A Thought For The Week Of February 22, 2016

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." (John 15:12) In my opinion this is one of the most meaningful verses in all of Scripture. Too often in today's world we cheapen the concept of love. One way we do that is by simply romanticizing the idea of love - so that love becomes only what's depicted on Valentine's Day cards or in Hollywood love stories. Or we just throw the word around loosely so that it really means nothing and we proclaim our love for virtually anything (because, one can indeed proclaim their love for virtually anything.) But in this one verse, Jesus deromanticizes love and points out that love comes with a price if it's real love. "Love one another as I have loved you." Which begs the question - how did Jesus love us? Jesus loved us by giving and sacrificing. In the context of the passage Jesus had already shown such love. He extended it to the disciples - some of whom (like Matthew, a tax collector and therefore a collaborator with the Romans) would have been despised by respectable society, and he extended it beyond the Jewish community (to the Samaritan woman at the well or the Roman centurion whose servant he healed.) In both cases Jesus risked drawing the hatred of society onto himself - and, in fact, it wasn't just  a risk. His love resulted in the ultimate sacrifice  - by loving so richly and so deeply and so widely he ended up on a cross - put to death with great suffering. Love always comes with a price - if it's real love. It's more than just romance and it's more than just a way of saying "I really, really, really like ice cream." Love comes with a sacrifice - if it's real love. This is the love Jesus showed us; it's the love Jesus wants us to show one another.