Last week I made reference to the movie/musical Fiddler on the Roof.
I drew attention to the scene where Tevye is asking his wife Golde if she loves him. They had been married the traditional way, by a matchmaker.
They never saw each other until their wedding day. His parents had told Tevye that they would grow to love each other. He hadn’t thought about that much until it was time for his daughters to be wed. They had each fallen in love and did not want to be married to someone chosen by the village matchmaker. They were breaking tradition because of the love in their hearts for someone else. Tevye gives in to their request, but now he is wondering, does his wife love him.
Tevye : “Golde, Do you love me?
Golde responds: “Do I love you? With our daughters getting married,and this trouble in the town you’re upset, you’re worn out. Go inside, go lie down! Maybe it’s indigestion.”
Tevye persists with his question: “Do you love me?”
Golde responds to his persistence: “Do I love you? For twenty-five years I’ve washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked the cow, after twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?”
Tevye wants an answer, “Do you love me?”
Golde, speaking to herself: “Do I love him? For twenty-five years I’ve lived with him, fought with him, starved with him, twenty-five years my bed is his. If that’s not love, what is?”
Tevye jumps at his chance: “Then you love me?”
Golde “I suppose I do”
Tevye “And I suppose I love you too.”
They both seem quite satisfied to know, & then they sing together: “It doesn’t change a thing, but even so, after twenty-five years it’s nice to know.”
Yes, it is nice to know. We all need to be loved & to give love in return. Jesus summarizes the whole of the law of the Old Testament with 2 great commands in
Mark 12:28-31
quoting Deuteronomy 6, the Shema.
28 …“what commandment is the foremost of all?”
29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is,
‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD;
30 AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART,
AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND,
AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’
31 “The second is this,
‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
I have a good handle on what it means to love others. Not that it is all that easy. Some are easier to love than others. That is not so much a judgment on them as it is me. My love needs to do a lot of growing here.
But the 1
st
command, to love God with all my heart, all my soul, my mind, and my strength, now that is where I have a problem. I have no issue loving my wife, my kids and my grandkids like this. But to be honest, I struggle emoting those kinds of feelings towards God.
After the resurrection Jesus appears to the disciples on the shore of Galilee (John 21:15-17) where Jesus asks Peter three times in a row, “Do you love Me?”
Each time John responds in the affirmative, & each time Jesus tells him to “take care of Jesus’ sheep”. I take this to mean that our love for Jesus is shown to Jesus when we do what he wants us to do.
He says as much in John 14:15
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
And then in John 14:21
“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”
In John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him,
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.
24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”
And then Jesus closes out this section by saying in John 14:25
25 “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you.
26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
Based on what Jesus has taught in these verses, then I can say with Golde when God asks me if I love Him, “Yes, I suppose I do.”
My answer does not come from my emotions, it comes from my actions, living my life in obedience. I gave up my dreams for my life & accepted God’s will for me to preach and teach His Word, and to tend His flock by feeding them. Although I must say I have struggled to bring them in from the field. Sheep are a stubborn lot, and many prefer to just stay out in the world for whatever reason. But for those who come I have tried my best to feed them not only the milk, but the meat of the Word of God. And I also believe that at Pathway we have done a good job in fulfilling His greatest commission by leading His sheep into the uttermost parts of the world in order to love people and share the life changing Gospel, the good news of salvation to all who would receive.
Not everyone has the same calling. Some are called to do other things than the things that I have done. It makes them no less or more important than me. We are all children of God, on equal footing, seeking to be faithful to serving God’s particular call upon our lives. The trick is in discerning what God’s will is. What is God calling you to do?
Have you been obedient to all that God has asked of you? I can’t say that I have. I know that I have messed up quite a bit. But I do keep trying. I need to lean a little more on the “teacher” “my Helper”, the Holy Spirit of God. (John 14:26)
I still struggle with the emotional part of this. Some followers of Jesus seem to have this incredible deep “feeling” of love for God. I wish I could experience that. Maybe it’s my personality. I’m just not an emotional kind of guy. I don’t have the answer. But I do know that I am hungering for more of Him.
“That all may Love Him”
Pastor Mike