“You see Him when you look down”
Love Unknown
An unknown man, mentioned in only a few verses in the Bible. It might have been a passing mention, but it was life changing for Him. His life shows us that no matter how big or small our encounter with Love is , change is imminent. If you have not changed then you have not truly met Love. So he definitely met Him, but when he met Him, he wounded Him deeply. Through the wound, his soul was pierced and forever changed.
“But God does not break a heart to steal from it. He opens it, gently to pour Himself in.”Anonymous Coptic monk, Monk around the world
God does not break a heart to steal from it, but He broke His own that we may take freely from Him. This is a story about a friend of ours, Church tradition tells us he was a Greek from the region of Cappadocia, raised a gentile, far removed from the covenants, prophecies, and God’s promise to redeem His creation. He witnessed multiple crucifixions and deaths. His heart grew accustomed to such a sight. His name was Longinus.
He saw multiple people defeated by death, but this Man was different. This Man commanded it, He was Life. Longinus was taught that crucifixion was life taking and humiliating, but He came to see that this cross brought life, he saw that this cross was a glorious throne for Love.
He heard mutterings and murmurs of the innocence of the Man, and he saw the ridicule that He received. He saw it all. He saw hard hearts harden and slander Him, but He also saw tender hearts weep for Him. And then He saw Him look on both with love in His eyes. The wonder in his mind made its way into his heart, and a channel of questions flooded in…not knowing at the time that the Answer was on the cross.
It was unfamiliar to Longinus that anyone on a cross could look tenderly upon His spectators. It is usually the wonder in our heart that pulls us to look at Him, it is the “How God? Why God? Why us?”, that mysteriously takes us into the inner chamber of Love. The most peculiar and delightful thing about love is the question that precedes it, not because it answers differently every time, but because no matter the question, Love always is the answer. And under the towering cross, I find myself standing alongside Longinus, looking up in awe. Love has never looked so beautiful while wounded. I cannot help but ask myself: what does my love look like when wounded? Does it give tenderness back, or does it harden and cease to be called love?
Love Observed
Let’s focus on the Man on the cross, maybe in Him we can all find the answers to our questions.
“‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’” - Matthew 25: 37-40.
This verse struck me when I read it, because the answer is not metaphorical, it is almost prophetic. He is not telling us to imagine Him in people, no, He Himself has entered into their sufferings. He was imprisoned and tried, He was deprived of food, His garments were torn and He became naked, and He thirsted. It’s as if He is saying to us that the when and the where are the cross…on the cross you see the Man.
This poses two questions; where do I see Him? And where do I look for Him?
I once visited a monastery, and a very kind sister offered to walk with me around the different churches. We started with the main church. The church building was circular and the ceiling was a dome with a beautiful icon of the Pantocrator with the 12 disciples and the angels around Him. The floors of the church were black tiles. She asked me to stand with her in the middle, when she spoke from the middle, her voice sounded loud without needing a microphone. She then simply said something that was so profound, she told me to look down. I looked down and in the reflection of the spotless tile of the church floor, you see our Beautiful Pantocrator looking back at you. The sister looked at me and with a gentle whisper she said, “You see Him when you look down”. And her words echoed beyond time in my heart.
We often expect grandness from God, but He has made the little, grand. He has elevated everything that was once belittled by humans. He raised the hungry and the thirsty, He elevated the naked, and He remembered the imprisoned.
He does not stop there, He even takes the place of the flogged, the wounded, the abused, and the crucified. His arms that were nailed to the cross, never cease to close and are always open for an embrace. His legs that were fixed on the cross, they never cease to run to you like the father to the prodigal son. He had a crown of thorns but He never ceases to be a loving King. His mouth that was struck, never ceases to speak love, mercy and forgiveness while on the cross.
As I stand alongside Longinus beneath the cross, I imagine Christ’s love chipping away at my hard heart with every word spoken. “Behold your mother…, Father forgive them…, Today you are with Me in paradise…”.
“His voice sought my drowned spirit and I was brought back to the shore.”Khalil Gibran, Jesus the Son of Man
Christ on the cross is the ultimate example of what we ought to be as Christians. In the midst of His pain, He still cared for others. When He spoke about the extra mile, He walked it on the cross. He made sure that His mother was cared for even though no one cared for His wounds. He saw the bystanders and his killers who had constantly hurt Him and plotted His death and still cared for their salvation, but not just silent caring, He loudly interceded for them, He truly loved. And when a stranger criminal on the neighbouring cross had the courage to ask for forgiveness, He gave Him the Kingdom. His love is generous, His love is always, His love is true. You see, His wounds did not make His love smaller, they made it visible.
Christ’s response to the right hand thief is one of the most profound events that we ever see. There is more than one point here. There is the irony of a thief stealing the kingdom, there is the courage of a humble soul asking for severe love and getting met with exactly that, and there is also the Man on the cross who loved His neighbour as Himself.
“And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” - Mark 12:30-31
Christ does not just show the world that He can forgive and that a thief is worthy of mercy and forgiveness. He proclaims that even when we are on our own crosses, we ought to care for others. It is one thing to care for another, but to care for another when I am suffering, that is love. Many people were on the cross, but Christ was the first to love on the cross. And if that does not break a soldier’s heart, then I do not know what would.
Love Poured Out
“So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, “Truly this Man was the Son of God!”” - Mark 15:39
“Jesus gave His breath to the breathless dead.”Khalil Gibran, Jesus the Son of Man
After hours on the cross, Longinus pierces Love in the side, in His Heart. And Love being love, can only give out Love. And so, Love is poured out abundantly. Blood and water flow. A covenant and promises flow from His heart and drench ours. His love breaks the hardness of ours, not violently, but gently. The paradox of the softness of His mighty love draws us into Him and we taste His sweetness.
““Love” is one thing, and the “mystery of love” is something else. A human being may experience love (even pure love) and remain unchanged. But when a human being experiences the mystery of love, he does not remain the same. At the very moment, he learns self-sacrifice. Christian love is not limited to itself. All other types of human love are concerned with the self and incline to death and decay, whereas Christian love is ever-living and it breaks out and expands in every direction. It is a love that can grow and thrive even in the worst of circumstances. Christian love is stronger than death itself, for it contains within it the mystery of Christ’s Resurrection and eternal life”Father Matthew the Poor, If you love Me
I tried to imagine what Longinus would have felt or seen in that moment to confess. I found it odd that at the sight of a broken man on the cross, a Roman soldier would declare such a statement. He could have shouted out anything else but his heart cried out in recognition of His Creator. The one who wounded Love becomes wounded by Love. The result of being wounded by Love is a confession of faith.
“In this time, many have slept on faith, and have placed it fearfully under a veil of silence. Thus faith is awake in the heart, but its proclamation sleeps in the mouth.” St Ephrem the Syrian, The Hymns on Faith
God’s love is new. God’s love is different. God’s love is hard to imitate. But God’s love is Truth. So when I say I love, do I truly mean that? Do I mean it when I walk past someone in need, when I walk past someone who is alone, when I choose my comfort over comforting, when I slander my enemies and call it righteous anger, when I sleep at night while holding a grudge, when I say I obey but I am stiff-necked, when I pretend to claim caring for others but all I think about is myself, when I preach the extra mile and I cannot walk out of the house…
Do I look as beautiful as He does on the cross?
He is a love who does not just pass by, He is a love who heals, He is a love who sits with sinners, who feeds thousands, who creates and opens eyes, who raises the dead, who restores hearts of stone, who gives joy, who wipes our tears away, who loves us to the end. Teach us O Love to love like You.
Love bows His head to look at the world, to look at Longinus and his heart. He bows and has mercy on Longinus and lets His wounds speak love to him. He then becomes Saint Longinus.
When Love bows, He does not bow out as if it is the end of a play, He bows in and He says:
“Behold, I make all things new.” - Revelation 21:5
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