Sidney Herald
religion column published August 19, 2012
“Mom always liked you best.”
That was the signature line of the comedy act, the Smothers
Brothers. In an interview by PBS, Tommy Smothers recalled how it started. He was
the younger, dumber brother. Dick was the older, smarter brother. Dick, as
usual, was running Tommy down. He did it so convincingly that the audience
stopped thinking it was only an act.
The audience started to hiss and boo Dick. Tommy said,
“He’d do this one litany, about five or six lines in a row. ‘You’re stupid.
You’re dumb. You’re not a man. You’ve never done anything right. You’re a
failure. You’ll never amount to anything.’” Tommy answered, “Yeah, and mom liked
you best.” The audience fell apart.
Why was that funny? Why did that relieve the tension that
was running so high against Dick? The audience had a pent up desire to see Tommy
win, to top Dick, to play trump. Unexpectedly, he did. Suddenly, in a bitter
way, the brother who was supposed to be a failure was a smashing success.
Tommy won the argument with one, simple statement. The
dumber brother showed that in one important way, he was smarter. Unpack the
line, “Mom liked you best,” and it says, if you’re so smart, why do you think
you can hurt me with all those rotten things you are saying, when I already have
been hurt as badly as anyone can be? Does it get any worse than my mother not
loving me as well? I am down so far, how did you think you could put me down any
farther?
Life does that to us. It tells us we are not loved as well
as others. As bad as that is when it involves our mothers, it is worse when we
feel that way about our Heavenly Father. The Devil, the world, and our own
fallen thinking try to take away our assurance of how well the Father loves us.
As with nearly every problem in our faith, the Trinity is
the answer. Because of the Trinity, we can receive assurance of how well loved
we are.
Jesus said to his Father, “You sent me and loved them even
as you loved me.” John 17:23. The Only Begotten Son of the Father says the
Father loves us, his adopted sons, exactly as He loves the Only Begotten. The
love in the Trinity between the Father and the Son is the same love that the
Father gives to us. We are loved as well as Jesus is.
The Only Begotten Son tells us He, too, loves us exactly as
the Father loves him. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.” John
15:9.
The Spirit also brings us the same love. “You have received
the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit
himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Roman
8:15-16.
Through the blood of Christ, we receive Trinitarian love.
No comments:
Post a Comment