Love my Sheep!

I was reading the scripture yesterday where Jesus asked his follower (Peter?) "Do you love me?". Of course the pupil said "Yes, Lord. I love you!". "Then feed my sheep.", Jesus said. Jesus asked him the same question again, "Do you love me?" and the reply was the same, "Of course, I love you!". "Then feed my sheep," Jesus said again. I'm sure when Jesus asked "Do you love me?" the third time his disciple was scratching his head, maybe a little annoyed and embarrassed at being put on the spot. "Do you love me?", Jesus asked again. What the heck is he trying to tell me? Is he trying to humiliate me, make me look stupid? Am I missing something obvious? Maybe he felt a little like the guy with his zipper down that can tell that everybody else is laughing about something and suspects he's it but doesn't know why. "Yes, Lord, I LOVE you." Again, Jesus said, "Feed my sheep."

???? Feed my sheep? I'm sure they were looking at each other trying to figure out why Jesus was making such a big deal about this. Of course they knew the primary commandments were to love God with all your heart and to love others as yourself. They knew that already. But I think Jesus was trying to tell them that their lives were out of balance in this regard. That they perhaps weren't paying enough attention to the second half of these commandments. That maybe they were in large part missing the point of it all.

I read these words and I cringe a little myself. Have I, like the Jews of the day, spent so much of my effort, time, money, and creativity in praising God, honoring God, talking about God and acting as an ad man for God more than I have demonstrated my love for him by feeding his sheep? In other words have I been so religious in the practice of my faith with faithful pew sitting, regular contributions of alms in the plate, by overly diligent and self-indulgent self -purification, and by proudly wearing the badge of Christianity on my forehead and my political affiliation yet missed the point of it all - to love my neighbor?

It seems to me that in Jesus was trying to tell them something here, "Hey, stop spending so much time worshipping "God" and instead convert your worship into tangible actions by taking care of my people!". He'd ask Peter if Peter loved him and Peter would gush his allegiance and say all the right and sincere words. But Jesus' reply almost feels like frustration, "Then put your actions where your mouth is. Love my people!". In another place Jesus said that if we say we love God but don't love each other then we're liars. Wow! Liars? Yes, liars. That's how strongly he means for us to love each other. The Bible says that followers of Christ are to be known for their love. Not their piety, not their holiness, not their rituals, not their faithfulness to an organized group; but their love!

If God is a spirit of love and I'm to be led by the spirit am I not then to be led by love? If I'm to be transformed by the spirit of God into the image of God am I not then being transformed into love and into love? I am born again into Christ and I'm putting on Christ am I not then being born into and putting on love? Yes! But how often do I focus the majority of that love directly to him and spend so much time on my personal relationship with him but don't really put the emphasis, as he seems to desire, on loving others.

Truly as I think about this I think that the cross wasn't the focal point of Christ's mission here on earth. I think it was the payment so that we could do what he did, what he illustrated in his lessons and demonstrated by his actions; to love other people. Unconditionally. Love everybody! Love your neighbor. Who's that?, they asked. Everybody around you, he replied. Anybody can love lovable people, but love those that treat you like crap, he said. He lived it, preached, illustrated it and then he died so that we could have the spiritual freedom to live out his command. Instead we too often give lip service to the second command which is really the visible expression of the first. You cannot love God unless you love others.

I'm a father. Here's a real life parallel that helps this make sense to me. I ask my son, "Do you want to go to college?". He says "Yes! I want to be a doctor so I gotta go to college." "Ok, then do your homework.", I reply. I ask again, "Do you want to go to college?". "Yes!" "Then do your homework.". "Yeah, I know, I know. I really, really, really wanna go to college." , he says. "Ok, you gotta do your homework son if you want to go to college. It's not enough to just want to go to college, to talk about going to college, to plan on going to college, or assume that you're going to college. If you don't do your homework you can't go to college. If you're serious about going to college you'll be serious about doing your homework." It's an interesting, if somewhat lame, analogy. It doesn't matter how much money you have, if you haven't done your homework you're not going to go to college. A serious student will do their homework because they WANT to do it, not because they have to. A slacker won't do it at all because it's not in their heart. They're a liar in a sense. It'd be stupid to go around bragging that you're going to Harvard or Oxford if you don't even do the basics of studying. Homework and college prereq's, loving God and loving others; there is no seperating the two.

But I try to do that. I try to love God w/out loving others in practical, tangible, authentic ways. That's been my religious modus operendi.