I remember vividly the time I was sitting listening to a gruff voiced man from South London as he began to address the assembled audience of which I was a part. "Love is fake man! What you hear about love is fake. The music you listen to sings of love but means sex. Boyfriend says to girlfriend I love you but he is with someone the next week. Love is fake man!"
I sat there thinking "Yeah that's right." What he was saying resonated with me. I saw through all of this shallowness. He continued speaking. "But tonight I want to tell you about real love." By this time he had my attention. In all truth I didn't love anyone. I didn't know how to. I knew how to hate. I knew how to be sarcastic but I didn't love anyone.
The message he gave that night marked a turnaround in my life. I was confronted with something I had never heard before. I was confronted with something that wasn't soppy or soft but something truly virtuous and courageous. The speaker told the story of a man arrested for treason in the English civil war hundreds of years ago. The criminal was tied to a tree and then the military commander lined up his archers in preparation for the execution which was to happen on the hour. In desperation the condemned man's fiance appeared and threw herself at the commander's feet begging for mercy. He threw her to one side threatening similar treatment if she didn't make herself scarce. Seeing the futility of her pleas she mounted her horse and rode away leaving the commander and his men to their task.
There was a tradition in those times that a condemned man would be executed on the sound of the bell of a great church tower that stood some distance away. The sound of this bell could be heard for miles around and yet there was one tiny sliver of hope for those condemned to die. Should the bell not toll on the hour it was taken as a sign of divine intervention. A sign from the heavens that this man's life should be spared. The soldiers waited...and waited...and waited and no bell was heard. Eventually the commander ordered the man released and he ran as fast as he could before they could change their minds. The commander was curious however. He was sure he heard something but was certain he heard no sound of a bell. Puzzled by this he got on his horse and rode to the church and to the tower where he was confronted by a sight that was to stay with him the rest of his life. Tied to the hammer inside the huge bell was this woman who had pleaded for the life of her fiance. In desperation she had raced to the tower, climbed to the top and tied herself to the huge hammer inside the bell in a frantic attempt to muffle the sound. The commander looked up to see her crushed lifeless body. The ultimate sacrifice to save the life of another.
The preacher looked out at his audience. "How many of you love someone enough to die for them?" Well he'd got me on two counts. Not only did I not love anyone but despite my somewhat arrogant belief that I could do anything if I tried hard enough I had to admit I would never ever die for anyone. No way. I was scared of dying. You get one life and that's it. I figured I could do anything but I knew I couldn't do that. I certainly didn't love anyone enough to do that.
That night changed how I saw things. I no longer saw love as fake. I no longer viewed love as soft or superficial. I began to see my own estimation of myself was far higher than it should be. Perhaps the most profound words he spoke that night were these.
"That story describes exactly what Jesus did for all of us. We are guilty of treason against God's authority over our lives. God's response was to send the one he loved, Jesus, to die in our place. To die so that we could be pardoned."
I couldn't tell you how many times I ridiculed religious people before then. I considered them deluded, soft in the head, weird and made them the butt of so many jokes yet here was something I was compelled to take seriously. Only the most foolish of people would ridicule this. I was well and truly put in my place and it was all down to an encounter with real authentic love.
To be perfectly honest up to that point I had lived my life all out for whatever I liked and I liked doing wrong. I just had to cause mischief. I gravitated to all the wrong people and I enjoyed pretty much every wrong thing I did. I had done almost as much as anyone to earn God's judgement. If anyone had the right to judge it was God and if anyone was asking to be judged it was me yet God's response was the complete opposite. He took everything I ever done wrong and placed it on his son Jesus. Jesus took upon himself the punishment he never deserved to set free someone who had well and truly earned judgement. That's real love. That's authentic love. That's the message of the gospel. The message that God loved every one of us so much he gave up his one and only son so that whoever would put their faith in him would never perish but have everlasting life.
As I look back over the last 20 years I am thankful for that night, that message, that preacher. I am thankful that although I am not yet the person I want to be I am not the person I used to me. I am thankful for the chance to see things differently. Most of all I am thankful to the one who taught me what real authentic love is not only by what he said but what he did.
In a world where love is often so transitory, fickle, superficial and unreliable {even where it exists at all} I am thankful for one who showed me what real love looks like. The love Jesus has for us is, after all these years, still the most inspiring and life transforming thing I have ever experienced and possibly the greatest thing of all is that it has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not we deserve it. Jesus love for every person on this planet is based purely on who he is. His love is truly unconditional. After all, for a good person some of us might even dare to die {whether we'd actually go through with it is another thing} but God commends his love to us in that while we were sinners, ignoring him, breaking his laws and living independently of him, Christ died for us. That's real authentic love.
Shalom...Steve
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