The Bungee Cord

Hello,

Does God have favorites?

Does God love Americans more than Russians or Chinese? Does God love rich people more that poor people? Or does God love poor people more than rich people? Does God love people who obey the law more than those who don’t? Does God love generous people more than people who hoard all of their resources? Does God love Israelis more that Palestinians? Does God love kind people more than God loves jerks? Does God love other people more than God loves you? Does God love you more than certain kinds of other people?

Does God have favorites?

My wife and I have three sons, now all far into adulthood, but I remember well that when one of them would come up to us and ask, “How come this brother of mine got to do this or that and I don’t?” My response always was, “It’s obvious, isn’t it? We love your brother more than we love you.” My answer, of course, was not true, but I answered that way to address the elephant in the room. The elephant being that I was playing favorites, loving one more than the other based on rules.

The confusing thing about rules and love is that they are apples and oranges, but we often don’t see that. The rules that I had with each of my three sons were given out of love because they were meant to protect and guide them, but not one of the rules that I gave my sons was a rung on the ladder to my heart. My love for them came far before even one rule was set, and even if they were to have broken all the rules my love for them would not have been phased a bit, because my love for them had nothing to do with rules, it had to do with my heart.

Such is the way with God. Rules that God has given us were certainly given out of love, to protect and to guide us, but they were never meant to be rungs on a ladder to God’s heart. I can say that with complete assuredness because, when it comes to God’s love for us God sent his Son in spite of how well we were following rules (But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)). Whether a person was in the deepest and slimiest hole there could be, or whether someone was seen as the best rule follower of all time (Read what the Apostle Paul said of himself in the third chapter of Philippians), Jesus died for them. Certainly, it pains the heart of God when we, by not following the rules, hurt ourselves and others, just as it pained and pains me when my children hurt themselves and others by what they do and did. But as it is with me, so it is with God, actions do not diminish love.

And if you or I might still be inclined to think that there is something that a person can do that God would love them less, just look to the cross. Jesus died. Jesus died…died for the world (John 3:16,17). Death is not something that one can take back. God completely and vulnerably opened his heart to all people - not just some people. Jesus died, and that is an act of love that God cannot take back.

I, for one, am thankful for God’s irreversible and dying love. And although I might wonder “Why do the evil prosper? Why did this tragedy come to me?”, I am glad that the answer has no connection to God’s love based upon rules, for if it did, then it would always make me live in the fear that the rule(s) that I break just might be the one(s) that would close God’s heart to me.

Does God have favorites? In Jesus, God exclaims, “No!” In Jesus, God proclaims what is humanly impossible; all people are the “apple of his eye,” including you and me. And, in Jesus, God is daily at work “shining us up” with his love so that we might indeed bring the light of God’s love into the darkness of this world.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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