The Lesson

By Irony Illuminator

The afternoon was stretching toward evening as the two young men walked through the garden. The sun’s golden rays warmed their backs, shining through the transparent green leaves of trees overhead.

One of the young men walked with a crutch, while the other, a scholar, strolled easily next to the first, hands clasped behind his back, head bowed slightly in thought. They walked in silence for a while before the second one spoke.

“I still do not understand,” he said finally, with just a hint of frustration, as though he had gone over the matter many, many times and could not find what he was supposed to find.

“What is it that you do not understand?” the young man with the crutch asked patiently.

“I do not understand the purpose. I do not understand the motive, or the motivation.”

The young man with the crutch thought on that for a moment, a slight smile playing on his lips. “I know it may seem difficult to comprehend,” he said finally. “But it is really the most simple thing in the world. It’s based on one key thing, just one.”

“And what is that key thing?” the other inquired.

“That is love.” The one with the crutch paused beneath a tree and leaned against it, stopping to catch his breath. With his free hand, he motioned to their surroundings. “All this, is intertwined with that key thing. Love. The entire universe, every living thing, every molecule, every atom, every single thing is based on love. The creation of all is based on love.” He laughed softly. “Is it not natural for this to be based on love as well?”

His companion frowned, still thinking. “But what love? What is love?” he asked. “And if such a thing exists, then how is it intertwined with the whole of the universe?”

The young man leaning against the tree straightened, gripping his crutch under his arm. They continued to walk, and continued their discussion.

“What love, my friend? What is love? This love is the love of a mother for her child, the love of a husband for his wife, the love of a friend for another friend, the love of a minister for his congregation, the love of a missionary for the unsaved, the love of a child for life… The love of the Creator for those whom He has created. What love, my friend? This love is what has given you life. This love is what has given life to every being on this planet. All these loves, rolled into one great Love, a love that we cannot possibly hope to comprehend.”

“I have seen many of these different forms of love,” the scholar admitted. “But never have I seen the love of which you speak, this great Love that surpasses the extent of the human mind.”

The young man with the crutch shook his head. “Then you have not been looking, my friend,” he said gently. “This Love is all around you. You are living proof of it.”

His comrade thought on this also. “But you have not answered my other question,” he said finally.

“And what question is that?”

“What is love?”

A soft, tender smile crossed the lips of the young man with the crutch. “What is love…” he repeated the words slowly, tasting them, savoring them, contemplating them. “Love is the Shepherd. It is the longing of the Shepherd to keep His sheep, and to keep them safe. It is the purpose of the Shepherd when He finds that one has strayed, and goes to seek it, desiring to bring it safely home. It is the tenderness with which the Shepherd carries the lost lamb back to the fold, alive and well. Love is the purpose, my friend, and the greatest purpose, the only purpose. Love is the motive. Love is the motivation. Love is the answer to all your questions, and it is the missing piece that you seek.”

“You speak in riddles difficult to understand, my friend.”

“Then I will speak it plain.” He thought for a moment and then motioned with his hand toward the sky. “There was God. There is God, and there will be God. He is eternal. In the beginning He created the world and everything in it. He created man and woman in His image and He loved them. When they fell into sin, He wept for them. He had to send them from their perfect home, but He did not abandon them. He stayed by them throughout the ages and helped them, bearing them up. They were a wayward people, perverse, and wicked, but He did not forget His covenant with them. He did not leave them. And then, when His will was accomplished, He descended to the Earth to dwell among those He had made, and become a Man. He spoke to them, and preached to them, and told them of His Love for them. He showed the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. He was the Way and the Truth and the Life. Yet few truly understood. In the end they killed Him. And yet, though it seemed that Sin had triumphed, the Son of Man rose from the dead, and defeated the grave. And He sent His children out into the world to speak His words with their mouths and to share them with those who could not hear. That, my friend, is Love.”

The scholar was moved by his companion’s story, but still seemed perplexed. “But what Way did He show them, what Truth did He reveal to them, what Life did He give them? What did He do for them?”

The young man with the crutch turned to face his friend. His eyes were full of sadness. He laid down his crutch and spread his arms out, away from his body.

“This,” he said softly.

For an instant, there was dead silence and nothing happened. Nothing moved.

Then the young scholar, the one who questioned, stared at his friend…and stared, and stared.

Blood oozed from gashes on his friend’s forehead. The hands outstretched jerked and nails appeared, driven clean through them. Blood seeped from the holes. Nails were driven through his feet also, and blood seeped from those holes as well.

Abruptly, his shirt tore at his side and water spilled out of the gaping wound.

Water?

The scholar tore his gaze from the wounds and lifted it to the face of the young man with the crutch. The latter’s eyes were glassy and filled with pain. He drew a rasping breath.

Abruptly, his head fell forward onto his chest.

The scholar gaped.

The young man was dead.

Again, there was stillness.

And then, a light… It came from the body of the young man with the crutch, a pure light that grew and grew in strength until the scholar shielded his eyes from the holy brightness of it. He could not longer see the young man. He couldn’t see anything.

A hand reached out of the light and touched his shoulder.

The scholar jerked his hands away from his face and stared.

There stood the young man, crutch under his arm, just as he had been before.

And yet, not the same. Different. His eyes searched those of the scholar. He wore a small, loving smile.

“That is what He did, my friend.”

The scholar stood still for a moment and then sank forward to his knees, bursting into tears. He knelt there, weeping and sobbing. The young man with the crutch immediately got down next to the scholar and wrapped his arms around him.

“Love won, my friend. He won. He wants to give you Life. He loves you.”