Greater Love

"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."  John 15:13

 The above Bible verse is one that I remember learning as a child.  It is a great example of the kind of selfless, sacrificial love to which God's children are called to show one another.  And it used to be pretty much the cultural norm, that the strong would protect the weak, a man would protect a woman, everyone protected a child.  Those who did so were hailed as heroes, honored, respected, held up as role models.

Lately, though, I have been feeling as though self-sacrificial love, laying down one's life for another, is not only being discouraged, but punished.

Consider, please, the following stories:

1. From San Francisco, June 2011:

Fire crews and police could only watch after a man waded into San Francisco Bay, stood up to his neck and waited. They wanted to do something, but a policy tied to earlier budget cuts strictly forbade them from trying to save the 50-year-old, officials said

A witness finally pulled the apparently suicidal man's lifeless body from the 54-degree water.

The man, later identified as Raymond Zack, spent nearly an hour in the water before he drowned.

The Coast Guard was called to the scene, but the water was too shallow for its boat. A Coast Guard helicopter arrived more than an hour later because it had been on another call and had to refuel.

As for police, they didn't have the gear for the cold water and couldn't risk being pulled under.
"Certainly this was tragic, but police officers are tasked with ensuring public safety, including the safety of personnel who are sent to try to resolve these kinds of situations," Alameda police Lt. Sean Lynch said.

2. From Monterey County, California, May 2012:

 Safeway has suspended an employee at a Monterey County store, despite being called a hero by police for stopping a domestic assault in the store last month.
Ryan Young, a meat clerk at the Safeway in Del Rey Oaks, said he was doing his job when he saw Quyen Van Tran beating his girlfriend, who is six months pregnant.
“Every few seconds he would turn around and push her and then he actually kicked her,” Young said. “I told him to calm down and he was just irate.”
Chief Ron Langford of the Del Ray Oaks Police said if Ryan did not intervene, things could have become much worse for the victim.
But Young said Safeway has suspended him without pay, for supposedly violating company policy. The store has not given word on if or when he will be allowed back.

3. From New Jersey, May 2012:

A dad jumped into action to save his son's life and ended up getting two tickets from a traffic officer because of it, according to a Monday report.
Frank Roder took his son to a park in New Jersey to feed the ducks.
He was inside his Jeep when he noticed his son running toward a steep embankment that plunged down into water.
Frank reacted quickly.
He leapt out of the vehicle, ran after his son, and grabbed him just feet from the edge.
He must have had a sinking feeling in his gut, when he turned around and watched his Jeep roll down the same embankment.
Adding insult to the injury to his vehicle, Frank was ticketed by a police officer, not once but twice.
The first ticket was for failure to use his parking brake, the other was for failure to produce his insurance card, which was in his waterlogged vehicle.

4. From Hampshire, England, February 2012:

A man who fell into a lake drowned after firefighters called to the scene said they could not enter the water if it was higher than ankle deep for health and safety reasons, an inquest has been told.
Simon Burgess, a 41-year-old charity shop worker died at Walpole Park, in Gosport, Hampshire, on 10 March. He is believed to have had an epileptic seizure either before or after falling into the water while feeding swans.
Witnesses raised the alarm, but the hearing was told on Tuesday that members of a fire crew refused to get to him because the water was more than ankle deep. Instead, they waited for a specialist water rescue team and Burgess was only taken out of the lake 28 minutes after the alarm was raised.

So, what does this say about "laying down your life for your friends?"  And what is happening in our culture that Policy is so much more important that saving lives?  How can we have rescue workers who cannot rescue?  Are we so concerned with our Lives and Liabilities that we are afraid to be sacrificial?

The second and third stories have men who were willing to lay down their lives - one to protect a pregnant woman, the other to save his son's life.  They have been punished for doing so, but say they would not have done anything differently.  But in the first and last stories, the rescuers allowed themselves to stand by and watch men drown, in order to save - not their own lives - but their jobs.

Even more disturbing are the stories where people go beyond simply standing idly by, their instinct instead being to record violence on their phones to post later to YouTube.  Probably the most disturbing to me was the story of a young woman beaten in a Maryland McDonald's until she went into a seizure.  Not one person stood up for her.  Not one person tried to stop the attack.  Instead, it was recorded and posted, and the attackers were warned to leave before the police arrived.

"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."