Love: Beyond All Rationality

Introduction: 

Welcome my friend, 

If you're on holiday, it's because today is regarded as this year's Good Friday which is significant because it's the memorial of the death of Jesus Christ. 

For some, it's a chance to take a break from work, for others it's linking up with family and friends, and for the rest of us, every other activity we'd be engaged in. 

However, in all of these, today's conversation aims to point us to some valuable lessons around the Easter story that can easily be lost in all of our activities. 

This way, we're able to celebrate with reflection, introspection and purpose; rather than just mere excitement and feasting. 

Having taken our time to highlight the depth of love which can make one willingly lay their life as a substitute for the judgement passed on another. 

A love beyond rationality and all other sacrifices we're willing to make for the ones closest to us. 

Discussion:

Jesus Christ and his disciples were bound by love and loyalty just as many other master servant relationships. 

They professed this love to him, not just with words but actions, availing their time to follow him wherever he went as he lived out his purpose here on earth. 

However, like in many of our relationships, situations can arise that shake the love we have for one another to the core, putting it to serious tests; and in this Easter story we take a look at some of them. 

Many times what we share with and feel for a person can be so strong and real until it's tested by: 

▪︎ Money 

After betraying his master for thirty (30) pieces of silver, Judas Iscariot committed suicide out of guilt. 

Having collected all that money he no longer felt the joy to carry on with his life and live out all the plans he had made prior to receiving his payments. 

Many times the love we share will be tested by money and many other material incentives as we get involved with friends and family in business. 

At that point, if money is all that matters to us, then we're not afraid to tear down everything we've built over the years just to have a greater share of the goodies or as we'd like to put it “don't get cheated”. 

This is what happens when we're blinded by greed. 

As Judas went on to realize, there's so much more to life than just money and many times we only find out when we've given up our soul for it; and learned that it didn't satisfy. 

▪︎ Societal Pressure 

When Jesus Christ told Peter that he was going to deny him three (3) times before the cock crow, he didn't believe it himself. 

After all, he was a firm personality, steadfast to his master and his values. 

Yet as humans it takes a lot more to resist  folding in the face pressure, as he rightly found out. 

Many times the love we share can be put to test when it's not popular. 

Associating with certain people in the society can put us under scrutiny such that it threatens our life or livelihood in a prevailing “cancel culture”. 

When loved ones are wrongly accused by those that don't know them well enough, would we find the courage to defend their integrity even if it puts us under the spotlight? 

Are we going to readily throw our friends under the bus for the acceptance and applause of the wider society when we were close enough to them to tell their true character?

▪︎ Difficult Circumstances 

When the cookie crumbles, are we going to come together as friends to build ourselves back up, or do we find the easy way out of the relationship so that all men can fend for themselves? 

For the first time without their master, the disciples were tasked with the responsibility of coming together to keep his ministry going, something they eventually thrived at. 

It's easier to go through tough times together, leaning on each other for support and encouragement rather than doing it alone. 

The decision we take together as friends can backfire in such a way that one person may have to bear the bulk of the consequences.

Are we ready to be that friend?

If we aren't, are we ready to support them through the difficulties rather than mock them? 

▪︎ Death 

When a loved one passes, do we continue to love their memory and legacy or do we belittle it at any chance we get? 

The disciples of Jesus Christ found the faith and courage to continue in his work passing on the truth of his words to us through the gospel as recorded in the Bible. 

Also, how do we treat the family and associates that a loved one left behind?

Do we continue to be kind and generous to them or do we just walk away because we feel what bound us was lost in death? 

When we truly love a person, we extend the same grace to those dear to their hearts, long after they're no more here. 

■ The Love That Withstands All Things 

Despite the fact that his disciples desperately wanted to do good by Jesus Christ's side, they still fell short because it's human nature to do so. 

This is why he doesn't judge us harshly for it. 

In fact, the reason for his death was to pay for all of our sins so that he was punished in our place. 

This is the greatest act of love. 

In sending his son to atone for our sins God demonstrated that there is nothing that he withholds from us, and will freely give us everything we need. 

The love God has for us is unconditional because he knows that our human nature will always get in the way of our faithfulness towards him. 

■ How We Reciprocate This Love

God isn't looking for perfect men, he just wants willing hearts. 

The love of God is not a vague concept, it's real and practical and we experience it each time we come to him in prayer seeking to commune with him, and to ask what he requires of us. 

If we pay close attention, we can see how God turns our prayer requests to testimonies so that we're living out days we prayed for without even being grateful for it, because we're caught in the chase for “better days”.

When we feel this love, it fills us with so much desire to reciprocate it that sin begins to look unattractive to us. 

Yet through it all we're reminded that we can never do too much or too little to please God; but every time we come with a willing heart we show our desire to reciprocate this awesome love for which he has first loved us. 

When we show remorse each time we err, we make ourselves ready for his work of sanctification in our lives, as he gradually turns our hardhearts to repentance. 

Summary: 

No one can love us like God, so when we reject his love, we miss out on the most wholesome feeling ever. 

The love of God satisfies and comforts, so that we can live a life of joy, strengthened by trials and developed by struggles. 

In this we're able to feel the same way on our worst day as on our best, knowing that he loves us the same on each of them, and wouldn't have our backs any less on either. 

In this Easter season we're reminded that the death of Jesus Christ is our claim to God's forgiveness of sins, which is what purifies us to walk in his presence. 

Finally, in the last part of our story, Jesus Christ gave the repentant thief beside him a free pass to join him in paradise; a proof that all it takes to get him to forgive us is just that we ask. 

Why then are we overthinking our decision to give up control of our lives to the one who wouldn't think twice about choosing us in any instance?

Master Apprentice. 

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