To fully understand the depths of another person’s love for us, we have to be at a disadvantage with them. In other words, vulnerability is necessary to fall deeply in love with someone. In a friendship, family, or marriage, we often like each other, and as long as justice (each person treating the other how they ought to be treated) is held within the relationship, everyone is content. While this is a way of showing love, it is not how we come to know the deepest form of love. For Jesus tells us that even sinners love those who love them so what credit is it to love those who love you? (Luke 6:32). To show the deepest form of love, we must give or show love whenever we or the other person do not deserve it or are at their lowest.
The husband and wife who are good teammates, but not vulnerable with each other, can only gain a certain depth of love. Rather than being in a self-giving relationship, they may end up in a more contractual-like relationship that keeps track of each other’s actions. That love can eventually deteriorate until one or both allows themselves to be weak and the other desires to be strong for their spouse.
The father and mother could provide for a child and the child could respect them back, but again this will only gain a certain level of love. The father and mother must be weak at appropriate times with their children in order to share certain aspects of their life with their children. This will allow the children to be welcomed into the family and learn their place. Likewise, the child must be vulnerable in their failures with their parents so that their parents can help guide them through life.
The friends who always remain on an amicable level with each other only realize a certain level of love. We truly find out who our close friends are when they see us in our weaknesses or at our worst, yet choose to remain by our side. In these situations, one side must let down their guard and allow their friend to see their weakness, and the other side must be willing to love the person despite their weaknesses. This also must be reciprocated in the friendship when necessary.
A relationship with God is no different. This is the Easter story. God proves His love for us that when we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8). God saw us in our weakness, endured the pain of our rejection, and still showed the greatest form of love that can be shown. He did this before we understood what He was doing. Our sinful vulnerability allowed God to show His great love for us. This is why we can proclaim Adam’s sin as a happy fault. Because when we became weak, He became strong.
Yet, what the humanity of Jesus shows us is that we must become even weaker than our sinfulness. We must not hide it in order for it to be strong. We need to give our sinfulness humbly to God and allow Him to redeem it. Easter morning came for Jesus because He submitted to the will of the Father. He became weak and the Father raised Him up. We are to do the same. God has already become weak for us. We must become weak for Him, because then He will be able to shower His love from the cross upon us and raise us up in Him for all eternity. There is no greater love than that.
