I was privileged to know a great love. When I was just a boy of 19, I met the woman who captivated me, falling passionately in love with her. Yes, as it is with most young men, at first that ‘love’ was mostly physical. She was a beauty. But it was not long before a deeper kind of connection formed that turned into a partnership that extended over 4 decades, including 4 children, shared ministry, and the most intimate kind of human connection. Our love wrapped around hard times, misunderstandings, differences of opinion, and the stresses of ordinary life. It culminated in the closing days of her life with care that led her home to the arms of Jesus.
Our love was much more than talk, deeper than mere sentiment, and strong!
We, Christians, talk about loving God a lot, singing about love, including much sloppy sentiment in our ‘worship’ but do we really love Him? Or is the ‘love’ of which we speak a more transactional kind of thing formed around hoping for the blessing of God in reward for some level of service?
Jesus said that a factor in our love of the Lord is our understanding of His grace, His willingness to forgive our sins and accept us as His children. His words came in a rich context. Imagine the scene!
Jesus is at the home of a respected local leader, a man who carefully lived his life to avoid outward sin, a Pharisee. He regularly attended synagogue, prayed, studied the Torah, and observed the Law of Moses scrupulously. As they are enjoying dinner, a woman with a reputation, multiple infidelities, a social outcast, made her way to the table, found Jesus and knelt down at his feet weeping. She did not stop there. She took out a jar of ointment and spread it on Jesus’ feet, the heavy scent of perfume filling the air. Then, most scandalously, she bent down, wiping his feet with her hair and kissing them! Yes, it was as scandalous as it sounds.
After a shocked silence, Simon muttered that Jesus could not possibly be a godly man, or he would have put an end to such a display. Jesus’ answer to him nearly brings me to tears each time I read it.
Here’s the passage. “He turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” (Luke 7)
Could it be that our lack of a deep and passionate love of God is the result of our lack of understanding of our naturally sinful state, our alienation from Him that results from our choices?
Seems to me that we do not really think we ‘sin’ these days. Oh yes, we admit to making mistakes, but excuse them as just ‘being human.’ We sometimes face up to our flaws and failures but tend to blame our situation or experience; “if I had better parents,” or “if I had more opportunity,” or … well, the list of things we blame for our own choices is long.
It is hard, I know personally, to look into the mirror and admit to our sinfulness, our selfishness, our shallowness; to face our depravity. Now that’s a word that shocks, isn’t it? One doesn’t have to be especially evil to be sinful. “Nice” people still sin- failing God, building their lives on empty things like reputation, pleasure, or piling up more stuff. It is even quite possible to be very religious and deeply sinful at the same time! That’s what Jesus saw in Simon that day.
Our pride wants to ‘make a deal’ with God, accepting Jesus as the Savior, but then believing that we can live good enough to earn His favor. The ‘love’ of many collapses when that deal doesn’t work out! When God allows us to suffer, when He doesn’t act in a way we deem ‘fair’ after all we have done for Him, we turn cold, becoming distant, our prayers are emptied of passion, our hearts are dead to His Presence.
Oh, that we would allow the Spirit to show us our true selves. Only then will the proud Pharisee become the weeping woman at the feet of Jesus.
I knew a great love with Bev, not because I was a stellar husband, but because we chose each other, fixed our affection for each other, and accepted one another for who we were, not some image we conjured in our minds about who we desired.
God loves me (and you) not because I am beautiful, good, desirable, or needed. His love chose me, desires me, and will make me into the best person I can be. “Oh, to grace how great a debtor, I’m constrained to be.” When that becomes clear to me against the backdrop of my sin, love overwhelms me - a GREAT love!
My friend, if you want your devotion to deepen, face your true Self. Admit your failures, without excuse. Stop pretending. At first, it may be hard, disturbing even, to face up to the parts of you that are carefully hidden away from sight. But, if you will carry them to Jesus, you find He forgives, cleanses, and heals. And you will learn to love Him more and better.
Meditate on this word from the Word from the Revelation, an
apt description of much of American Christianity in 2025. This is a paraphrase
called The Message.
“I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You’re not cold,
you’re not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You’re stale. You’re
stagnant. You make me want to vomit. You brag, ‘I’m rich, I’ve got it made, I
need nothing from anyone,’ oblivious that in fact you’re a pitiful, blind
beggar, threadbare and homeless.
“Here’s what I want you to do: Buy your gold from me,
gold that’s been through the refiner’s fire. Then you’ll be rich. Buy your
clothes from me, clothes designed in Heaven. You’ve gone around half-naked long
enough. And buy medicine for your eyes from me so you can see, really see.
“The people I love, I call to account—prod and correct
and guide so that they’ll live at their best. Up on your feet, then! About
face! Run after God!
“Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear
me call and open the door, I’ll come right in and sit down to supper with you.
Conquerors will sit alongside me at the head table, just as I, having
conquered, took the place of honor at the side of my Father. That’s my gift to
the conquerors!
“Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words,
the Spirit blowing through the churches.”
Lord, lead me to a great love. Amen.
