Last year,
I saw a Facebook post saying that “Valentine’s Day is cancelled.” The post is
humorous, but there is also a tinge of bitterness or loneliness implied in it.
Whether we care to admit it or now, the so-called season of love can be a cause
of pain to some, reminding them of their unfulfilled desire for intimate
relationships. It is not an exaggeration to claim that in the month of
February, many are silently singing the words that Mick Jones penned in a song
released in 1984, I Want to Know What Love Is:
I wanna know what love is
I want you to show me
I wanna feel what love is
I know you can show me
Everyone
wants to feel loved. In fact, many are willing to give up literally everything
for love. The Passengers, a sci-fi romantic movie illustrates this
(Spoiler alert!). The setting is a shuttle coursing through space
heading to a new habitable planet. The 5,000 people aboard should be in
suspended hibernation for 120 years, but because of a system failure, one of
the passengers woke up 90 years before they reach their destination. For
several months, he was living a lonely life alone on the ship. Then he
discovered that he has the knowledge and tools to wake up someone else from
among the 5,000 people sleeping to accompany him. In particular, there was a
lady among the sleeping passengers that he is quite affectionate with. The
problem is this: if he wakes her up, she will most likely die with him before
they reach the new planet, thus depriving her of the new life she hoped for
when she left Earth. But he is already dying of loneliness. Should he wake her
to accompany him even if it means ultimately killing that person?
The world
is filled with people whose hearts are longing to be loved. Buried deep down is
the desire to know what it means to be loved, to be cared for, to be noticed,
to be appreciated, to be embraced, and to be accepted. Our world is full of
heartbroken women who always gets dumped by her lovers, disfigured men who can
only fantasize about having a girlfriend, children with abusive fathers or
uncaring mothers, high school students who are invisible to their teachers and
classmates, young children who never had birthday cakes, old parents put in a
home for the aged because their children have careers to prioritize, and even
churchmates who do not even get a “Hi” from someone from the congregation.
The
Unloved
One of the
most tragic stories in the Bible that depict one who was so unloved is the
parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. The first part of the parable
is disheartening: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he
fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him
half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going
down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.32 So
likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the
other side” (Luke 10:30-32). The travelling man was quite unfortunate. He
was violently attacked by robbers, who did not care about him at all. He was
dismissed by religious pilgrims even though he was obviously in pain and in
need of care. The man represents the world’s unloved, and many in the world
today resonate with him.
First,
he is a victim of his circumstances. He seemed to have travelled alone. There
is no indication in the passage that he was in a group. This itself is very
revealing, because this most probably means that the man was poor. Although he knew
that journeying alone is dangerous, he did not have a choice because he did not
have money to hire people to accompany him. No one wished to escort him for
free. Love is not free. Companionship is bought at the right price.
Companionship is a luxury of those who are able to give back in return. Because
the man was poor, no one wanted to be with him. How many are in the world like
him?
Secondly,
he is a victim of violence. Robbers came and stripped him even of his clothes, beat him and left
him half-dead. He had company for a short while, but these companions only
surrounded him for what can be taken from him. There are many in the world like
him. They are children abused by their parents or relatives, serving as
punching bags or outlets of rage and disappointments in life. They are children
at school bullied by other students. They are servants of the rich, enslaved to
work. They are prostitutes who receive embrace only because of the pleasure
they bring to their customers. They are offenders and sinners who only get
attention by being topics of gossip and scorn.
Thirdly,
he is a victim of discrimination. The man was clearly suffering on the road where people can see him. But
those who pass by chose to avoid him, even going the other way in order to be
far from him. There are reasons for their actions. The man was bloody. He was
smelly. He was half-dead, and therefore, a cause of religious impurity upon
touching. He was needy. He had nothing to give but trouble. He was nothing but
a burden. So those who passed by decided to pay him no attention. There are
many like him in the world today. They are the poor who are not invited at the
table reserved only for the important guests. They are the smelly beggars who
are not welcomed to step in our homes. They are the OFWs who are mistreated by
their bosses because they are considered lowly in status. They are the
not-so-good-looking and the janitor who are eating alone in the cafeteria
because no one wants to sit with them. They are the street children and people
who are treated as eyesores.
Fourthly
he is a victim of people’s apathy. It is normal and natural for a human being to be appalled by violence
and to feel sympathy to those who suffer. But the half-dead man in the story
received no sympathy. He was a recipient of radical indifference from extremely
individualistic people. The irony of the story is that the things the man did
not need were not given to him (violence and discrimination) but the things
that he needed the most were withheld from him (sympathy). I can imagine that
while the half-dead man was lying on the road, seeing all the people passing by
and paying him no attention, he was singing in his head: “I wanna know what
love is / I want you to show me / I wanna feel what love is / I know you can
show me.” There are many people in the world like the man. They are those who
suffer that we see on the television, but are not receiving any prayer of
blessing.
Who will
love the unloved? This is the crucial question. Who will rescue the perishing,
care for the dying, snatch people from sin and the grave, weep over the erring
one, and lift up the fallen? Who will hold the blind man’s hand, feed the
hungry, visit prisoners, kiss lepers, and invite sinners into their lives? The
world has many unloved people. But this is also because there are many who do
not love. The number of unloved people is related to the number of people who
are incapable of loving. The number of homeless people is related to the number
of families that are inhospitable. The number of hungry people is related to
the number of people who are unwilling to feed others.
The
Unlikely Lover
Fortunately,
the story continued. A Samaritan came along. He noticed the man on the road,
gave him attention, took care of his wounds, and accompanied him to the doctor.
He was not like the Levite and the teacher of the law who probably prayed for
the man when they saw him. There are times when spiritual prayer is precisely
what is NOT needed, because what is needed is in the realm of the physical.
James wrote: “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily
food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,”
without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James
2:15-16). There are many times when prayer is just not good enough.
The least
expected to help was the one who helped. Samaritans and Jews did not get along
very well. The Jews did not like the Samaritans because the Samaritans were
mixed races. They were Jews who married non-Jews. In the Harry Potter
world, they were looked down as muggles by the purebloods. On the other hand,
the Samaritans did not like the Jews for their judgmental attitude and extreme
sense of self-righteousness. The Jews viewed the Samaritans as pigs; the
Samaritans viewed the Jews as dogs. But in the parable, it was the Samaritan
who showed love for his enemy: “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to
where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He
went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he
set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.35 And
the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper,
saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I
come back’” (Luke 10:33-35).
Jesus was
most probably intentional in making the least expected person to be the one who
showed love. The good Samaritan was patterned after Himself. Throughout His
life and ministry, He was portrayed, over and over again, as one who showed
love to the unlovable. Being a prophet with high moral standards, He was the
most unlikely person to forgive the woman caught in adultery and defend her
from her accusers (John 8:1-11). Being a holy man, He was also the most
unlikely person to allow a woman who lived a sinful life touch him (Luke
7:36-38). Being the king, He was the most unlikely person to accept children in
His presence (Mark 10:13-16). Being a teacher of the law, he was the most
unlikely person to violate the law and touch a man with leprosy (Luke 5:12-16;
cf. Lev 13:45-46; Num 5:2-3).
Like these
unlovables, we too have received God’s love. The parable of the Good Samaritan
is greatly similar to Paul’s thoughts in Romans 5:6, 8, “For while we were
still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly… God shows
his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Notice how Paul describes us: weak (“powerless,” NIV), ungodly, and sinners.
Like the man who left Jerusalem to go to Jericho, we left His holy city. We
have become tired of God, and we wanted to try other cities. We left the city
of God where the temple of sacrifice and forgiveness is. Instead of staying in
the city of God, we decided to move to the city of destruction. Just with this
decision and action, we have become ungodly sinners (Rom 5:6, 8).
But the
moment we left the city of God, we were like sheep without a shepherd. The
journey away from the city of God is truly a downward journey. We immediately
met robbers along the road to our own Jerichos. We were beaten, stripped of our
joy and dignity, and left behind to die alone among stones and thorns. In a lot
of sense, we were the ones who invited the calamity upon ourselves. We should
not have left Jerusalem, the city of God. But there we were: hopeless half-dead
men and women on the road. We are half-dead and unable even to cry for help. On
that road, we lie bruised and bloody—ugly and smelly. With these, we were
certainly unlovable. There was nothing in us and about us that can demand
attention from others.
Little did
we expect that the One who would notice us, help us, care for us, and make
sacrifices for us—is the God, the recipient of our animosity and the One we are
all trying to run away from. Paul says, “While we were enemies we were
reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Rom 5:10). God came down from
Jerusalem to the rocky and warm road to Jericho. He left His holy city to look
for those who needs to experience love: “For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). He stopped precisely where
we were, and picked us up with His own hands. Paul wrote: “For while we
were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly… God
shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for
us” (Rom 5:6, 8).
This is the second entry for the Love series. The first one is entitled "The One that You Love."
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