Why Jesus Loves You

In case you have not heard this Good News, Jesus loves you. We all are sinners and we all fall short of the Goodness of the transcendent God in the Holy Spirit. In fact Jesus loves you so very much that even as a sinner, even before you or I repented, Jesus was willing to die on a cross. Most people would be willing to die for a family member, some may be willing to die for a friend. Few would die for a cause. There is just one that I know who died for the sake of all - including the enemy.

What this means is that you and I do not have to be perfect or pure in order for Jesus to love us. Jesus loves us first and then, in response to this radical acceptance of God’s love, we cannot help but change how we live and move in the world. And therein lies the overlooked reason why Jesus loves you.

Before we get to that reason, let us reflect on disciple Judas.

Judas was the misguided or even malicious disciple of Jesus who was so ashamed or distraught in his actions that he committed suicide. This disciple could not see any way out, he was so lost that he thought he had to be perfect or clean before Jesus would love him. Judas missed the point entirely and as a result is now the name we call people who are among the worst of the worst. So much so that in Dante’s telling of Hell, the fourth round in the lowest circle of Hell is called Judecca - and it is reserved for the traitors to lords/benefactors/masters.

It takes a lot of courage to love the traitor. It takes a lot of grace to see the on who betrays you is also a child of God. It takes a lot of mercy to overcome the hate harbored toward the one who betrays our trust. One might even say it takes divine love.

You and I are able to love family, friends, and even neighbors just fine without the help of Jesus. Jesus loves you so that you have the courage, grace and mercy to love the one who betrays you.

Jesus loves you so that you can love Judas.

And if that is not a humbling thought, don’t forget that someone probably thinks you are Judas.

Remember that time Jesus said to hate your parents?

Do you remember that time Jesus said to hate your parents? Luke 14: 25-27 reads:

25 Now large crowds were travelling with him; and he turned and said to them, 26‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Sometimes folks don’t believe that Jesus said this in the Gospels. It seems harsh at best and a violation of the “honor your father and mother” commandment at worst. How could Jesus ask any potential disciple to hate his parents, spouse, family and self?

I am unsure that Jesus is talking about one should hate a specific person so much as Jesus is asking the disciple to hate a system. The ruling family system of Jesus’ day was one called “paterfamilias”. In this system, the oldest living male was the absolute ruler over the family. He could legally exercise autocratic authority over his household. Jesus is demanding that would be disciples hate the “father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life” that affirmed, supported and promoted the paterfamilias system.

Hating a system of abuse, control and enslavement is very much a Jesus thing.

However, notice that Jesus goes on. He says in the next verses:

28For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.” 31Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.

In these two little parables, Jesus suggests that the mature disciple does not just “hate” a broken system. A mature disciple considers alternative ways of being before they embark on hating the broken system. You can hate what your parents make you for dinner, but unless you are willing to offer alternatives and help cook, then hating the meal is nothing but a tantrum.

And the only thing tantrums are capable of doing are destroying. I think the United States has bore witness to when the tantrums on the extremes act out: denial of reality, conformity culture, rejection of undesired outcomes, silencing of critique and the elevation of nihilism.

Hate the unhealthy, autocratic and enslaving systems. It is easy to tear those systems down. If we want to help usher in the Kingdom of God we have to see the conversion of hearts not just the application of rules. We cannot just decree a new reality with force without also converting the hearts of others. It is insufficient to tear down a tower without considering what will be built in it’s place. It is harmful to declare war on another unless you are able to convert the other to your cause.

The United Methodist Church has a splinter church called the Global Methodist Church that is doing a fine job at tearing down the UMC. At the same time, the GMC is doing a fine job at showing others what they want to build in place of the UMC. The UMC has to get clear on the reality that many people believe the UMC is broken, unhealthy or toxic and they want to tear it all down. And until the leaders in the UMC (myself included) are able to paint a picture of a new reality for the future of the UMC, there will be more stones cast our way.

We have got to be more direct with our ability to articulate how God’s vision for the UMC is not only faithful but vibrant and healthy. We cannot continue to have the generic messages that God loves you or that you are forgiven. These are important messages, but they cannot be the only messages. We have to be able to address what the Bible says vs. what the fundamentalists of different churches say the Bible says. We have to show in word and deed how critical Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are to the world and individual lives.

We have to offer alternatives and an imagined reality.

Redemption for the Salt-less

Matthew 5:13 reads, “‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.”

Often this is understood as some sort of unique characteristic of the disciple of Jesus and that we are being cautioned to retain this characteristic (saltiness) otherwise we will be good for nothing and trampled under foot. We are cautioned to retain our saltiness so that we are useful to God and that our purpose is to “season” the world. This is a nice sermon.

However, this interpretation assumes that God would be the one tossing us aside if we loose our saltiness. And that seems a bit unlike God. Especially the God of Jesus who always redeems that which is thought to be unredeemable. Do you know who tosses out people to be trampled under foot? Humanity.

However, it is difficult to miss that salt was a common use of currency in the Roman army. The word “salary” comes from the word salt, so I wonder if Jesus is making a connection about the poor and the current economic system of the day. Could it be less that Jesus is not talking about some characteristic but a reflection that the poor were considered as expendable as salt. Could it be that these words of Jesus reflect the ways the rich view the poor? Could it be this is less about God’s actions and more about how humans treat other humans? Could it be that the salt of the earth verse is related to the ways people persecute others?

Consider context of the two previous statement Jesus makes prior to the salt comments:

‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Jesus says we are blessed when we are persecuted and that we are to rejoice when we are treated as such. Then Jesus says, “‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.”

If salt is thrown out and trampled under foot then it is no longer good for taste. That means it cannot be used for human consumption or to be a product of the marketplace. Salt that looses its saltiness is no longer subject to the economic grind that values people only for what they can produce. Humans think the value of a person is in relationship to what they produce.

I am confident that God thinks differently.

God does not value humans on what we produce or contribute. God values humans because humans are God’s children. And as God’s children, we are called to be with and for one another. That is to say, we are to support and care for one another.

Salt that looses its saltiness is no longer good for the market because it has lost its economic value. However, I wonder if there is redemption for the salt-less?

Salt that has been baptized (that is salt that becomes saltwater) becomes a body makes it easier for people to float. The salt supports others regardless of how it tastes. Saltwater becomes a body of support for others who struggle. In this way, saltwater is not unlike what Jesus talks about in the next verses:

You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

Saltwater and light on a hill are not in service of themselves or gain value to what they add to the system. They are aids for others who are lost and struggling. The lift up those who are drowning. It lifts up the eyes of those who are lost.

For too long, Christians have tried to safeguard saltiness with a fear that loosing saltiness disappoints God. However, I wonder if this approach fails to imagine that God can redeem the salt-less?

The Proof of the Resurrection

How do we know that the resurrection is true? It is a question that Christians wrestle with and are asked every Easter. How can we know that this story of Jesus being raised by God after being dead for days is true? 

There are many good spirited Christians who attempt to provide a material response, or proof, to this question. They might point to an empty tomb. They might point to the stories in the Bible of first-hand witnesses. They might point to some relic of the past or some physical location to bolster the truth claim that Jesus was raised. Given our current levels of suspicion and skepticism, it seems that even if there was video footage of the empty tomb there would not be universal acceptance of the resurrection. And when we think about it, more people have converted to Christianity who have not seen an empty tomb than those who have seen an empty tomb. This suggests that the early Christians understood something that we may have forgotten: We know the resurrection is true and that Jesus is alive not because the tomb is empty but because we are not afraid of death. 

St. Athanasius of Alexandra makes this claim in his book “On the Incarnation of the Word” when he says, “A very strong proof of this destruction of death and its conquest by the cross is supplied by a present fact, namely this. All the disciples of Christ despise death; they take the offensive against it and, instead of fearing it, by the sign of the cross and by faith in Christ trample on it as on something dead.” 

The Easter is the season we are invited to witness that death has died on the cross and therefore no longer has any power. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:55, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” It is in these days we come to witness that in the death of Jesus, the power of death is destroyed.

Christ leaving an empty tomb may change your mind, but Christ defeating death will change your heart.