true love died

A song we've been singing at my church lately is "True Love" by Phil Wickham. The chorus goes like this:

The earth was shaking in the dark,
all creation felt the Father's broken heart.
Tears were filling heaven's eyes
the day that true love died,
the day that true love died.
When blood and water hit the ground,
walls we couldn't move came crashing down.
We were freed and made alive
the day that true love died,
the day that true love died.

Yesterday, Easter Sunday, the words really hit me. What does this world think love is? An emotion, physical attraction, an ideal. For us, as imperfect humans, it's true that those things are part of it. But they're missing the main thing - and twisting the rest. Love, agape love, is more than just a feeling. I have a note that I wrote in the margins of my Bible that says, "Agape love is a choice of will to love no matter what."

And God chose - he chose. Notice that word. No one forced him to do it. God chose to sacrifice his only son for messed-up humans who would ignore him, reject his gift, and even openly hate him. Though they didn't love him, God chose to love them. He loved no matter what.

But think about the words of that song. Jesus, the epitome of true love, died. For us. How against the ideas of this world it is to sing that love is dying. Death and love are not often associated with one another. But John 15:13 tells us that "greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friend." God himself tells us that love equals willingness to die. And Jesus was willing to die. He died, betrayed by a close follower, abandoned by his disciples and disowned by the one who had vowed to stay by him forever, scorned by those who had days before cheered him as the coming Messiah, brutally murdered by those he came to save, bearing the sins of this world on his sinless shoulders, and feeling the wrath of his Father for the sins that he had not committed. He died alone, forsaken by everyone. The perfect lamb of God died one of the most horrific deaths this world has ever invented. He chose to die because of his great love for us. And that picture, of a man bloodied beyond all recognition, hanging exposed on a rough wooden cross, is the most beautiful picture of love in all of history. He endured all this for us. True love died.