Lectio
“For our Lord Jesus Christ was both spit upon and beaten with rods by pitiful slaves; and not only did He not count it an unseemliness, but He even exulted and called the thing glory; and bringing in a robber and murderer with Himself before the rest into paradise, and discoursing with a harlot… He counted not the thing to be disgraceful… for love does nothing unseemly.”
— St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians
Meditatio
The love of Christ is unfathomable to us because, being entirely devoid of pride, self-interest, or desire for recompense, it is nothing like ours. His love is entirely self-giving in a way that we find baffling, challenging, and even frustrating. His love convicts us exactly because it is not like our own. He gives us everything He is and He asks for nothing in return, and even when we take everything from Him — rejecting, abandoning, and betraying Him, nailing Him to a cross, crowning Him with thorns, mocking Him, spitting on Him, and beating Him — He still invites us to join Him in Paradise and asks His Father to forgive us.
When we imagine the love that Jesus Christ has for us, we imagine something altogether foreign, entirely alien to our own experience and intentions. What He offers us freely, without thought of repayment or retribution, is Himself. And how could we ever repay Him? We cannot even give Him our time. We cannot even give Him our loyalty. We cannot even give Him our love. How could we ever repay Him for the life He gave for us and the life He has given to us through His sacrifice?
Even these questions betray our hearts. They reveal the impurity of our thoughts and motives — the distance we have from who Christ is, how He loves, and what His love means for us. Because His sacrifice, and the abuse and betrayal He suffered at our hands and for our sake, was not, to Christ, some unseemly or lowly act.
Shame belongs to those who still have a self-made identity to guard — an identity that knows nothing of God, an identity that knows nothing of love. Christ, having given Himself away entirely for us and for the will of the Father, had no false self to protect — and so nothing in His suffering felt to Him like disgrace because pure love has no shame. Only a love this empty of self could call the cross glory because true love does not know its own nakedness.
Jesus’s crucifixion unto death was not some disgraceful fate to which His life was reluctantly given. Rather, everything Christ suffered through us and for us was done out of love. Everything Christ gave to and for us, He gave for the exultation and glory of the Father who sent Him, and the salvation of the very creatures who killed Him.
This kind of love is beyond our comprehension. It is beyond our ability to both imagine and embody. This kind of love is godly in exactly the way that we are not. But, through Christ, we are joined to this love. Through Christ, we participate in this love. Through Christ, we are adopted as sons and daughters of the Father, which enables us to both receive this love from God and extend this love unto others. Christ died on the cross exactly so that we, the crucifiers of God, might know what true love looks like, so that we might repent of our evil ways and join Him in love, and so that we might be free of all of the ways in which our love is tainted, twisted, and broken, so that we may be cleansed and made whole in His perfect, unconditional, and undeserved love.
Oratio
Life Giving Love
a love unknown
to our petty hearts
full of greed
lust
envy
hatred
desiring only for ourselves
giving nothing of ourselves
without a price attached
but Love paid the greatest price
for us
Love gave life
and love
to us
in spite of our taking
the life of Love
for what
for silver and slavery
for pride and vanity
for more of nothing
the whole world means nothing
without love
without Love
Contemplatio
You cannot repay what Christ has given you, and you were never asked to. Let the love that bore your worst still hold you now. Rest here, in the quiet, and consent to let Him love you as He wills.
Related Scripture
“looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”
— Hebrews 12:2 (NRSVCE)
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like The Love That Cannot Be Hoarded: Augustine of Hippo on Loving Neighbor and God (Lectio Divina), which turns from a love that felt no shame in dying for us to a love that, once received, was never meant to be kept for ourselves alone.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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