An Unlikely Love: The story of Jesus

Fill in the blank: Love makes us __________________________ !

How would you respond to that? My initial response was “Love makes us do crazy things!” Then I found out, thanks to Facebook friend, that “Love makes us do crazy things” is also the number 1 response on Google. I suppose our answers will vary depending on what we are doing, how we are feeling, what our experiences with love have been, and what our hopes about love are. Maybe our answer will reflect whom we are thinking about when we hear the word “love.”

Sometimes we have a hard time distinguishing between true love and infatuation. Yet it is all part of the process of getting to know someone and pursuing him or her. Yet “crazy” to me is a good word. Love should get you out of your comfort zone. Love has to be expressed and demonstrated to be known as love.  Love has to be visible.

Do you believe in love? Does love really exist? You may laugh at these questions, you may think it is a stupid question, but really think about it. Prove to me that love exists. You can’t. You cannot bottle love. You cannot see love. Yet we all believe love exists. Proving love is a lot like trying to prove God exists, but that is another post for another time.

What we know about love is based on subjective feelings, verbal statements and physical actions. Every one of us is wired just a little different and so we speak love in different ways. The one thing we do all hold in common is that we all desire to love and be loved.

Now back to my initial thought “love makes us crazy,” yes this is not original with me. Yet it is the thought that first came to me. It’s because when it comes to love I don’t understand me. I don’t understand why I think and feel the way I do when I do. If you know me, I tend to be a very even keeled kind of guy. I don’t make a lot of decisions based on emotions. Always seem to have my feelings in check and life is generally pretty good and that is the way I like it.

Can I get a little vulnerable with you? Throw into the experiment of my life the prospect of dating and everything goes out of whack.  All of a sudden I don’t know what I am thinking, why I want to do what I want to do, why things make me nervous and wondering “where did all my words go?” It’s crazy to me. Yet it is also inspires me to do something, in all its frustrations it causes me to move. Even if my movement is only little steps at a time, every step puts me a little further out there.

Whom do you love? Now I am not looking for youth group confessions here to reveal our secret crushes. I want you to think about the persons in your life you love. Family, friends, significant someone? What makes them an object of your affection?

Let’s be honest, we love people who are loveable. We love for many reasons, some shallow and some very deep. We love someone because we find him or her attractive, fun to be around, we have things in common, a shared dream. We love someone because they have been kind to us, cared for us, protected us, loved us.

How many of you immediately think of the most unlikely person as the object of your love? How many of you love a murder, a drunk, a rapist, a liar, thief, etc.? How many love someone who is unworthy of your love? No we tend to love the loveable.

Let me share with you a story from John Elderidge about love:

Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden. The king was like no other king. No one dared breathe a word against him, for he had the strength to crush all opponents. And yet this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden. How could he declare his love for her? In an odd sort of way, his kingliness tied his hands. If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her body in royal robes, she would surely not resist—no one dared resist him. But would she love him?

She would say she loved him, of course, but would she truly? Or would she live with him in fear, nursing a private grief for the life she had left behind? Would she be happy at his side? How could he know? If he rode to her forest cottage in his royal carriage, with an armed escort waving bright banners, that too would overwhelm her. He did not want a cringing subject. He wanted a lover, an equal. He wanted her to forget that he was a king and she a humble maiden and to let shared love cross the gulf between them. For it is only in love that the unequal can be made equal.

The king clothes himself as a beggar and renounces his throne in order to win her hand. The Incarnation, the life and the death of Jesus, answers once and for all the question, "What is God's heart toward me?"

In this story we get a little picture of God’s amazing love for us. You see love moved God to do the crazy!

 ^“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV).

One translation states, “God demonstrated” his love. Love has to be visible to be understood. God doesn’t just say a lot of empty words He proves His love! Yet the story above still doesn’t fully grasp the extent of God’s love for us. We are not just humble maidens, but we are worthless sinners who live in direct opposition to God.

Even on our best day, when we do everything right, the Bible says “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6 ESV). Our entire being was rebelling against our Creator when He pursued us. He stepped out of Heaven, wrapped Himself in human flesh, lived a perfect life, was rejected by the people He came to save, crucified, died and buried to show He loved you. Three days later He rose again from the dead, for death could not hold Him! He could have just said “forget these humans, they killed me, let them get what they deserve!” Instead He opens His arms toward us and says, “Come to me, trust me, be my child!” That is a very unlikely love! Have you received His free love?

For those of us who follow Christ, He has shown us what unlikely love looks like. How are you living your life as an example of His love? Don’t just love the loveable. Learn to love the unlovable, the undesirable, and share Jesus with them!