The Resurrection Will Not Be Televised

A Messy I Like You Type of Love

Scripture:


“He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

 

—John 21:1


Observation:


Dr. Paul Louis Metzger pointed something out in this passage last week that I noticed found no real significance in before. In this passage Jesus asks Peter three times “do you love me;” Three times Peter responds to Jesus saying that he does love him. All three times that Peter responds he uses the Greek verb for love, phileo. The first two times that Jesus asks Peter the question “do you love me,” Jesus uses the Greek word of love, agapeo, and the third time he uses the same word for love as Peter, phileo.

The reason I dismissed this as not significant is because of the way that I was taught to read these two Greek words for love. The professor who taught me Greek said that even though many people make the claim that agapeo is a divine and unconditional love andphileo is a lesser love based on fellowship, the reality is that the two words are used synonymously throughout the Bible. If we look at this passage and see it as Jesus just using these two different Greek words for love synonymously then there would be no significance to Jesus’ use of phileo the third time he asks Peter if he loves him. But if there is a difference in these two kinds of words then the use of phileo potentially carries with it a huge significance.

Metzger posed the question to us, the class, “what if phileo is not a lesser love, but a greater love?” Metzger went on to explain that if phileo is a love based in fellowship and friendship instead of unconditional love then Jesus’ use of it is an affirmation of the statement, “I no longer call you slaves, but friends.” Jesus is appealing to a deepening of his relationship with Peter. It seems to suggest that Jesus is saying, “Peter you love me within our slave/master relationship, but do you love me as a brother, as a friend, as an equal.” In a patriarchal society that is based on class and position, and where upper mobility was rare this change in relationship is huge. This change is not just a statement of liking Peter more, but rather an elevation of status and a dismantling of their hierarchical relationship making the phileo kind of love the greater kind of love.


Application:


Metzger’s interpretation of the John 21 really challenged me. In my paradigm unconditional divine love had always trumped human relationship love. But what is greater a love that by nature requires nothing to maintain or a love that requires sacrifice in order to maintain the conditions that even make love possible? I think sacrificial love will always win out.

Metzger talked about this dichotomy by using the example of Christians saying, “I love you with God’s love, but I don’t like you; I have to love you, but I don’t have to like you.” The reality of that statement leads to the obvious fallacy that God can love you and not like you, but the reality of God’s love is that God does not just want to love you God wants to be in a messy I like you type relationship based on a phileo kind of love. In this kind of love God is no longer this transcendent being, but an imminent and incarnational lover. The irony is that it is easy to see God within a Hierarchal relationship where God is boss and beyond me, but to see God as a human divested of power washing the feet of his friends is actually very difficult to comprehend for me. Samir Selmanovic on Twitter said, “You will never understand God until you can see God kneeling before you washing your feet.”


Prayer:


Lord, Help me to comprehend your love for me. Thank you for constantly deconstructing my paradigms. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

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Faith of My Fathers

Scripture:

“Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the years of Jehoiada the priest.”

2 Chronicles 24:2

Observation:

I remember when I was younger my stepfather had a very keen insight into this verse that he shared with me. He said, “Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD as long as Jehoiada was there with him because Joash never developed his own faith. Joash was living off the faith of Jehoiada.” As you read the account in 2 kings you would think it ended in treachery against a good king, but 2 Chronicles cast such a different light. Joash’s assassins, Zabad and Jehozabad, come out looking like the Boondock Saints dispensing a type of justice against the wicked.

Application:

Looking back now I realized that I completely missed the point of what my stepfather was saying to me. Growing up the son of a pastor, watching and listening to my mom’s narrative about serving God, had me partaking in the work of God. I saw God use me in many ways. But when I was in my early teens I left out from under my parents’ faith. I began to search for myself. I began to listen to other voices trying to lead me. These other voices led me into gangs, violence, drugs, and all sorts of other things that I know and even knew then did not honor God.

It is funny how easy people are swayed when they are just listening to other people. I have seen so many young people who stop listening to the voices of their parents’ faith and start listening to the destructive voices of the world. Joash’s story is not unique; my story is not unique. It was not until my faith became my faith, and not the faith of my parents, that I began to listen for God’s voice in my life. I find it interesting that Joash is never credited with listening to God for himself. Joash is only credited with following God as long as Jehoiada lived, and that is because he was following Jehoiada and not God.

Who are you following? Whose faith do you have? To what voice do you give audience? Questions that I have had to wrestle with and truthfully still wrestle with sometimes.

On another note the story of Joash makes me think about Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Did not Jehoiada tell Joash the way he should go? Did not my parents tell me the way that I should go? Did not the countless other parents of lost sons and daughters tell their children the way that they should go? If the answer is yes how did they stray away so far? Maybe in the midst of the busyness of life we forget to train and think telling will suffice. As an uncle, future parent, and pastor I need to heed this warning to not just tell but to train children. I need to help them cultivate their own faith and not just live off of mine.

Prayer:

Lord, help me to hear your voice. Help me to listen for you and you alone. Lord help me to pursue you. Lord, help me to train young men and women of God who cultivate their own faith in you. In the name of Jesus Amen…