There is so many who tell you of the Greatest Love Story ever told, but have you heard of the of the most tragic one? With Valentines Day just past and love stories on everyone’s mind, and with us all being reminded of the Greatest Love Story, let me tell you about the Most Tragic Love Story ever told.
Have you ever been loved by someone but for some reason or other you did not love them in return? You did not desire their affections. You were not attracted or drawn to them. Many would say such a case is hopeless. You don’t love them. What else is to be done? They may be fully worthy of your love. They are kind. They are attractive. They are successful. They are intelligent. ..the list goes on, but there is still nothing.
Most of us have found ourselves on one side or the other of this unrequited love at times. What is one to do? They just don’t return your love. Most move on, few persevere, waiting, hoping against hope that after all other loves have failed them they will again turn to find you.
The Lord’s love for us is very similar. He has poured out his love for us. (Matt. 26:28) There is nothing he can do that he hasn’t already done to reveal and show his love for us. No one else will die for us as he has. No one else will pay his debts as he has. No one else will hold out an inheritance as he has. No one else will fight for us as he has. No one else will wait for us as he has. No one else will protect us as he has. No one else will provide for us as he has. No one else…
And yet still majority just aren’t interested in Him. Why doesn’t He just give up? Instead he waits. He lets us chase all our other loves, lets us find out for ourselves how empty they are. How temporary they are. How false they are. He watches us get broken over them. He watches as we are abused and manipulated by them. He watches them steal our life from us, steal our joy from us. He continues to hold out his hand to us, to hold the door open for us, to offer his strength to us, we need only to call out to him… but instead we pass him by, time and time again as we return to our former love for satisfaction and comfort.
Why? Why do we keep returning to the garbage can when he is inviting us to the banquet? Why do we not find such a love as his attractive? Why does our heart attach itself so fervently and so quickly to these items and persons that only abuse us?
This week I watched a long line of beautiful young girls line up to visit their beloved in the state jail on Valentines Day. The weather was beautiful, but I have a feeling that even if it would have been cold and rainy, they would have still waited in that quarter-mile line long outside the county jail. This week I plead with a pregnant young girl not to return to an abusive relationship…again. But she loves him too much to walk away. She can’t help it … I’ve watched a 50-year-old woman, get beat for years and return every time after what has become a customary trip to the hospital.
This is to say nothing of those who give their life, their heart to other such great lovers as pornography, alcoholism, internet, drugs, sex, television, food, friends, success, approval, beauty…it doesn’t have to be bad, it becomes bad when it controls them. When it takes them away from their family and friends instead of bringing them closer to them. When it takes them away from God instead of bringing them to him. When it takes away from their life, their joy instead of giving them life and helping them become the persons God designed them to be and enjoy the gifts that God designated them to have. These false loves steal from them continually…but they don’t have to, because they willingly sacrifice for such a lame love and worship it with all their attention, all their heart, all their soul, all their mind and all their strength.
God warns us that we are in a condition worse then a prostitute. A prostitute at the very least gets paid for their services. They receive some benefit for services rendered. We received no benefit in the end and spend all we have just for another hit, another moment, another chance.
‘You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you. Ezek. 16:32-34
What a miserable condition our hearts are in! We spend ourselves gladly on our love for sin, on our love for others who would abuse and take our life instead of give us life and reject Christ who gave His life for us so that we might know true love. (John 17:23,26) We sacrifice all our time, energy and resources to enjoy the pleasures of our false loves for just a moment longer… We receive no lasting benefit in return. Our lives are wasted. Our beauty is wasted. Our gifts are wasted on our lusts. Everything the Lord freely gives and provides us with, we sacrifice to our other lovers who abuse us. (Ezekial 16:14-19)
Our love is most miserable, yet He waits…. Our offenses against him are most great, yet He has chosen to pour out his affections on us while we were yet sinners, loving everyone and everything but him.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:8
Let me end share with you a video clip this topic brings to mind.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iY_tmektJc
The tragedy is the rose does not want Jesus. Even after all this, after all it’s been through it would crawl back to its false loves, abusive relationships, time and time again and willingly sacrifice whatever is left of itself to it, in order to try to find a love that does not exist outside of Him. That is the tragedy. That is the reality.
There will come a time when it is too late to accept His hand. A time when the door has been closed by Him and will never be opened again for anyone who did not seek to live for Him now. (Luke 13:25) Grace is always temporary. It is but a pause in the doorway of time, one last call for all who would enter to enter now and to enter quickly before it is too late. Soon the entrance will be sealed, like the great Arc of Noah. All those who placed their faith in God by following Christ will be safely shut in, all those who delayed will be shut out. There will be no second chances. There will be no late comers.
On that Great Day, many will see the great love they lost, the great joy they lost and they will weep for eternity for what might have been freely theirs, that which they sought for their entire life, but never sought for in him. It will be a Great Day indeed. A Great Day of unfathomable joy, and a Great Day of unfathomable sorrow and all of it no longer temporary but eternal and never-ending. If it is the world we want, it is the world we can have. He will give it to us. He will give us our hearts desires. When it perishes we too will perish with it. But if it is Him we want more than all the world has to offer us, we can have him and He will give us the world.
We must only choose which story we want to be cast in: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told or The Most Tragic Love Story Ever Told.
