God's Love

As you read through Gospels what you find is that along with living, dying and being resurrected, Jesus teaches. He teaches minds so that they will think what is right, wills so that they will choose what is right, and affections so they will desire what is right. He teaches people about reality. He teaches them using words and images and experiences. And that is what He is doing with Lazarus and Mary and Martha. And in their particular case, He is teaching them about the love of God. So, we continue what we started last week. Let's start by reading the next part of John's account. (John 11.17-44)

So, what happened? Jesus finally arrives in Bethany. And He finds His friends, Mary and Martha, overtaken with grief over the death of their brother. After Jesus spoke with each of the sisters, John tells us that He was 'deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled'. There is a way of hearing those words that misses what was going on. Being 'deeply moved' means that Jesus was infuriated. And being 'greatly troubled' means that His emotions were in a turmoil. So, if you were there you would not see a quiet and tranquil Jesus. No, you would see a Jesus who was riled up. And why? Well, just consider what was going on around Him. His friends were overcome by their sorrow. They were weeping, not quietly like we're used to seeing, but loudly with great emotion. And what is the cause of this wailing? Lazarus, whom they all loved, was dead. So, Jesus responds. He responds with great anger at what evil has once again accomplished. And He responds by adding His own tears of grief to those of the others. He does not come to change the mood of the moment with some cheap religious platitudes. No, He joins with all the others in mourning, as well as being enraged at what has happened. Here we see the love of God identifying with His people as they suffer more of the brokenness of this life. In compassion, He aches along with them.

However - stop and think for a moment. There is something that isn't quite right in all of this. Do you see it? Lazarus' death isn't just a matter of some evil fate that took control of the situation and did its ugly work. No. In fact, is it too strong to say that all of this sorrow and mourning and tears is Jesus' fault? I don't think so. Lazarus is dead because of what Jesus did. Do you remember from last week that Jesus could have healed this friend whom He loved, but He refused to? Do you remember how He purposely stayed where He was until it was clear that Lazarus had died? So, while we see all this anger and the tears and the empathy with His friends because of this evil, we need to recognize that what happened is Jesus’ fault. Lazarus is dead because of what Jesus did - or rather, because of what He refused to do. Now, have I made a mistake? Am I misreading the situation? I don't see how. John is quite clear about what Jesus did - and didn't - do, and why. And I don't think that we want to say that Jesus goofed in His decision not to act and felt bad about it later. So, what is going on?

Quite the question. And here's the answer: Jesus is teaching. Remember, He teaches by words and images and experiences. He's teaching. And what is it that Jesus is teaching in this? One thing He is teaching is the love of God. There are four qualities to God's love that Jesus is teaching here. And we're going to look at each in turn.

The first has to do with the tenderness of God's love. As we've seen, Jesus mourned with His friends. But it is very important that you see that He shed real tears that came from sincere emotions because of the suffering of His friends. He is not acting out a part. He is responding honestly. In this, as in everything else that He does, Jesus is revealing the Father's heart. Your God weeps with you as evil does its ugly work. He knows what you are experiencing, and He hates it. His love for you is not this cold, distant thing. His plan for your life not a stoic plot to do you good, ignoring the fact that you will hurt along the way. Your God sheds honest tears and gets really mad when you suffer. Isn't that what Jesus is revealing in this event? So, you need to hold on to this fact of reality: the love of God is tender toward you. You have a Father who cries along with you.

But you need to put that together with this other quality of the love of God. The love of God is severe. As I showed you last week, it was because of love that Jesus made sure that Lazarus died. Jesus made sure that those sisters watched him die. Jesus made sure that evil did some more of its ugly work. And He did that because of love. Now, we know that the motive was love because we know from Scripture that all that God does in the lives of His saints is motivated by His love for us. But we also know this because of what John wrote.

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

If you were here last week you'll remember how I dealt with that 'So'. Jesus loved these three friends of His, 'therefore', He did nothing. His motivation for doing nothing was love for these three. Jesus was motivated by love, but it is so important to understand that this love of God is not always gentle. Sometimes it is severe. Thus David writes,

The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death.

And why did David's God treat him in this way? Well, this is how David begins that Psalm.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

This steadfast love that endures forever treated David severely. And so it makes sense when we read words like this:

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? 'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.'

'Chastise' can sound like such a neat and clean word, maybe even a little quaint. But you need to know that it means 'flog' or 'whip'. When John writes that they whipped Jesus, this is the word that he uses. The love of God is severe.

It's here that you need to be careful. Yes, it's true that the love of God is severe, but do not let that overwhelm the equally true fact that the love of God is tender. They are both true. They are both equally true. Problems result when someone highlights one and downplays the other. They are both equally true. Now, you might be thinking, 'How can they both be true? How can God be severe and at the same time tender toward us?' I have no idea. But I don't need to know the inner workings of God's mind. I just need to believe what He tells me. So, I know that my God weeps for me even as He is laying the whip to my back. This is reality.

God's love is tender. It's severe. And it's also powerful. When was the last time you saw someone who had been stone-cold dead for four days suddenly get up and start walking around? Jesus did the impossible. And He did it because of love. Holding on to this quality of God's love is critical today. I say that because we have all been taught to look at our world with certain assumptions built in. We've been taught that impossible things don't happen. They can't happen. They're impossible. In some cases that belief has been given the fancy title of 'the laws of science'. Most of us learned to think this way simply by watching the people around us and imitating their assumptions about what is possible and what just isn't. So, expectations about what might happen are limited to things labeled 'possible'. But God's love is not limited to the possible. His love accomplishes impossible things. And while this doesn't mean that we can just tell God to do some impossible thing that we like and expect Him to hop to it, it does mean that we should be expecting more mountains to be cast into the sea. The love of God does the impossible, and we need to learn how to expect that of Him.

Tender, severe, powerful and now one more. God's love is partial. Your experience of the love of God here, in this life, will not be the full experience of that love. Consider this: at some point Lazarus died, again. But that time, he was not rescued from his tomb. That has to wait for another day. His experience of the love of God was partial on that day that Jesus raised him. There are many ways that the love of God will change your life in the here and now, ways that will astound you. But there will still be large parts of your lives that will remain broken. You will be healed of the ugliness of many evils, but not all of them. You will see many abiding sins conquered, but not all of them. Your experience of the love of God will be partial - and that will continue to be the case until Jesus returns. This is important because of the matter of expectations. Too many expect a heaven on earth where everything is pretty much fixed. The big problems of life will be resolved, and it will all work just fine. And all that's needed for that to happen is a little faith and the powerful love of God. Well, no that's not true. The day will come when it will be true, when everything will be perfectly fixed and the love of God will completely banish every form of evil, and that forever. But that is not now. And so, since your experience of the love of God is partial, incomplete, you will need to learn patience and contentment in the face of ongoing evil. But you do that being assured that the evil that remains is with you because of the love of God.

So, God's love is tender, severe, powerful and partial.

Now, why did I tell you all of that? I've told you these things because hard days are coming. Being a faithful disciple of Jesus is going to get more and more difficult. And what will keep you going in the face of this coming evil is a robust understanding of the love of God - tender, severe, powerful, partial. It seems to me that far too many Christians today have what amounts to a sentimental notion of God's love. That's why when evil strikes they are completely bewildered. Many get angry at God for His supposed failure. They do not have a clear enough view of reality. What they need is an understanding of God's love that is accurate, one that directs the mind, steels the will, and excites the affections. They need a fully biblical understanding of the love of God. But too many Christians in our culture do not have that. They are not prepared for the evil that is coming. But I want you to be prepared.

So, what do you do now? Here's one possible course of action. You need to assess yourself. I've mentioned four qualities of God's love. How are you doing at believing them? You can't answer that as if it were a question on a test. The answer isn't something that you think about and then write on a piece of paper. Your answer is revealed in how you live. So, does your life show that you believe that God's love is tender, that it's severe, that it's powerful, that it's partial? (An extra question for some of you: How are your kids doing at believing these things?) More than likely you'll find some area of weakness. And that will tell you what to pray about. And as you pray about your weakness, think through why it is that you don't believe that particular quality of God's love, why it doesn't show in your life as well as it might. Are there ways you think about reality that need to change? Are there particular situations where you find it more difficult for you to believe one or the other of those qualities? Deal with those questions so that you can pray about the specifics of your particular weakness. Assess where you are so that you can be prepared.