The Love of a Betrayed King…
04.02.23
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
(Underlines added for emphasis)
We often highlight the salvation and forgiveness we receive from God during this Easter season. We tend to personalize what we receive from God in this story. There is nothing wrong with doing this, we SHOULD take the time to reflect on the amazing grace of God through what Jesus did for you and me. But we are often way less excited about personalizing and envisioning ourselves amongst the crowds as they turned from praising to betraying Jesus.
Palm Sunday is a good reminder that humanity often proves itself to love (and worship) conditionally. Humanity again turned away from God. If we believe this part of the story, and If Jesus was fully human (as we discussed last week in how He showed us the WAY to live), He shows us, not only how HE forgives US, but how WE are to forgive OTHERS.
Who is excited about forgiving those who have betrayed us? Embracing an internal peace with God despite external conflict with either family, friends, or “enemies”? It’s much easier to just plant our flags, hold our grudges, and justify our own sin of hatred (regardless of degree) toward them.
Let’s be real, if we want to experience fruit in our lives, we can’t really hold hate and grudges in our hearts toward others. That doesn’t minimize the pain we feel when we’ve been wronged, it certainly doesn’t mean that wrongs should not be made right. But Jesus took on the weight of betrayal in a way far beyond what we can comprehend, but He still chose to forgive us. He leads us to forgiveness, not only for the sake of those we forgive, but for our sake as well. Not because we pretend wrong is right or that we weren’t hurt but because we recognize that we only continue to inflict pain (on ourselves or others) when we allow hate to fester in our hearts, taking up our capacity that is meant for love.
If we ever believe we can experience things like love, joy, and peace, etc., we need to reconcile how we feel about the last week of Jesus’ life in our own hearts, and remember not only what God did for us, but what was done to God. And remember that God still forgives. Let’s reflect on how it feels to know we are loved and forgiven while also reflecting on how difficult it is to embody forgiveness in our own complicated lives.