The Great Romance
Since this today is Valentine’s Day, it seems only appropriate that we look at love, but more specifically, that we look at romance, because while love is a very broad and encompassing topic, romance is much more narrow and specific. So, what is romance?
Romance: a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love; or a quality or feeling of mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life.
There are a couple of words in those definitions that I want to highlight: Mystery & Excitement.
This is a really cool concept to think about. We often talk about love in church, about God’s love for us, about our love for God, about loving each other, about loving our enemies, etc… Love is central to Christianity. It is how the world will know that we are followers of Jesus, by our love. It is the enduring quality that supersedes and outlasts even faith and hope. It is what gives everything meaning. It is one of the absolute qualities and characteristics of God. God is love. So, what is love?
Love is an intense feeling of deep affection; or a great interest and pleasure in something.
To put it in a Biblical framework, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. …” - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
There’s a lot there to unpack and examine and apply to our relationships and conduct with ourselves, with friends, with family, with neighbors, with acquaintances, with coworkers, with classmates, with strangers, with enemies, with God. However, that’s for another time. Here, as mentioned earlier, I want to look at the concept of romance in Christianity.
We’ve all heard of romance, or being romantic. Sometimes it is used to describe an event or atmosphere, such as a couple sitting down to a romantic candlelit dinner, or enjoying the romantic atmosphere of a sunset on a beach, or something like that. Sometimes it is said in sarcasm about an action or word that is incredibly unattractive and even off putting, like a guy eating BBQ ribs at dinner, dripping some sauce on his shirt and loudly slurping sauce off of each of his fingers, one at a time, “How romantic…” Sometimes, it refers to an action or gesture. A love letter or poem written, a surprise trip, a dozen roses, etc… The point is that romance involves something out of the ordinary, mysterious and exciting. Romance is not boring or expected. It is not, as we looked at last week, doing the same old thing, over and over again. Valentine’s Day is full of people attempting, some successfully, some not so successfully, to do just that, to introduce excitement and mystery and joy into relationships.
Here’s the thing, God does that for us, has done that for us. God doesn’t just love us, but He romances us. He goes to great lengths with unexpected and mysterious acts to display and live out His love. He desires for us to be with Him, and He pursues us. He does all the work and leaves it in our hands to choose whether or not to give ourselves to Him.
My favorite author is a guy named Ted Dekker. He’s written a lot of books in various genres, but most are thriller/suspense or sci-fi/fantasy. The first series I ever read by him is called the Circle. It consists of the books Black, Red, White & Green, and Black is one of the best books I have ever read. It is, essentially, a retelling of the fall of man and God’s effort to redeem, but set within an epic battle for the end of the world and a fantasy world where good and evil are visible and tangible. Anyways, in these books, Christianity is called “The Great Romance.” These are a couple of quotes from Black and Red.
“This was the Great Romance. To love at any cost.”
“The Great Romance is for you. If only one of you would have followed me, the heavens would not have been able to contain my cries of joy.”
This comes directly from Luke 15:1-7 “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
You see, God more than casually loves you or has affectionate feelings for you. He refers to the church as His bride. There is an entire, quite sexual, book of the Bible that describes the romantic feelings and actions of two lovers. It is an allegory for the passionate love and pursuit that God has for us, not in a sexual way, but a romance, nonetheless. We would never have expected God to do what He did. His actions were and are mysterious and exciting and definitely out of the ordinary. We see this in almost every human interaction with God. He chooses places, people, plans that seemingly make no sense. He does things that are terrifying and exciting. He seeks relationships with the outcast and shamed.
Just to highlight this again, let’s look at one more story. The story of Zacchaeus:
Luke 19:1-10 “He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Zacchaeus had heard about Jesus and was seeking to get to know more about Him, to see Him and to hear Him, but Jesus flipped the whole thing on its head and instead pursued Zacchaeus, like a lost sheep. He loved Him and created a great scandal, and saved Zacchaeus in the process.
Finally, we read in 1 John 4:9-10 “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
As Valentine’s Day is full of flowers and chocolates and teddy bears and diamond rings and people seeking to make a night romantic, remember that God loves you in the most incredible, passionate, mysterious and exciting way. He went to great lengths to show that love to you, and He continues to pursue you to this day. Like the lost sheep, like Zacchaeus, He wants to find you and rejoice with you and save you.
Romance: a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love; or a quality or feeling of mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life.
There are a couple of words in those definitions that I want to highlight: Mystery & Excitement.
This is a really cool concept to think about. We often talk about love in church, about God’s love for us, about our love for God, about loving each other, about loving our enemies, etc… Love is central to Christianity. It is how the world will know that we are followers of Jesus, by our love. It is the enduring quality that supersedes and outlasts even faith and hope. It is what gives everything meaning. It is one of the absolute qualities and characteristics of God. God is love. So, what is love?
Love is an intense feeling of deep affection; or a great interest and pleasure in something.
To put it in a Biblical framework, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. …” - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
There’s a lot there to unpack and examine and apply to our relationships and conduct with ourselves, with friends, with family, with neighbors, with acquaintances, with coworkers, with classmates, with strangers, with enemies, with God. However, that’s for another time. Here, as mentioned earlier, I want to look at the concept of romance in Christianity.
We’ve all heard of romance, or being romantic. Sometimes it is used to describe an event or atmosphere, such as a couple sitting down to a romantic candlelit dinner, or enjoying the romantic atmosphere of a sunset on a beach, or something like that. Sometimes it is said in sarcasm about an action or word that is incredibly unattractive and even off putting, like a guy eating BBQ ribs at dinner, dripping some sauce on his shirt and loudly slurping sauce off of each of his fingers, one at a time, “How romantic…” Sometimes, it refers to an action or gesture. A love letter or poem written, a surprise trip, a dozen roses, etc… The point is that romance involves something out of the ordinary, mysterious and exciting. Romance is not boring or expected. It is not, as we looked at last week, doing the same old thing, over and over again. Valentine’s Day is full of people attempting, some successfully, some not so successfully, to do just that, to introduce excitement and mystery and joy into relationships.
Here’s the thing, God does that for us, has done that for us. God doesn’t just love us, but He romances us. He goes to great lengths with unexpected and mysterious acts to display and live out His love. He desires for us to be with Him, and He pursues us. He does all the work and leaves it in our hands to choose whether or not to give ourselves to Him.
My favorite author is a guy named Ted Dekker. He’s written a lot of books in various genres, but most are thriller/suspense or sci-fi/fantasy. The first series I ever read by him is called the Circle. It consists of the books Black, Red, White & Green, and Black is one of the best books I have ever read. It is, essentially, a retelling of the fall of man and God’s effort to redeem, but set within an epic battle for the end of the world and a fantasy world where good and evil are visible and tangible. Anyways, in these books, Christianity is called “The Great Romance.” These are a couple of quotes from Black and Red.
“This was the Great Romance. To love at any cost.”
“The Great Romance is for you. If only one of you would have followed me, the heavens would not have been able to contain my cries of joy.”
This comes directly from Luke 15:1-7 “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
You see, God more than casually loves you or has affectionate feelings for you. He refers to the church as His bride. There is an entire, quite sexual, book of the Bible that describes the romantic feelings and actions of two lovers. It is an allegory for the passionate love and pursuit that God has for us, not in a sexual way, but a romance, nonetheless. We would never have expected God to do what He did. His actions were and are mysterious and exciting and definitely out of the ordinary. We see this in almost every human interaction with God. He chooses places, people, plans that seemingly make no sense. He does things that are terrifying and exciting. He seeks relationships with the outcast and shamed.
Just to highlight this again, let’s look at one more story. The story of Zacchaeus:
Luke 19:1-10 “He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Zacchaeus had heard about Jesus and was seeking to get to know more about Him, to see Him and to hear Him, but Jesus flipped the whole thing on its head and instead pursued Zacchaeus, like a lost sheep. He loved Him and created a great scandal, and saved Zacchaeus in the process.
Finally, we read in 1 John 4:9-10 “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
As Valentine’s Day is full of flowers and chocolates and teddy bears and diamond rings and people seeking to make a night romantic, remember that God loves you in the most incredible, passionate, mysterious and exciting way. He went to great lengths to show that love to you, and He continues to pursue you to this day. Like the lost sheep, like Zacchaeus, He wants to find you and rejoice with you and save you.
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