True Love

Cornelius was a Roman and a centurion -- a soldier and commander of men.  He would have been identifiable by his vine staff -- a rod used by centurions to motivate and discipline those under their command.

Though Cornelius himself loved God, from the point of view of the Jews generally, and the followers of Jesus specifically, he surely was the image of the enemy.  The power represented in his vine staff was the power to oppress, kill and destroy.

By the time Cornelius bowed down to Jesus the Romans had occupied Judea and oppressed the Jews -- God's chosen people -- for over 100 years.  A few short years later a revolt would break out.  The Romans would restore order by brute force.  Hundreds of thousands of Jews would lose their lives and the Temple would lay in ruins before it was all over.  According to some historians, the spoils taken from Jerusalem, including the Temple, were used by Rome to fund the building of its famous Colosseum.

And, of course, it was Roman soldiers who tortured and mocked Jesus.  It was Roman soldiers who nailed Jesus to the Cross:  And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor's headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion.  And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him.  And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!”  And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him.  And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.  Mark 15:16-24.  And, when it was all over the centurion who commanded those men came to a realization -- And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God!  Mark 15:39.

I do not think it a coincidence that Jesus chose a Roman centurion to be the first Gentile to be saved through his blood.  Through His life, death, resurrection and beyond Jesus demonstrated time and time again, and in no uncertain terms, His love for man (and women).  I do not think it was lost on Cornelius that no human love could cross the barrier created by the Roman occupation and, even more so, the barrier created by the suffering Jesus Himself endured at the hands of these oppressors.


As humans we have a tendency to lump together those who resemble anyone who has harmed us, or even anyone we perceived as a threat.  Peter was stunned to "realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right."  Acts 10:34.  If  the offer of salvation extended even to the very people who drove nails into the hands and feet of Jesus, what people on the earth could possibly be excluded?  Peter must have realized that truly there is no limit to the love, mercy, forgiveness and grace of God.  Surely he remembered those words of Jesus spoken from the Cross -- "forgive them Father, for they know not what they do."

We have seen that God's promise of the Holy Spirit is conditional -- it is reserved for those who love him and obey his commands.  John 14:15-16.  And, we have explored briefly what it means to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul and all of our strength.  Now we must turn to the second part of the greatest commandment, and begin to explore what it really means to love others.

Here, we might be content to imagine that the command is fulfilled by adhering to the "golden rule."  We must simply treat others as we would want to be treated ourselves.  It is perhaps a paraphrase of the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves.  See Leviticus 19:18.

But Jesus, as He did so often, brought greater clarity to the true meaning of these words during his time on earth.  Twice He told us that there is a new command.  We are not to love others as ourselves, but we are to love others as He loves them.  John 13:34-35 (“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”)  John 15:12-13 ("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.").     

Jesus calls us to a love that is truly impossible for man.  And, by choosing a Roman centurion to be the first Gentile to be brought into the family of God, Jesus demonstrated the serious of that commandment.  No longer can we take His command to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44) as mere hyperbole.  Jesus both said those words and lived them out.  "To confess and testify to the truth as it is in Jesus, and at the same time to love the enemies of that truth, his enemies and ours, and to love them with the infinite love of Jesus Christ, is indeed a narrow way."  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship.

I am afraid that in many of our churches today the core of what it means to be a follower of Jesus has been lost.  We give lip service to the greatest commandments -- having no real expectation that the Holy Spirit of God, the very power that raised Christ from the dead, will give us all we need to truly love others with the infinite love of Jesus.

Because we focus too much on what God can do for us, instead of on what God can do through us, we end up with a counterfeit faith -- a fruitless faith.  And that, my friends, should make us very, very nervous.  Consider for yourself what Jesus says about love, and about branches that bear no fruit.

 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  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.  I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.  This is my command: Love each other. 

John 15:5-17.


P.S.  It is interesting that the disciples had expected Jesus, the Messiah, to be a political and military leader who would conquer the Romans, expel them from Judea and return Israel to its former glory. What we may overlook at times is that Jesus did conquer Rome.  But he did it with love instead of the sword.  And He used the infrastructure that Rome had built, particularly its intricate network of roads, to spread the gospel and change the world.