Unreasonable Love

Genesis 22:1–2 (NIV)

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

Introduction

Love will make you do unreasonable things, won’t it?

When you fall in love with someone, you will do something that you said that you would NEVER DO for anyone!

I remember when I was a Youth Pastor there was a young man in our youth group that was very right brained, he was an Eagle Scout, and the OPPOSITE of creative. One of those guys. And he always wore two colors - blue or black. That was it. There was nothing else. You wouldn’t catch him wearing any other colored shirt and it was a THING in the youth group.

Well he started dating a girl, and then one Sunday, I’ll never forget, this young man comes walking into church wearing a PINK SHIRT. PINK.

He did not even slowly made his way there with a green shirt or a red shirt. He went black shirt one day to pink shirt the next day!

At that moment we knew, this boy is in love!

Now, because I am an equal opportunity story teller, I too have my own stories of demonstrating my love towards my wife Joanna.

My wife was workin at Target when she was a teenager, shout out to Target! And she worked at the Target that was about a 25 minute drive from my house down in Chula Vista. And let me tell you about my unreasonable story… I would make the 25 minute drive to Target, and the 25 minute drive from Target, just to see her during her 15 minute break at work.

That’s right. 50 minutes of driving, to spend 15 minutes with this beautiful young lady that I was pursuing.

It worked.

Some of you young men sliding into DM’s need to take notes! You need to put a little effort into your pursuit. You just sliiiiiding into DM’s… that’s too easy!

Transition

And I say all of this lightheartedly, to make the point, that love will make us do unreasonable things.

Moms and Dads, you are a really nice and gentle person, but find out someone is picking on your little girl at school, and you will manifest into The Predator.

That’s what love does, doesn’t it?

The Text

And you may be thinking to yourself, Pastor Josh went to a very interesting passage of scripture this Easter Sunday, but you will see that Genesis 22 is actually a picture of faithfulness, and the provision of God.

We catch up in this story with Abraham who is well over 100 years old by now, and he is the father of a young teenage boy. No one knows for sure how old Isaac is here in this passage, but we know he’s old enough to take a three days journey and a hike up a mountain with his father, so I’m going to say he is 13, making Father Abraham 113 years old, give or take.

Now this story lets us know right from the beginning that this is a test.

Everyone say “test”.

God tested Abraham’s love towards him. God wanted to know if truly Abraham was as committed to God as God was committed to him.

If you don’t know the extent of God’s commitment to Abraham, let me explain it this way. God said to Abraham that he was going to make him a father of many nations and that his descendants would be more than the starts in the sky.

So Abraham has a promise from God and he is living his best 113 year old life when God suddenly interrupts his plans to check his love. God even goes so far as to say to him, “take your only son, that you love, and sacrifice him for me.”

It is at this moment when God is asking Abraham, do you love me more than you love your son Isaac?

I can only IMAGINE how this conversation went with Sarah, his wife. Or if he even told Sarah at all.

Most men would probably just slip out the house and skip the convo.

But Abraham goes and does exactly what the Lord asked of him.

Why Tho?

Now, if you are a sane person, you should start asking right about now, “why in the world would Abraham say yes to this?”

Abraham learned earlier in his life one of the most valuable insights about love that we as a culture are starting to lose.

Love is selfless, not selfish.

Said differently - 1 Corinthians 13:5, “love does not demand it’s own way”

Now I have to pause here and teach on this for a bit, because this used to be understood. There was a time when love was defined by sacrifice, not by selfishness. There was a time when love compelled people to lay down their own interests, for the greater good of family and community.

I’m concerned about where we are headed when it comes to love. Culturally, love is moving away from selflessness to selfishness. Love is distorted to DEMAND its way, and not just everyone gets their way, but that everyone must celebrate that way.

This is called expressive individualism and it is ripping the fabric of our nation.

But Lighthouse, let me just encourage you, this is not new. This spirit of selfishness always finds ways to rear it’s ugly head generationally.

But can I tell you want the cure to selfishness was, and is, and always will be?

It’s found right here in the text.

John 15:13 (NIV)

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

The Love of Jesus

Now, this verse is talking about a person, and that person is Jesus. Jesus demonstrates to us, that there is no greater love than to sacrifice our way for the way of others.

So just as Abraham was ready to do something totally unreasonable because of his love for God, God also was getting ready to do something totally unreasonable out of his love for us.

Isaac is a foreshadow of Jesus.

Jesus is the son of God, and God laid down the life of his son out of love for us.

John 3:16 (NIV)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus, the son of God, understood his assignment here on this earth. Jesus understood that he was on a love mission. Jesus understood that there was only one way for God to forever change the relationship between Creator and Creation, and it demanded his life.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is in John 13:1

John 13:1 (NIV)

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Jesus loved his followers right up until the very end, and he was willing to lay down his life for them.

This was all a part of the plan that had been understood for so long. When Isaac asked his father, “where is the lamb for our sacrifice?” I want us to see Abraham’s response:

Genesis 22:8 (NIV)

Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

This was a statement to Isaac, but an application for us as well.

God never intended for Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. That was just a test.

But God would sacrifice his son Jesus for us.

Isaac showed us what was to come, but it was always Jesus, the Son of God, who was going to be the lamb.

You see, this is what love does. Love gives, and it does not take. Love compelled the Father to give an unreasonable gift, and that was His son, Jesus.

Jesus, the Resurrection

Before I close this message I want to make sure you all know that even though Jesus endured the cross, the cross never had the power to kill Him.

You see, Jesus was the Resurrection.

John 11:25 (NIV)

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;

As the resurrection, Jesus could not die. Jesus could not be conquered by death. He was never going to lose. But to the cross he goes, and to a tomb he laid down, but when he was done, he rose with all power and authority.

And today, this is what we celebrate.

Jesus, our Lord and our Savior, has rescued us! Jesus, our Lord and Savior, has shown us the depths of his love.

And now, we have the chance to demonstrate back to Him our love.

Conclusion

I want to close by taking us back to Psychology class. In Psychology we learn that according to Abraham Maslow, humanity has a hierarchy of needs. Our most basic need is safety, the next is to be loved, the next in our need is our esteem, and finally, Maslow said the pinnacle of the hierarchy of needs is self-actualization. This is a person who is fully realizing their potential. This is a person realizing and living from their gifts.

But did you know that Maslow walked back his pinnacle later in life? Later in life, after he had lived more and experienced more, he decided that there was one more level to be achieved. He called this transcendence, or self-transcendence. And this simply means that we will view our needs from a higher perspective. We won’t just chase after our needs, but we will ask ourselves what does this mean for my brother and my sister.

Self-actualization is realizing our potential, but self-transcendence is surrendering our potential for the glory of God, and for good of others.

This is what Jesus did. And, this is what he asks of us.

1 John 3:16 (NIV)

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.