recognize it when he saw it.  After crisscrossing Berea, it quickly became evident that he did not recognize anything. He had no ID, and his memory was extremely fuzzy about any details.  My wife suggested that we call the police, which she did while I returned home.  After the police arrived, they confirmed that this man had actually been missing for several hours, and his family was extremely worried.  His son-in-law came to our house and picked the wanderer up.  Once they pulled away, the police officer informed me that the man has Alzheimer’s disease and that this was not the first time he had strayed from home.

“Usually we find him in a neighbors’ yard or within a block or two of the house,” said the officer, “We have told his daughter that they should really consider some additional care for him, but they say everything will be fine.  He’s never wandered this far before.  I just hope they’ll do something before something happens to him.”

Sometimes loving like Christ loves is admitting that a parent or spouse is unable to care for themselves like they could at one time.  Sometimes loving like Christ loves is taking a loved one to rehabilitation.  Sometimes it’s removing life support after someone’s body has finally failed.  Sometimes it is telling a child that they cannot come home until they clean up their act. Sometimes loving like Christ loves means risking embarrassment to openly share our faith with another.

Sometimes loving like Christ loves us is the hardest, most painful thing that we can do. But, in the words of Jesus, “This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”

Grace and Peace,