Connected (Week 1) | Relationships Matter | Matthew 22:36-40

The whole world is connected. In the early 1990s the world would change because of the world wide web. Previously, you could make a phone call and be connected to just about anyone in the world, but the world was connected now like never before. Information could be shared and relationships formed with a click of a button. Families thousands of miles apart could be connected as if they lived in the same town. The internet revolutionized how the world was connected.

Then in 2004, one company changed the way our relationships were connected through the world wide web. The Facebook was started. If everyone was connected before, now they Really were. Now you could see people’s who lives lived on display for you to see. Social media was born. Since that time, many other forms of social media have sprung up to seek to capitalize on the connection and relationships that we all have.

The crazy thing is, with all the connectivity we have, we are the least connected than we’ve ever been. What was supposed to foster community has led to a fake kind of community. We don’t really get to know people anymore. We text instead of talk and we think people’s lives are only what they post. Our communication has been boiled down to a few snaps. What was supposed to enhance our relationships has actually left us less connected than we’ve ever been.

One of the most foundational aspects of our lives, from the time we are born till the time we die, is relationships. We all have them. You immediately form a relationship with your family even before you are born. Many people start having friends from the time they are one or two years old. It doesn’t take long to start forming enemies as well. The second a kid takes a toy away from you, you learn really quick that relationships can include enemies. No matter what kind of relationships we have, we have to admit that relationships are foundational to every single person that is alive. We can’t get away from them. They are as natural as breathing. We were created to be connected – in relationships.

Our most foundational relationship is our relationship with God. Most of us understand that, even though we don’t always live like it. God is Trinity – three in one. He has always existed and has been in perfect relationship with Himself for all eternity. If anyone knows anything about being connected, it is God. Then God created us. He created us to be connected, in relationship with Him. You see Him walking and talking with Adam and Eve from the very beginning.  But soon, sin entered in, and that relationship between God and man was fractured.

Most of us understand this. We intrinsically know that we were created for relationship with God. But here’s the deal – we can’t tangibly see God. So, how do we live out this relationship with the God who created us to be in relationship with Him? It is played out through those we CAN tangibly see. We can tangibly see our friend, our mother, our bully, and our loved one. We can see them, and we act towards them. And how we act or do not act towards them is the most foundational aspect of our life here on Earth.

Yes, our most foundational relationship is with God. But, that relationship is played out through every single one of our relationships on earth, both good and bad. How we act towards one another is how the finite, tangible world sees the infinite, intangible God.

So, Jesus enters the scene, God in the flesh, coming to mend the fractured relationship. It was promised all the way from Adam and Eve that God would come to make things right (Genesis 3:15 – I will put enmity between you and the woman,  and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”) God cares about the relationship. He has come to make a way when there shouldn’t be a way. This verse from Genesis 3 is what is called the protoevangellium, meaning “first gospel.” I