{"id":231,"date":"2024-02-07T15:15:38","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T15:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/2024\/02\/07\/divine-love-cant-quit-you\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T19:32:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T19:32:22","slug":"divine-love-cant-quit-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/divine-love-cant-quit-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Divine Love Can\u2019t Quit You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s an intense exchange<\/a> between Jesus and Simon (aka Peter) recorded in the first chapter of the Gospel according to Mark. It\u2019s very early in Jesus\u2019 ministry, and a de facto center of operations seems to have developed at Simon\u2019s home in the fishing village of Capernaum. Jesus is healing all sorts of people, including Simon\u2019s mother-in-law. (We don\u2019t know her name, nor that of Simon\u2019s wife.) People are coming from miles around and being healed of all sorts of diseases, and some who are possessed by demons are being freed from their oppression. Things are really taking off!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, without telling anyone, Jesus leaves town for somewhere identified as \u201cdeserted.\u201d What he was doing there goes undescribed, perhaps he\u2019s not alone at all. Perhaps he\u2019s gone off for a meeting, checking in with the other members of the Holy Trinity. They are, after all, in this thing together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Simon and his companions are described as hunting for Jesus. There\u2019s an air of intense desperation about them, like panicked parents searching for a child who has suddenly gone missing at Walmart. Mark\u2019s Greek captures this by shifting the verb tenses. To this point all the action has been narrated as something that has already happened. Suddenly, in this brief exchange between hunters and Jesus everything is foregrounded the way a cinematographer closes in on the people talking so that their faces fill the screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone is looking for you!\u201d they exclaim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Jesus is unfazed by their frustration with him and his apparent disregard for the good things that are happening back in Capernaum. The camera pulls back, and Jesus responds by changing the subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cLet us go on to the neighboring towns so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came out to do,\u201d says Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I came out to do.\u201d What does Jesus mean by that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The immediate context suggests that he\u2019s referring to leaving Capernaum alone \u2013 a way of getting things going elsewhere. But there might be more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In John\u2019s Gospel, Jesus is recorded as being in a debate with some of his critics. In the course of their exchange, Jesus describes himself as \u201ccoming out from God\u201d<\/a> for the sake of the mission of loving the world. Jesus describes himself as sent by the Trinity. He is compelled\u2013not that it\u2019s against his will. It\u2019s that he can\u2019t help himself. He\u2019s got to do it. It\u2019s who he is. God is love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same internal drive sends Jesus out of Capernaum and into the neighboring towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a letter to the Christians in the Greek city of Corinth, Paul describes his mission similarly, as an obligation.<\/a> But it’s not something that he has to do in order to not get into trouble with God. It\u2019s not like he would rather be doing something else. He can\u2019t help himself. He\u2019s just got to tell people about the freedom that is there under the gracious gift of divine, unmerited love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He can\u2019t quit, and neither can God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps, like Simon and his companions, you\u2019ve been searching for a good thing. Who wouldn\u2019t? If you are, rest assured that the Love of God is searching for you and will not stop doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019d like to talk about how that might happen in your life, Pr. Kate and I are always up for a conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Pr. Jim\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rev. Katherine Museu<\/a>s<\/em> and Rev. James A. Wetzstein<\/a> serve as university pastors at the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University and take turns writing weekly devotions<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s an intense exchange between Jesus and Simon (aka Peter) recorded in the first chapter of the Gospel according to Mark. It\u2019s very early in Jesus\u2019 ministry, and a de […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-james-a-wetzstein","category-csl-newsletter-devotionals"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"dev@eridesign.com","author_link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/author\/deveridesign-com\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/02\/Newsletter-Devotion-Graphics-2023-2024-300x251.webp","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["James A. Wetzstein<\/a>","CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/a>"],"unlinked":["James A. Wetzstein<\/span>","CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 years ago","modified":"Updated 1 month ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on February 7, 2024","modified":"Updated on October 2, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on February 7, 2024 3:15 pm","modified":"Updated on October 2, 2026 7:32 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12538,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions\/12538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}