Did you learn to love?

Did you learn to love?
- This was the question God asked a US prophet Bill Jones, and sent him back after his encounter with death, to learn it.

Since then his message has been circulating.
And true, when we ask it of ourselves, we are willing to see ourselves as the ones who can boldly say "yes" to this question.
And as long it is not Jesus asking us that in a direct encounter, we may believe we do, and quite well.

And maybe you do.

But maybe there are dimensions to it that might stretch you.
And when facing Jesus Himself, you would not really come out with any excuses when He e.g. asks you how have you loved your neighbour.

Yes, your good-looking and relatively well-to-do neighbour with no evident problems may be easy to love.

But God does not let us off the hook so easy.
Throughout the Bible He asked this question, and finally presented Himself in the form of a Good Samaritan.

Remember, the priest, and the levite, they passed by.
And somehow it makes me think that Jesus was not too happy at that.

Since He did not assume the role of a priest, or a levite, although religious, and in every way respectable men, no doubt.

Instead. He came out with a narrative of a man who while travelling, came across a man down, and in visible need.

And, unlike the priest, and the levite - the examples of the ruling clergy, Jesus did different.

He - the One who promised to leave 99 to minister to the one in need - did something to demonstrate his faith, which was not in words only, but in deeds.

He saw. And he stopped.
And yes, he was busy. And travelling. Not really in a position to spend a lot of time in a distractive situation which had nothing to do with his destination.
But he had compassion.

And that was what made him different from the elite clergy - the priest, and the levite. Since they saw too. At least from the corner of their eye. But passed by. And chose to ignore the plight.

Jesus was different.

He was flexible. And he was willing to let go of his plans, and enter into God's plan in front of him. He was able to recognise the need in front of him, and actually do something about it.

Many want to do ministry.
And it is a noble desire. The best.

But reasons differ.

If we have a lot of love to distant folks, and we are out to minister to them, but ignore the plight of the ones next to us, are we then like a priest and a levite, instead of the Good Samaritan who was symbolic of Jesus and His heart to men.

If we see the ones "who do not bother us too much" as our ministry ground, while bypassing the ones who threaten to rob too much of our time and effort, are we then similar to our Shepherd.

If we downright categorise people, generalising them, while being unable to find out about their story - do we really see them with the eyes of Jesus, the eyes of our heart. Now, stories may be long and tiring, and we may have our life to live and things to do, and it is not that we should indiscriminately hear everything. But do we care for the humans enough to find out about the truth, or are we going the path of the least opposition, lumping them into general boxes, where they are labelled, and the least problem for us. For we have ministry to do.

Do we do the ministry for we love the people?
Or is it more for our own advancement, and building a strong influential ministry? Are we more self-serving, than God-serving.

We may say that we serve God, and definitely so. And we may be right. At least to a certain degree.
Yet, God is all about the humans, for whom He gave His life. He is all about lifting them up, and helping them. And that is the concept of ministry with God.

Do we do what we do in order to minister to the broken hearted, and to restore the downtrodden and the fallen?

Or do we see them as too much of a problem? Something likely to rob our time and attention and efforts...

The humans matter to God. His ministry was not about erecting the highest cathedrals, but about building and restoring the human temple.

If we have love to humans who live in distant land, but we do not see and take them as our neighbours when they are next to us, what does it tell God of our love to these humans?

When facing Jesus, what can we tell Him when He asks us the same question. "Have we learned to love?"

Luke 10:25-37 New International Version (NIV)
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”


By the end of the day, it is not our own opinion of ourselves, or the one of our peers and compatriots who share a similar view - but the opinion of Jesus, and God which matters.