Most of us love with limits.
Even the most compassionate person has limitations to their love. They draw the line somewhere.
In our polarized world, lines are constantly being drawn. Different political party? Line. Different faith? Line. Has an android? Line. Chews with their mouth open? Line.
Here’s the simple truth: Jesus love doesn’t draw the line anywhere.
He took the religious people of the time by surprise with the way he opted to hang out with the outcasts, the criminals, the tax collectors, the prostitutes; because he knew these people needed it the most and because the people who claimed to be following God frowned upon them.
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners.” Mark 2:17
Jesus wasn’t patting the Pharisees on the back or complimenting them on their righteousness, he was calling them out on their lack of compassion and holier-than-thou attitudes. They weighed other people’s flaws against their own and used the deficit to declare themselves ‘righteous’ and anyone worse off than themselves ‘sinners’. Then, the Pharisees proceeded to draw their line. Once you declare someone as inferior, it becomes far too easy to see them as undeserving. And it is much harder to love someone who doesn’t seem to deserve it.
But isn’t that what Jesus does for us?
A hard truth Jesus delivered to the Pharisees and continues to deliver to us today: NO one is considered “more worthy” of God’s love.
We have all fallen short, we have all let people down, and we are all so incredibly undeserving of the love we receive. Yet still, we receive it unconditionally and are called to extend that love to everyone as Jesus did, without adding the lines or limits or conditions that he never burdened us with.
“Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Luke 7:47
This verse isn’t saying some people have been forgiven more than others- because we have all been forgiven so so incredibly. This verse is about how we perceive the forgiveness we have received. If we realize how much we have been forgiven, we are so much more willing and desperate to love because we are aware of the grace we have been given. If we believe that we have been forgiven little, it’s much more convenient to look down on those we believe to be ‘worse off’ and deem them less worthy. It’s the root of hypocrisy, and it’s toxic.
Jesus’ love doesn’t make sense, because Jesus is radical in the way he loves people. We all need forgiveness so desperately, and God gives it to us freely so that we can go out and LOVE BIG.
Let’s take ownership of the overflow of love given to us and steward it well by removing all the lines we’ve drawn. Let’s continue to rejoice in loving people who we don’t think deserve it, because in reality we don’t deserve it either. Nevertheless, God delights in us and calls us his beloved children.
