Michael Lodahl’s When Love Bends Down is one of those annoying books that’s so rich you end up underlining more sentences and phrases than is of any practical use, though I’m sure I’ll try. Deceptively simple, running 121 pages, it reminds us that as important as the scriptures are, the true Word of God is his Son. “Jesus himself is God’s ultimate communication, God’s very Word that ‘became flesh and lived among us.’ When God speaks, God’s language is Jesus”, Lodahl writes.
The author’s key point is that if we want to know the character of God, we must know the dirt drawing, spit and mud making, breakfast cooking, foot washing actions of Jesus. This book, which is based on a series of revival sermons Lodahl shared in 2004, examines the character of Jesus as demonstrated in the Gospel of John and further commented on in the Epistles of John. In short, we see that while Jesus is God ‘enfleshed’ he is also the kind of guy who, surprisingly often, ‘bends down’ to meet the needs of others, often using the soil itself as a ministry tool .
The author uses the first half of the book to examine how in Jesus, the ‘invisible God’ is made visible through Christ’s lowly acts of service. The second half of Lodahl’s book draws upon the letters of John to move this logic one step further: The invisible and mysterious character of God is also “revealed by Church, the communion of Christian disciples, when they love one another as Jesus has loved them”, writes Lodahl.
Dr. Michael Lodahl, who is Professor of Theology at Point Loma Nazarene University, has a clear, easily understood, writing style that handles complex and controversial issues, such as the authority of scripture, with refreshing intelligence and grace. I especially appreciated his treatment of the moving, but sometimes disputed, story of Jesus’ treatment of the woman ‘caught in adultery’ found in John 8:1-11. While acknowledging this story was not included in the earliest manuscripts known to scholars, Lodahl nonetheless, sees it as a gift to us from the young church, who ‘found a textual place to call home’ this treasured account which had most likely circulated orally and widely among the earliest gatherings of the church
Bruce Paul is an Ordained Elder in the Church of the Nazarene. A native of Quincy, MA, he is a graduate of Eastern Nazarene College and earned his Master of Divinity degree from Boston University’s School of Theology. He has co-pastored a church with his wife Mary in Duxbury MA, and was Pastor of Community Outreach at College Church of the Nazarene in Bourbonnais, IL. Currently Bruce is writing, leading a small group, and, occasionally preaching. He and Mary have two teenage sons, Wesley and JJ, and attend First Church of the Nazarene on the Campus of Point Loma Nazarene University, where Mary serves as Vice President for Spiritual Development.