Love is Not Authentic but Transformative

John 13:31-35

Here’s one of my favorite childhood folk tales:

A farmer went to town to sell his produce and returned with a large chest of treasures. His family and relatives gathered around him to hear the story of his windfall of fortune. He said, “As I walked through the forest on my way home, I heard someone groaning in a cave. I entered the cave and saw a dying tiger with a massive infected wound on its arm.

“I was about to run away in fear and disgust, but the tiger looked paralyzed. So, out of pity, I reached for my first aid kit to bind its wound and gave it water. Since it was getting dark, I stayed in the cave overnight. The next day, when I woke up, I found it completely recovered, and it thanked me with this chest of treasures.”

Feeling envious, the sister-in-law inquired about the cave’s location and asked her husband to find the place and try his luck. The next day, he went and found the cave. Surprisingly, he heard a tiger groaning inside, so he went in and saw the wounded tiger just like his brother had told them.

Smelling the infected wound, he thought, “Yuck! My brother didn’t tell me that the tiger was so stinky.” He covered his nose and reluctantly bound the tiger’s wound because he wanted the reward. He slept in the cave, dreaming about returning home with a treasure chest bigger than his brother’s.

The next day, the tiger got better and ate him for breakfast. (End of the story).

It’s a wisdom story open to multiple layers of interpretation. On the surface, it teaches people that you cannot copy someone’s success by merely duplicating what they do. At a deeper level, it teaches that nature rewards transformational actions rather than transactional ones.

It’s natural for humans to fear tigers and for tigers to attack humans. It’s our fallen nature. If the elder brother were authentic, he would have stayed away from the tiger out of fear, as he mentioned. However, his sympathy for the suffering animal made him rise above his authenticity. John said,

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” (1 Jn 4:18a).

We cannot naturally love our enemies because we authentically hate or fear them. When Jesus asked us to love our enemies, he asked us to rise above our authenticity. When we do, we become transformative. However, we cannot intentionally use love to transform others because that’s fake. Intention matters! Perfect love has no motive.

Today's culture glorifies authenticity. In the name of expressing themselves, people gratify their authentic feelings. They can be rude and say, “I am just being authentic.” Paul said that we are supposed to tell the truth in love. Telling the truth is authentic, but without love, the truth hurts rather than heals.

Since we are fallen beings, our authenticity is also fallen. John Calvin called it “Total Depravity.” If I am authentic, I would rather eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (Sophie is not home anyway!) If we are authentic, we cannot love the unlovable.

The way Jesus wants us to love is transformational and not transactional. It requires us to sacrifice our authenticity and rise above it, taking the high road.

If Jesus were being authentic, he wouldn’t have gone to the cross. He expressed his authenticity to God the night of his arrest, saying:

“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” (Mat 26:39).

His prayer is very authentic; no human would go to the cross to endure that kind of suffering. It was a bitter cup that he would rather pass. You and I would do the same. Yet, he went to the cross to fulfill God’s will, not his own authenticity. Jesus went to the cross to please God by fulfilling God’s will to save us.

Jesus also taught us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Who would do God’s will on earth? Who are on earth? Us! Since we are on earth, we are to do God’s will on earth. That prayer is to ask God to give us the courage to take the higher road against our fallen nature.

Today, we will explore how to love beyond authenticity and become transformative. We will learn how to let perfect love cast out fear so that we can take the high road and make a difference. Let’s begin!