The Application of Love to Suffering is the Technology that Jesus Transported from Heaven to Earth and Demonstrated by Using it Himelf so His High Degree of Confidence in it would become Our High Degree of Confidence in it
He Hung from His Cross to Teach us How to Hang from Ours.
Our passage through the Valley of Tears is not easy. Monsters of adversity haunt the Valley of Tears - monsters of illness, monsters of war, monsters of terrorism, monsters of injustice, monsters of poverty, monsters of ignorance, etc. Our encounters with them generate a great deal of painful friction. The friction produces a wild cacophony of sighs, mourning and weeping as we pass through the Valley of Tears . The din of our suffering, however, did not go unnoticed. It left our lips, reached God's ear and finally broke God's heart. Our suffering (not our sin) moved God with compassion.
In heaven, a technology had been discovered that facilitates the passage of flesh and blood through suffering. It was a simple technology. It called for the application of love to suffering. Love is the salve that greases the wheels of our passage through the Valley of Tears. Love is the buffer between us and our suffering. Love transforms us into superman. Love enables us to pick up and carry the monsters of adversity so they cannot crush us under their unbearable weight and cannot impede our journey through the Valley of Tears back to our home with God in paradise.
To address the problem of suffering, God the father proposed to mount a philanthropic mission from heaven to earth. God the Son agreed to execute it. The father gave the son two assignments:
- Transport from heaven to earth the technology that greases the wheels of our passage through the valley of tears.
- Demonstrate that the technology works by using it himself.
Transporting the technology from heaven to earth was easy. The love note from God to us was hand delivered to us at Bethlehem. Demonstrating that it works, however, was difficult - very, very difficult. The demonstration that the love note is genuine took place on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. To demonstrate that the technology works required the Son of God to take flesh - to become an equal to us in our humanity and a partner with us in our suffering - and, while human, alive, tender and vulnerable, to pass through a baptism of suffering. No baptism; no demonstration. No demonstration and the second half of the philanthropic mission would fail. Despite the evil baptism that awaited him, the Son of God volunteered for the mission. He was not deterred. He had a high degree of confidence in the technology of applying love to suffering. He would hang from his cross to teach us how to hang from ours. The God who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands would put himself into the hands of the mud to teach the mud the best way to pass through suffering. If the love note were counterfeit, his love for us would have faded as we tortured him and died when we killed him. But it did not. It survived. Its survival is the proof that the love note is genuine. Its survival is the proof that the technology works.
The technology does not allow us to dodge the monsters of adversity that haunt the valley of tears. We still pass through them as grist passes through a mill or as meat passes through a grinder. Passing through them, however, requires courage - a great deal of courage. Because Jesus had a high degree of confidence in the technology, he demonstrated that the technology works so we could likewise be confident in it. Our high degree of confidence in it is the source of our courage. God recommends that we love our way through the valley of tears because the primary beneficiary of doing so is ourselves. Many mistakenly think that the primary beneficiary of love is our neighbors. Not true. They are the secondary beneficiary of love. When we use the technology as we pass through the valley of tears, we preserve the resemblance that we bear to God. When we don't use it, the monsters of adversity transmogrify us into the most hideous and miserable of beasts. Love makes us god-like. By loving in adversity (and prosperity), we deify ourselves.
The Son of God did not transport and demonstrate pie-in-the-sky, head-in-the-clouds technology. He transported and demonstrated down-to-earth, practical technology. We can use it today, not just tomorrow, profitably. It is relevant to this world not just to the next.
Furthermore, the technology is platform agnostic. It works whether you are a Roman Catholic, other Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Pagan, Atheist, Saint, Sinner or something else. It is open source technology. It is catholic in the broadest sense of the word. No religion has a monopoly over it. Furthermore, no conditions need to be satisfied before it can be used.
People who are suffering need the technology that Jesus transported from heaven to earth and demonstrated for us. Will you tell them? Or will you let them suffer? Will you keep your mouth shut or will you preach the good news of great joy?
