Chapter 5 It Gets Me Every Time

"After all, I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her."

Notting Hill, 1999

It just so happens that I love certain movie moments, perhaps even more than the movie itself. I’m a sucker for powerful, heartfelt scenes and even though I’ve seen a movie a dozen times, I’ll watch it again and again simply to get there.

Of course, the more moments for me, the better the movie. As if some part is greater than the whole. Or the sum of it. Or something like that.

So, with that said, Notting Hill rises and falls, I believe, on one particular moment where Julia Roberts’ character delivers that now famous line in a quiet book store to Hugh Grant’s love sick puppy of a character.

And it gets me every time.

This is likely everyone’s favorite scene in the movie, but for those of you who haven’t seen it, Roberts plays a beautiful American celebrity opposite Grant's quite normal and ordinary guy who lives a quiet life in London’s Notting Hill district. So, understandably, their on and off love affair throughout the film is mired in much messiness; to include, but not be limited to, some controversy, the ultimate cost of fame, exposure at the wrong time and the wrong place, and last, but certainly not least, a touch of scandal.

As I was watching this movie (again) last night, I was struck by the simplicity of this well-crafted, Hollywood movie moment. Here is a woman with all of the benefits of money, beauty and fame, yet with every bit of vulnerability she can muster, she admits that all she really wants is some average, run of the mill guy to love her.

This isn’t some new concept, and I know it's just a movie, but we’ve heard it time and time again. Everything, it would seem, is reduced to love.

I got to thinking (I realize this is a dangerous thing) and I imagined myself in Hugh Grant’s shoes, receiving that proposal from the lovely Ms. Roberts. Yet, for some odd reason, as lovely as she is, I envisioned myself right there with none other than Jesus himself, and he was simply asking me to love him.

Before you stop and think that’s too much of a leap for you, just give me a minute to work it out.

You see, what we think will make us happy and full and known and successful fails so completely when held up against the standard of giving and receiving love—love being a word which I believe in the verb and the noun is embodied in the risen Jesus, who just so happens to be very much alive in the here and now. So, setting aside the controversy and the exposure and the scandal of this religion that Jesus has become mired in, we have to ask ourselves: what is everything—or more appropriately—what is Jesus reduced to?

If it helps you to stick with our movie moment, then here goes: If all of a sudden you found yourself standing before this living Word in a quiet room, what do you think he’d say to you?

Well, of course it's OK for everyone to have their own thoughts on that, but we also know that Jesus said quite simply when we love the least of these, we are loving him. That's not up for argument. And the least of these can presumably take many forms, for example:

A refugee.

An AIDS victim.

A beggar.

A single mom.

A cancer patient.

A homeless man, woman or child.

But I think it's alright to take it a step further and realize that those who are the least are not always the typical down-and-outers. There are also those who are marginalized through a certain poverty that arises from an absence of love; those who are overlooked, or ignored, as a certain translation renders. They are somehow missing real love in their life, some void that Jesus would never think twice about filling up.

A prisoner.

A thief.

A prostitute.

A pastor who has compromised his reputation.

A bully.

A politician.

The list could go on and on because at the core of it, an absence of love toward any individual is what Jesus came to fix. That part to me, well, it’s really not rocket science. And so we must find those in our lives who desperately need love and therefore, sometimes unwittingly, stand in the balance for him until he returns— those very people who quite beautifully provide a face and a pulse and real skin and a body to receive and know love.

There they will stand, in a quiet room, with every bit of vulnerability they can muster, and they'll say:

After all, I’m just a human, standing in front of you, asking you to love me.

Everything boils down to love.

Oh sure, there will be some controversy, some cost of fame, maybe exposure at the wrong time and the wrong place. And last, but certainly not least, if you plan on loving these people, watch out for a touch of scandal. We all know that love can certainly be scandalous. But no matter how you get there, it’s always a powerful and heartfelt moment.

And it gets me every time.

Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me - you did it to me.' (Matthew 25:40 The Message)