Focus: Love Beyond Words

Text: Jh.14:15

"If ye love me, keep my commandments."

John 11 presents a graphic picture of love. In verse 3, we read, "Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou LOVEST is sick."

Verse 5 says, "Now Jesus LOVED Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus."

And then verse 36, says, "Then said the Jews, Behold how he LOVED him!"

I therefore suspect that everything else in chapter 11 flows from and around the word 'love.' Let us look at the light the chapter shades on love.

*Family love

John declares, "Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick" (Jh.11:3). Mary and Martha loved their brother, Lazarus, and would go miles to help him recover, including getting Jesus involved. They sent someone who traveled a great distance to inform and fetch Jesus. He traveled from the South to the North, and scholars say it is a distance of about 110 miles. Love can travel miles in seeking help for loved ones. Family love is strong and blood-bond is hard to break. Family love becomes more pronounced in times of adversity.

*Delay of love

John reports, "When he had heard that he was sick, he abode two more days still in the same place where he was… Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already" (Jh.11:6,17). Love's delay is not a denial. It only delays for greater good, which is the glory of God. God's glory becomes more visible and tangible in a death situation than in a sickness situation. It is in the worst of circumstances that God's glory becomes more evident than in the best of circumstances. More so, the resurrection of Lazarus would serve as a prelude to Jesus' own resurrection from the dead.

The love that will not first glorify God can not ultimately benefit any man. Jesus delays in order for God to be glorified in the situation.

*Sacrifice of love

The disciples said to Jesus, "Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?" (Jh.11:8). Our Lord Jesus, for love, had to go back to where His life was being threatened. On Judean soil, His life was in danger of being snatched from Him. In fact, Thomas knew that going back to the South only spelt doom for them, for he said, "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (Jh.11:16). Love goes to any length to help another in need. Love sacrifices for those it loves and puts its life on the line for them. The Scripture tells of believers "who love not their lives unto the death" (Rev.12:11).

*Tears of love

John says, "Jesus wept" (Jh.11:35). Love wears a human face and demonstrates human tenderness. Love mourns with those who mourn. Love is never heartless or emotionless. Love sympathizes and empathizes. Love doesn't weep for being helpless, hopeless or powerless. The tears of love is for solidarity and kinship. Love says, 'We are fellows in the same ship. What happens to one happens to all.'

*Outrage of love

We read in John 11:33: "When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he GROANED in the spirit, and was TROUBLED" (Jh.11:33).

And again, in verse 38, we read, "Jesus, once more DEEPLY MOVED, came to the tomb…" (Jh.11:38). Jesus was outraged, looking at what life had been reduced to by the Fall of Adam. When Jesus saw the man with impediment of speech, he looked up and sighed (Mk.7:34). When he entered the temple and saw the sacred space turned into a place of merchandise, his stomach churned. Paul's spirit was stirred up when he saw a whole city given to idolatry (Act.17:16). Love can't stand wrong. When and where things go wrong love feels it and acts to right the wrong. It must take action to change things. Love can't keep calm in the face of chaos. Love can't stomach the abnormal. Love is moved when it sees human suffering and pain. Love sympathizes and empathizes. Love grieves with those who grieve and weeps with those who weep. Love feels sick in the stomach when it sees people hurting unjustly.

*Power of love

Jesus says, "Lazarus, come forth… Loose him, and let him go" (Jh.11:43,44). Those are words of power and authority. The man who wept profusely is now commanding the dead to come back to life. That is the power of love. Love wails over the loss of death, but it also whoops death by quickening the dead. Love both cries and conquers.

*Miracle of love

John says, "And he that was dead came forth…" (Jh.11:44). Love works wonders. It regenerates the heart, rekindles faith, and resurrects hope. Love melts the heart, ameliorates ugly situations, and remedies maladies. Love opens graves and releases the captives. Love breaks yokes, heals the brokenhearted, and lifts the downcast.

Love wins at last. Love glorifies God. Love is beyond words. So let's DO love - it's a verb, a word of action, and love truly works.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter