The Feast: Greater Love Has No Man Than This

By Stacey Tuttle

The game makers offered the tributes a “feast”—at which will be an item they need to survive…and for which they will have to risk their lives.  Katniss doesn’t have any needs herself, but if Peeta is to survive, he’ll need medicine, and she knows it will be there.[1]

The Bible says, “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”[2]  In this scene we see both Katniss and Peeta willingly laying down their lives for each other.  Peeta begs Katniss not to go, knowing it will mean his certain death (from his infected wound) if she doesn’t.  Why would he do this?  Because he knows it’s risky and there’s a strong chance Katniss will be injured or even killed trying to get the medicine.  He would rather die himself than let her take that chance.

Katniss goes anyway, risking her life to save his.  Why would she do that?  I mean, we know Peeta loved Katniss, but Katniss isn’t so sure how she feels about Peeta.  The thing is, this is true love—not true romantic love, but true agape love.  It’s the true love shared between friends.  It’s the love of Christ.

The Bible says that “love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”[3]  You can see so many of these qualities in this scene with Katniss and Peeta.  The one that stands out to me the most is that love is not self-seeking.  No one could ever lay down their life for someone else if they were self-seeking.

Call me a cynic, but it seems to me a pretty rare thing to see this kind of love.  So often, what we call love, in our entertainment and even in our own lives, is a selfish, self-seeking, shallow kind of love.  So often we exploit when we ought to protect.  We keep a record of wrongs, but justify it because “we have our rights too.”  We don’t hope for the best, because, by golly, no one is going to make a fool of us this time.  We are afraid to honor others, lest it somehow diminishes our own selves.  And along with that, we are envious of each other because we are too proud and insecure to rejoice in someone else’s good fortune.  As if all of this isn’t bad enough, we celebrate these things and call them love and wisdom, when we ought to call them sin.  We cling to these vices rather than praying for deliverance from them.  We take what is evil and call it good.

Our standard of love is Jesus—the very one who gave His life for you and me, the one who even loved His enemies.  His love is perfect.  His “love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”  He not only loves us with that perfect love, but He also imparts that perfect love to us so that we can love others with it.

Questions for Discussion:

• Have you ever really felt that someone loved you with that sacrificial love, the kind that would even die for you?
• Have you ever loved someone else with that kind of love?
• When you look at relationships around you and/or in entertainment (i.e., books, movies, TV, etc.), how often do you think you see real love as defined by the Bible?  What are some examples of that real love that you can think of?
• In the following passage about love, which qualities of love are easiest for you?  Which are hardest?  “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
• Do you believe that God loves you with this kind of love?  How do you think it would affect your life if you really believed you were loved that way?
• Do you believe that God wants to enable you to love others with His perfect love?  How would it change your life and transform your relationships if you could do this?

 

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Click here to see a compilation of quotes from the Hunger Games.