In the early 70?s the movie, ?Love Story,? popularized the phrase, ?Love means never having to say you?re sorry.? Even though I was young when the movie came out, I never understood that saying! I knew that I loved my parents but I had to regularly tell them I was sorry. I knew that I loved God and same thing. In fact it seemed to me that the more you love someone, the sorrier you should be when you hurt them. Real love has an incredible way of making us vulnerable. For a man, I think the most vulnerable thing that can be done is to drop down on one knee and ask a woman, ?Will you marry me?? Your whole heart is right out there to be accepted or to be stomped on.

In the early 70?s the movie, ?Love Story,? popularized the phrase, ?Love means never having to say you?re sorry.? Even though I was young when the movie came out, I never understood that saying! I knew that I loved my parents but I had to regularly tell them I was sorry. I knew that I loved God and same thing. In fact it seemed to me that the more you love someone, the sorrier you should be when you hurt them. Real love has an incredible way of making us vulnerable. For a man, I think the most vulnerable thing that can be done is to drop down on one knee and ask a woman, ?Will you marry me?? Your whole heart is right out there to be accepted or to be stomped on. We worship a God who became a vulnerable human being. Superman took kryptonite. Samson let his hair be cut. The Little Mermaid gave up her flippers for feet. Jesus laid aside the privileges of heaven. It?s a story that is played out not only in history, but in fantasy, legend and
mythology?someone with supernatural powers gives up those powers to become human and it is always done for one reason: love. That was God?s reason, only His love was pure. ?But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners? (Romans 5:8). And yet Jesus did more than just come to die. He also came to live as a human being. And that?s how it came to be that the God who made the heavens and the earth, including the clouds that bring water to a thirsty land, wound up at the well of Jacob asking a Samaritan woman for a drink. She had something He needed. ?Please give me a drink.? It?s how He opened the conversation (John 4:7). He gave her worth by asking her for a drink. Due to tradition and culture, He should have had nothing to do with this woman. As it turned out, He ended up revealing to her His identity as the Messiah?something He did not do often in His earthly ministry.
Love always makes you vulnerable. There?s no way you can love and not expose yourself in some way or give something up. Love and need go together. God?s love compelled Him to do what He did because that very love created in Him a need for us.

By creating us He also created in Himself a place for us, and that need was reflected many times through the life of Christ.
Jesus Christ didn?t die for us because it would make a good story, fable or movie. He died for us because He loved us, lost us to sin, and gave Himself up to buy us back. By doing this He had to become vulnerable to the very system He created, that we might see how true love behaves. There is a death in love, and that death is the death of self. Jesus died to love us; we die as well in order to love and serve others. And part of that is in being vulnerable. Sometimes the best thing we can do for someone is ask for help. Jesus asked the woman for a drink and three years later, He was asking for the same thing from the cross?symbolic of the vulnerability. He placed Himself into for the whole human race. Being vulnerable to those you love is a big part of love itself.

Happy Valentine?s Day!
God Bless,

Pastor Frank

Copyright © by Access Christian All Right Reserved.

Published on: 2006-02-03 (1637 reads)