Hastings: Longing for love
“You’re to love one another the way I have loved you … There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” — Jesus in John 13:34 and 15:13 The Inclusive Bible
The crowds who listened to Jesus longed for love in a land churning with power struggles under foreign rule. Their world was not so different from the world today. People in all times and places long for divine love in the midst of circumstances they cannot control.
Jesus came to show the way of love in the midst of the challenges of everyday life. He taught and lived the highest form of love — neighbor-love which gives of itself for others — a love many ponder and seek during Lenten journeys.
Jesus’ self-giving love led through lies and betrayal, injustice and torture. His mother, sisters and brothers, disciples and friends felt deep grief, anguish and loss at the foot of the cross. No one could change what was happening, and it hurt a lot.
Jesus led those who loved him into a painful situation which could not be changed or fixed. The only way forward was acceptance and letting go — letting go of all the hopes and dreams they’d shared, letting go of everything that could have and should have been but was not to be.
Jesus showed the way of acceptance and letting go. He let go of his family and friends, his hopes, his country and his very life when he cried, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” Beyond the laying down of his life, a powerful spiritual truth emerged: Nothing in all of life — or death — can separate us from the love of God — which is above us, beneath us, around us and within us — always and forever.
This is great good news for all who are longing for love!
The Rev. Celia M. Hastings has a master's degree in religious education from Western Theological Seminary in Holland. She is author of “The Wisdom Series” and “The Undertaker’s Wife.”
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Hastings: Longing for love
