A while back there was a news story on the BBC about a teenage girl in England who had her boyfriend’s nickname tattooed in Chinese on her stomach, symbolic of her “undying love” for him. A tattoo on your stomach?—that’s got to hurt. A little later—and who would have seen this coming—they broke up. That’s bad enough when you’re a high school kid, but worse was when she discovered in a Chinese restaurant that what her tattoo actually said was: supermarket. That’ll screw up your day.
The problem with love is that we all think we know what it is, all of us want it, none of us do it that well, and most of us believe we do it as good as everyone else. So when we think about the love of God, we really don’t have a clue.
But when you run into Jesus in the gospels there’s a kind of love that defies description: it’s raging, it’s extravagant, it’s illogical, it’s over-the-top, it’s revolutionary, it pushes the boundaries of how we define love.
As one of the writers of the accounts of Jesus and the early church, Luke is an educated guy. He’s a physician, historian…and a missionary friend with Paul, once surviving a shipwreck with him…so he’s not just sitting behind a desk in academia. Luke gives an abbreviated account of what is called The Sermon on the Mount, the most complete recording we have of one of Jesus’ talks. It’s three chapters in Matthew, but Luke gives a Reader’s Digest version in chapter six, kind of a Homily on a Hill.
Before we read it, I want you to consider this: when we hear these words, we immediately think about how far we are from actually living this out. I mean, you’ve got to be a bonafide saint to do what He’s talking about here. This really stretches the way we see love.
But instead of seeing how far short we are in living this out, I want you to catch something at the end of this that might reset how you’ve seen this in the past.
Jesus had been preaching for a little while when He suddenly says:
“But if you are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for the happiness of those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn the other cheek. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give what you have to anyone who asks you for it; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. Do for others as you would like them to do for you. Do you think you deserve credit merely for loving those who love you? Even the sinners do that! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, is that so wonderful? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, what good is that? Even sinners will lend to their own kind for a full return. Love your enemies! Do good to them! Lend to them! And don’t be concerned that they might not repay. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High…
Now catch this:
…for he is kind to the unthankful and to those who are wicked.” Luke 6:27–35 (New Living Translation)
Here’s what I want us to rethink: How many of us have thought of God like that?—Or like all the descriptors that Jesus just gave?—
God gives the shirt off His back to those who hate Him.
God lends to those who will never repay.
God loves those who despise Him.
God gives to anyone who asks Him.
That is a very different picture than most people have of God the Father…and that’s how Jesus is bragging about His Dad. Anybody can get a tattoo of their boyfriend in a moment of blind romantic love. But this is a different kind of love.
Author Frederick Buechner writes: “Romantic love is blind to everything except what is lovable and lovely, but Christ’s love sees us with terrible clarity and sees us whole.”
In Luke’s gospel—and his account alone—is the most famous parable of love of all: the story of the prodigal son. It’s actually about two brothers and a dad. I’ve read this story so many times I can see it all in my head like a movie, like a Broadway show. I call it: “The Idiot Brothers: A Six Act Play”. There are six moments in Jesus’s love story where the plot turns and Jesus is setting us up for a radical picture of how God loves us and inviting us to see ourselves.
It begins in Luke 15:11…and the First Act is called: Independence.
“There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
It opens with a very clear issue: the son frankly would prefer it if his father was dead—he just wants his inheritance. The son’s approach in a mideast culture would be considered extremely dishonoring. He wants to be no part of his father’s life. “(Dad), give me my share of the estate…”
Think about that: What part of your life are you living independently from God? What aspect of your life do not want God to be a part of?—just bless me but don’t get pushy; give me what I’m praying for, but don’t bother me with any “change” details on my part.
The Second Act gives us a snapshot of the condition of the strong-willed son’s heart: The Self-Focused Life.
“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.
Just think of your first year away from home, or your freshman year of college. It’s not just that he spent all the inheritance; it was that he was totally self-focused. What’s more, it makes a point that he went to a distant country; in other words, he was far away from his father’s house. Catch the analogy?—we’re either living a sacrificial “pick-up-your-cross-and-follow-me”-life with Jesus, or we’re living the self-focused life and moving away from Him.
Act Three is The Awakening.
“After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!’
He ends up broke on a hog farm as a common slave. After a while, the pigs’ food begins to look like a quarter-pounder-with-cheese. The cluephone rings and he finally picks it up. This guy gets to number one in his 12-Step program and he says “Oi vey! I’m powerless and my life has become unmanageable! Am I crazy?”
This is the beginning of true conversion. Every one of us has some area of our lives where God is trying to wake us up out of our slumber…where we come to our senses. It could be a relationship. It could be our own poor choices. It could be anything. But one day we wake up and realize we’re in a pigpen emotionally and spiritually and we need to get up and make amends.
Is there an area of your life where you’re saying “Why am I in this self-inflicted prison?” Are you having a divine flash of self-awareness? If so, then the curtains open for Act 4, called Turning Home.
“‘I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father.
In this act, the Self-Centered Son formulates a plan of action and mentally rehearses his repentance speech. This is where the Spam hits the fan. Are we willing to face the consequences of our actions? Even when we know we have a loving Father, it’s still hard to admit when we’ve messed up.
Are we willing to swallow our pride and return to our Father’s house? This isn’t about doing better. Sometimes when it comes to God we can hide ourselves in busy-ness and performance when we simply need to return to the Father and say, “I blew it.”
Act 5 is a beautiful one called Acceptance.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
Get the picture: the son hitchhiked hundreds of miles, when suddenly his dad sees him on the security camera, opens the driveway gate, runs down the road and wraps his arms around this emaciated bag of bones in a garbage-soaked overcoat and kisses his unshaven face. And so it goes that they threw a serious party that night.
Do you really believe this part of the story? Do you think there is an area of your life that you cannot walk out of? That deep down you’re afraid that God might reject you? That the shame of what you did—or even the shame of what someone else did to you—somehow makes you unapproachable to God? He only asks that you come to your senses and return home to His care.
But the Final Act suddenly pulls in the Mystery Character, the Older Brother. This is the finale that really throws off the people who are listening to Jesus’ story. Act Six is called “Dad, Are You Crazy?”
“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.
But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” Luke 15:11-32 (New International Version)
Sitting in the audience when Jesus told this story were the Pharisees. Those are the people like me: religious leaders and people who study the scriptures and take care of the temple…and like many of you as well. This part of the story would push them over the edge, because the older brother implicated them.
The word prodigal means wasteful. Extravagantly wasteful. Interestingly, author Tim Keller suggests the story should be called The Prodigal God. Why would God waste his love on a reprobate son who dissed him and blew his money? And even more remarkable, invites the self-righteous older brother to celebrate as well? This love is like nothing else we know.
The story of Jesus—the cross & the resurrection—is told again and again in churches all over the world every Good Friday and Easter. But it’s just a story until it becomes your story. There were other myths about the gods coming and dying and resurrecting…prophetic fables of a coming story….and then history records one of them actually happening…and the men and women who would give their lives for that story. But it is just a story until it becomes your story.
The cross is love expressed…the resurrection is love empowered.
There is a purpose in the story of a God who would love us in such an extravagant, seemingly wasteful, way…whether we respond or not. But if we do respond, there is an Act Seven for us.
Paul tells the remarkable ending to our story in the form of a personal prayer. If you have your Bible, turn to Ephesians 1:3-9. As an exercise, I want you to mentally put your name in where you see the words “us” and “we”…imagine your name in their place. Paul prays:
How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ. Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the wonderful kindness he has poured out on us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son, and our sins are forgiven. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure. (Ephesians 1:3–9 New Living Translation)
Here’s how this works: I want to read the exact same prayer but with someone’s name in the place of the personal pronouns. I need a volunteer to come up here and simply sit on this stool. I’m not going to embarrass you or make you do anything silly…I’m just going to speak that passage over you and show you how powerful this is when you see yourself as the recipient of God’s extravagant love.
(a volunteer comes up, sits on the stool, I ask them their name, and then speak this prayer “over” them with their name inserted in the blanks)
Now watch how powerful this is…
How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed ____ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because ____ belongs to Christ. Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved ____ and chose ____ in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt ____ into his own family by bringing ____ to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the wonderful kindness he has poured out on ____ because ____ belongs to his dearly loved Son. He is so rich in kindness that he purchased ____’s freedom through the blood of his Son, and ____’s sins are forgiven. He has showered his kindness on ____ , along with all wisdom and understanding. God’s secret plan has now been revealed to ____ ; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure.
How did that feel, ____? Not bad, eh? Thanks so much…you can have a seat now.
You are Act Seven. Each of you is the recipient of the Father’s extravagant love.
