Ordinary & Extraordinary

Ordinary people. Extraordinary love.

In Sunday’s sermon, I highlighted that nurses and other healthcare professionals give us examples of ordinary people demonstrating the extraordinary power of resurrection.

Resurrection is about life. New life. Life from death. The power of resurrection is shown most clearly in Jesus being raised from the dead. But resurrection power is not just evident in bringing back people to life. It is also shown in bringing back life to people.

You probably won’t bring someone back to life from death. But you can absolutely bring back life to someone. You can remind someone of their identity as beloved. You can show someone they are more than their circumstances or decisions. You can bring light to a person’s dark places. You can bring life to a person’s dead or dying places.

You can demonstrate the extraordinary power of resurrection. You, an ordinary person, can do extraordinary works.

Here’s why I think this:

Of all the extraordinary things Jesus did – healing lepers, giving sight to the blind, bringing movement to the paralyzed, turning water into wine, feeding 5,000 people with a few loaves and fish, walking on water, raising people from the dead, calming storms – perhaps the most extraordinary thing he did was something we can all do.

He loved.

He loved sacrificially. He loved in a way that put others – everyone – ahead of himself.

“In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

“For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

This kind of love is extraordinary, and yet it’s available to and through ordinary people. I say “this kind of love” because the Greek language has many words for love. Words like philia ,which is a familial type of love, and eros, which is a passionate, romantic type of love.

Then there’s agape, a sacrificial type of love perfectly embodied by the person of Jesus and his command to love everyone, including enemies.

Here’s what Martin Luther King, Jr. says of agape and loving enemies, in a sermon titled, “Loving Your Enemies”:

The Greek language comes out with another word for love. It is the word agape, and agape is more than eros. Agape is more than philia. Agape is something of the understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. It is a love that seeks nothing in return. It is an overflowing love; it’s what theologians would call the love of God working in the lives of men. And when you rise to love on this level, you begin to love men, not because they are likeable, but because God loves them. You look at every man, and you love him because you know God loves him. And he might be the worst person you’ve ever seen.

And this is what Jesus means, I think, in this very passage when he says, “Love your enemy.” And it’s significant that he does not say, “Like your enemy.” Like is a sentimental something, an affectionate something. There are a lot of people that I find it difficult to like. I don’t like what they do to me. I don’t like what they say about me and other people. I don’t like their attitudes. I don’t like some of the things they’re doing. I don’t like them. But Jesus says love them. And love is greater than like. Love is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody, because God loves them. You refuse to do anything that will defeat an individual, because you have agape in your soul. And here you come to the point that you love the individual who does the evil deed, while hating the deed that the person does. This is what Jesus means when he says, “Love your enemy.” This is the way to do it. When the opportunity presents itself when you can defeat your enemy, you must not do it.

Think of the enemies MLK had. On April 4, 1968, one of them murdered him.

Think of the enemies Jesus had. Enemies that had him killed. And what does agape look like? It looks like praying for these very people while hanging from the cross: “Father,  forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

You may not have these types of enemies.

But you can love in this way.

It is this agape love that brought back Jesus from the dead. This agape love that demonstrates the power of resurrection.

And you can do that. You can love in that way.

You can love in this way because you are loved in this way.

Ordinary people. Extraordinary love.