Love Bombs
“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
…
“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?”
“How long?” is the poetic language of suffering. Jesus hasn’t sinned by being impatient or talking smack. He healed the boy before the crowd reached him, and privately answered the disciples’ question about why they couldn’t cast out the demon.
“Because you have so little faith. … This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting.”
Mark 9:24-29
Matthew 17:17-21
[I kinda wonder how they were able to cast out the other demons if their faith was lacking & they weren’t at least praying. But they are the same group who abandoned him & struggled to believe he would have to die, and that he actually rose from the dead.]
On the one hand, he did help the man’s unbelief by healing his son. On the other, the man’s unbelief was something through which he suffered, just like the unbelief he endured from Lazarus’ family before Jesus raised him. But it wasn’t the signs in which he wanted them to believe (John 4:48, 6:35). Every word he taught, every healing he performed, foreshadowed the cross & resurrection, but every doubt of his teaching, or of his ability to heal, foreshadowed his rejection and crucifixion.
Seems as if his “How long?” was a bit of presentiment…his tears before raising Lazarus a precursor to Gethsemane.
34 AD: “It is hard to kick against the goads” (Jesus to Saul/Paul on the road to Damascus to jail Christians, Acts 26:14). To keep him humble after he was “caught up into heaven” (etc) about 14 years prior to writing this in 55AD: “there was given me a thorn in my flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7).
You gotta know Paul’s struggle was real. It was also Paul who said, “To live is Christ, to die is gain” and wasn’t entirely settled on which he would choose.
Many struggle. Jacob became Israel after struggling (Genesis 32), Job was restored after struggle, Gideon (I need a sign) … Moses (I can’t speak) … Jonah (these people suck, I’ma go hide) … Elijah (me too) … Isaiah (man of unclean lips) … David (murdered lover’s husband & got chain jerked…but still got to marry her & they gave birth to their second child, Solomon… who was the wisest & brought peace… though weak to his wives) … kinda like Samson was weak to Delilah & got his strength removed … what an idiot (so many of us can relate). But God loved and used them all. Not an exhaustive list.
“The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” (Ex. 34:6)
“Yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed.” (Isaiah 54:10)
“Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? …am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?” (Ez. 18:23)
“For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!” (Ez. 18:32)
“I will betroth you to me forever; …in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.” (Hosea 2:19)
“I will show my love…I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people,’” (Hosea 2:23)
“I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32)
“Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” (Luke 15:31)
“As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34)
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.” (John 15:9)
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
“I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15)
“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-11)
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)
“I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.” (Rev. 3:9)
“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.” (Rev. 3:19)
When Joseph’s brothers tried to apologize to him, he stopped them and acted like they actually did everyone a favor, because God used it to save folks from famine…but that still went on to result in slavery for a lot of folks, so maybe he should have accepted that apology? Then again, they were not left in slavery, and after God used a survivor of child holocaust (Moses), they were used to (pretty much) end the evil (child sacrifice, etc.) of the Canaanites… and history just keeps pendulum shifting… or is it circling back? Same bugs bunny move with Jesus.
Where is the line between “They do not know what they do…they actually did us all a favor” and “Time to take out that garbage,”? God knows.
That is why he says vengeance is mine. He is the one who sees furthest down the road, and he is the one who knows how best to course correct.
Take heart. He has overcome the world. Stay close… Our turn.