Insanity has power in an age of indifference!
There is nothing good or right about hatred of self because it is the source of hatred of others and ultimately the foundation of all insanity and inhumanity. "Love," a word that is abused, misused and misconstrued because it is an umbrella raised over every type of relationship.
Perhaps the single most important Biblical directive to love is found in the story related by Jesus when asked: "who is my neighbor?" Jesus relates the story of the Jewish man who is attacked, beaten, stripped, robbed and left for dead on the roadside. Following the attack, three people come upon the victim in succession.
The Drama and Danger of Indifference
First in the procession is a Jewish rabbi, a teacher of the law, and a representative of the truths of Jewish Biblical faith. Upon seeing the man, he passes on the other side of the road not wishing to become involved.
Second, the Jewish Levite, a man who would also have been directly connected to temple worship and versed in the law of hospitality, which mandates that he assist this victim. Seeing the man beaten, naked and left for dead, he too passes on the other side.
Essential to the drama and pointedness of Jesus' illustration is that the man who is the victim and the first two who encounter him are all Jews. In a real sense, they are brothers bound together by their faith and obligated to assist one another.
The Power and Promise of Love
The third person to come upon the victim is a Samaritan man. He was a "half-breed" unfit for interaction or communication with a Jew. In effect, the Samaritan was hated simply because of his heritage by the typical Jew; even the man lying in the dirt dying would have hated the Samaritan man.
Yet, the Samaritan Man stopped as he passed, lifted the man onto his animal and took him into the nearest town, and left him with an innkeeper. Before moving on, he paid for his care and then charged the innkeeper to care for the wounded man. The Samaritan man then pledged to cover any of the expenses that the innkeeper incurred when he returned. This man, hated and despised by even the man he helped became history's first, first responder as well as the first insurance provider in recorded human history.
It is clear to see the difference between Love and Indifference illustrated in Jesus' story, who then asks the question, "which man was his neighbor?" to which the man responded, "the man who helped by showing mercy." Jesus' response followed saying ''Go and do the same!"
Hatred was laying in wait for the man traveling along the road, it fell upon him with fury, beat him, stripped him naked, robbed him and left him dying, laying in his own blood in the dirt by the side of the road.
Indifference happened upon the man who had been sought out and found by hatred. When indifference came upon the handiwork of hatred, it passed on the other side. Choosing not to connect with the man in his suffering, indifference passed him by twice, uncaring, unconnected and unmoved.
Love, as Jesus is illustrating, happened upon the man and immediately connected through exceptional care and moved to restore the man to health. Love chose to connect and lifted the man back to health with no indication that the victim ever knows how he was restored.
Three Realities of our World: Hatred, Indifference, and Love
This is the contrast; Hatred is intentional and purposeful. It is driven by an all-consuming insufficiency in the person who hates. It speaks of something lacking in the person or persons for whom hatred is the chief mode of expression. It is extreme care, but only to satisfy its own desires by causing others to suffer.
Indifference, on the other hand, is purposeless beyond a self-centered distorted love of self. It seeks nothing but to be left alone undisturbed and feels little more than fear for self. In this way, it becomes the polar opposite of love in that it is the complete absence of care for another.
Love is the most profound and beautiful expression of care. It is sacrificial in that it will give of itself to add to the life of another. It is a beautiful pouring of oneself into another to increase and to enhance the life and experience of the beloved. Love is the polar opposite of indifference because it cares in varying degrees for the wellbeing of another person.
Hatred is a disease of cultural proportions. It is an epidemic of insanity and can only satisfy its care of self by destroying another person and ultimately itself.
Indifference is dangerous because it is the unwitting ally of Hatred, creating unobstructed pathways to the propagation of hate's bitter fruit, a contagion of insanity that spreads leaving the pain, suffering, and destruction in its wake.
Love is the only antidote for indifference and hatred because it commands a moral power that strikes at the heart of indifference and buffers hatred. Love is the only mode of expression that will defend others with a weapon and its own blood.
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