SCRIPTURE: You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8 NIV
QUOTE: The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. – Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States, Author, Declaration of Independence
THOUGHT: The quote and Scripture this morning are very strangely juxtaposed. On the one hand, Paul says Jesus stands head and shoulders above the rest because he took no thought of whether we were righteous or not as he went to the cross. It was his mission to show everyone everywhere God’s love. Whether we love him back or shove him away, we are loved.
On the other hand, Thomas Jefferson takes a very rational approach to someone being willing to die for the cause of liberty: the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. He was an historian who had watched the cycles of tyranny and liberty in his own lifetime. He’d seen the inevitable and inconvenient truth: you can only live so long in freedom before someone seeks to own you. Then, you must be ready to fight. In fact, he also said this: “Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.”
The thing that binds the two disparate thoughts is love. God’s love toward us, and our love for him, his ways, his kingdom, and each other. In God’s kingdom, liberty and love coexist. God could have chosen to be a despot or tyrannical ruler, but it is not his way. He has his rules, and they are for human flourishing. When they are ignored, things get dicey.
For saying there was a crowd (including the disciples) who wanted Jesus to become king, he would have been odd among rulers because he only ever issued one command: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.” (Jn. 15:12-14 NIV) No flamboyance, no authoritarian stance, no long lists of rules, no self-serving, legalistic, nonsensical mumbo-jumbo. Just a living example of what love in action looks like.
The question for our day is how does love look? Perhaps the day will come when we lay down our lives for our friends and our King, but until that day, we have to discern how love for them compels us to fight for liberty.
PRAYER: Oh God, fill us with wisdom from above. Discernment that teaches each one what fulfilling your command to love life looks like.
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