When we think of love in human terms, we think of it as an attribute or trait, one among others. She plays the piano; she speaks Spanish; she gets along with everybody; she loves to dance. Even when we are being romantic, when we elevate it among the attributes and speak of it more reverentially – Her love for him set the tone for her life! – we are still thinking of it as an element of her personality, only now one that overshadows the others.

But love is not an attribute of God. There is nothing that is God outside of love. We speak so glibly of God’s power and God’s omniscience, but God has no power outside of the power of love, no understanding outside of what love knows.

At this very time of year, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. A donkey. Luke tells us that before he entered the town, he sat down and wept, because he had an understanding of what was going to happen to his beloved city, and to the people in it.

He wept, because he acknowledged the weakness of love.

He was acknowledging the weakness of God.