Sacrificial and Unrequited Love

6/3/2026

Unrequited love...

Perhaps, we should understand that God offered and endured, not only the pain a loving parent would feel in losing a child, their baby.

Sacrificial and unrequited love is a different kind of deeeeeep pain, piled on top of the other.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes, trusts in Him, shall not perish, but share in forever-Life.” (John 3:16)

Unrequited love, unreturned or feigned love, tolerated not reciprocated relationship, betrayal with a kiss, or “I don’t know the man” abandonment—is a different kind of deep pain.

To feel it, to know it, to experience it, and to live it anyway, with the determined inward Vertical response of “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” is the way that “God so loved the world” and we are to love the world and one another.

Unrequited love, the deep pain God feels, and we try to understand and embrace, and experience for Him and others is...

Like standing in a cold, drenching rain outside a lit window, knowing the person inside never once would want to look your way.

Like writing a thousand letters, and never receiving a single one in return.

Like watching the train of your deepest hopes disappear down the tracks, while you stand longingly on the platform.

Like singing in your heart daily a song meant to be sung as a duet, and realizing you are the only one singing.

Like reaching out your hand across a canyon of hurt and need for partnership and risk, and feeling nothing but empty air where the other hand should be.

Like tending a beautiful garden for years, only to discover the one flower you longed for would never bloom toward you.

John 3:16

For God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes, fully trusts in Him to be their everything, past, present, and future, shall not be lost, but should experience now and the age to come, eternal life. You must understand that God has not sent His Son into the world to pass sentence upon it, but to save it—through Him. Any man who believes in Him is not judged at all. It is the one who will not believe who stands already condemned, because he will not believe in the character of God’s only Son. This is the judgment—that light has entered the world, and men have preferred darkness to light because their deeds are evil. Anybody who does wrong hates the light and keeps away from it, for fear his deeds may be exposed. But anybody who is living by the truth will come to the light to make it plain that all he has done has been done through God.” (-Phillips, etc. translation)

“I passed by and saw you thrashing in your blood. I commanded: ‘Live!’ I washed away your filth, anointed you with oil, and clothed you in wealth, royal clothing, and fine possessions. Your beauty grew radiant; you became a queen, renowned among nations.... But you trusted your thoughts, dormant desires, and gifted reputation. You took the gold and jewelry, you thoughtfully pursued self and the world, and threw yourself into whatever you wanted, entirely forgetting the day you lay naked in your blood.” (Ezekiel 16:6-17)

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes, trusts in Him shall not perish, but share in forever-Life.”

Perhaps, we should understand that God offered and endured, not only the pain a loving parent would feel in losing a child, their baby.

Sacrificial and unrequited love is a different kind of deep pain, in addition to the other.

To understand our gratitude to Abba and our call to mercy for others, perhaps we should stop and take a deep breath, and Ponder these things. As Martin Luther said in essence, “Perhaps we can’t even really understand the Scriptures unless we can feel what He feels.”

Unrequited love is its own kind of nearly unbearable pain. And God has endured that for us, for His own children, for the sheep of His own pasture.

Go and do likewise.

How dare I long for “happiness”

When my Friend is so brokenhearted

How can I pine for comfort now

When His pain’s not departed?

Will I nurse my “so-called” wounds

Or join His aching grief?

Can I embrace His anguish sore

And shun my own relief?

To be His close and trusted friend

I must empathize and relate

To requite His selfless, endless love

I want to share His state

Jesus weeps

He weeps

He’s angry and He weeps

Not for a friend in tomb’s empty dark

But for a bride after His heart

Where is this equal spotless mate

of holiness and light?

When will she with strength arise

and stand for all that’s right?

For He gave His life to buy her back

When she was drowning in her blood

Cleansed her white and made her whole

And saved her from sin’s mud

But she makes His name a mockery

Her idols her chief pursuit

She spurns His grace of infinite cost

By trampling His blood underfoot

And Jesus weeps still

He weeps

He’s angry and He weeps

Not for Himself, as one might presume

But for this bride, to be just like Her Groom

So I will love only what He loves

And hate all that He hates

I will embody His passion’s fire

And magnify His traits

Until His Weeping turns to Dancing

And His Anger turns to Laughter

On the Day the Groom is fin’ly United

To His Bride forever after

And while that Day seems so far off

I ponder the wait for Him

Fighting daily for His Dream

Never letting my light dim

I weep

As He weeps

I’m angry and I weep

Not for my earthly wants and needs

But for His Bride to express

Boundless faith and love’s deeds