A Radical Love

[rad-i-kuhl]

–adjective

1. of or going to the root or origin; fundamental.

2. thorough-going or extreme, esp. as regards change from accepted or traditional forms.

As an English major/literature geek, I LOVE words. I love to read them, write them, learn about them, and pick them apart. So, as I have been meditating on the title and theme of this blog, I couldn’t resist the urge to go deep into the terms we’ve chosen to guide the posts. And while “love” is an infinitely rich term, it was my exploration of the word “radical” that really got me thinking. I’ve given the dictionary definition of the term above, and would like to talk about God’s love as it relates to this word.

If we wish to go deeper into the love of God, we must understand how truly earth-shattering the lived reality of God’s love is (after all, this blog is about RADICAL love, right?). The best way to learn about God’s love is to study its embodiment on earth: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). So, we study Christ—God’s perfect love, poured completely into the living, breathing, person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Most people, when they hear “radical,” think of the second definition above: “thorough-going or extreme, esp. as regards change from accepted or traditional forms.” Basically, to most (myself included), “radical” = “extreme,” something that challenges the majority opinion. It’s easy to see how Jesus fit this definition of “radical.” From birth in a stable with dirty cows to death on a cross next to criminals, He consistently defied worldly expectations of what the savior—a KING—should look like, say, and do. His gaze was piercing and his teachings were hard—sometimes so hard that those who were listening walked away, maybe even shaking their heads and mumbling because this Jesus was just a little TOO radical.

Ok, so Jesus was pretty extreme—what does that have to do with God’s love? I say: EVERYTHING. The first definition of “radical” in the dictionary talks not about an extreme divergence or change, but a return to the original meaning: “going to the root or origin; fundamental.” Here we see the word “radical” in an entirely different light—it even seems to contradict the second definition. However, in this sense, too, Christ is radical. His very presence on earth points to the love of the Father for his creation. Fundamentally, Christ was God’s love.

With this definition in mind, we think again of Christ as a radical, and begin to see that these seemingly contradictory definitions converge. Jesus didn’t flip tables in the temple market and challenge the Sanhedrin to their faces because he wanted to stir up trouble. Jesus acted in ways we see as “radical” or “extreme” because, as the embodiment of God’s fundamentally radical love, He could not do otherwise. He knew, as we should learn, that God’s love demands total transformation, a change so extreme that the apostle Paul equates it with death of the self: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

God’s radical love—the same love that moved Him to speak the world into being and finally to send his one and only Son for its salvation—is calling to us now. How will we respond?