Indomitable Love

* There are different kinds of love. The most frequently referred to is Eros, or romantic love. I want to bring attention to a more powerful love. The love that never ends. This love is not an emotion, it is a verb, and can be applied to a large range of relationships. Despite obtaining my Bachelors degree in Biblical studies, it was only later in life that I fully understood this vein of love based off of one biblical account.*

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Her midnight tryst bled from the comforting secrecy of the shadows to the revealing dawn. The sun's harsh, unadulterated brilliance burst in with the mob of religious elite, exposing her filthy deeds. Surely the two lovers were dead. But no, the men fixated on her alone, ripping only her from the tangle of bedsheets. She was dead.

They spared no opportunity to demonstrate the level of hatred they harbored for her on the way to the temple. She knew she was about to die, but she could never imagine what the men had in mind or the outcome of her worst hour.

The poor woman was merely a pawn in a blood thirsty political game. It wasn't righteousness the Pharisees sought. They didn't desire justice. What they longed for, needed more than anything else, was the downfall of one man and they knew just where to find him. The temple.

The acclaimed Messiah sat on a bottom step surrounded by children. The mob burst onto the scene just as jarringly as they had burst in on the woman.

"This woman was caught in the act of adultery!" the ring leader bellowed as he tossed the woman like filthy rags at the feet of Jesus. The pharisee couldn't help the creeping smirk from escaping the corner of his mouth. He knew the scriptures just as well, he thought, as this carpenter-turned-rabbi. Everyone knew what the crime demanded. He waited for Jesus to squirm under the pressure of deciding a woman's fate or losing his following.

But Jesus didn't squirm. At first He didn't even acknowledge the zealot. No, He merely bent down, plunged his finger into the dirt and drew something there on the ground. When He was finished He calmly remarked, "let he who has no sin cast the first stone."

Not a single member of the religious elite could stand there. They all knew the imperfections they bore on their own shoulders. One by one each accuser turned away from their victim. Jesus gently helped the woman up and kindly inquired," does no one condemn you?"

"No, no one."

"Neither do I, go and sin no more."

I have always thought of this story as a lesson in humility and judgment. Judge not lest you be judged. But in recent years something has dawned on me. It's a lesson in love.

Not only did the accusers have to abandon their hope of condemning this woman, but what's more, the one person in the universe who could have cast that first stone, didn't. This is the ultimate image of love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 breaks down what love looks like.

"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."

What stands out to me now is the word is. This love doesn't feel patient, feel kind, or feel selfless, it is all those things. Love is a verb. This kind of love is love in action. Which is great because you don't have to reshape your feelings to be these things, you just have to act.

That's super freeing when your spouse forgets to buy bagels, or your kids don't listen, or you disagree with your friend and know they're wrong. You don't have to reshape how you feel, you can still choose to be patient, choose to be kind, and choose to be selfless while feeling the opposite. You can disagree with people and do it in love. You can face difficulties in relationships and do it in love. You can be angry with that car for cutting you off, and feel it while showing them love.

That's why this love never fades, because it's not as temporary as emotions. It's not moved by turmoil. It can't be destroyed. It's an active choice to demonstrate the essence of what love is regardless of how we feel. Nothing can conquer an intentional act of love. Not even the unlovely. Not even a sinner’s sin.

Jesus looked at the woman caught in the act of adultery with love. He wasn't a little less holy for showing her love nor did His act of love condone her actions. Love is an action not a feeling, at least the kind that never ends.