Gladiator: The Quest For Love

The young emperor, Commodus, desires one thing, and one thing alone. He wants to be loved. The hunger for love is what fuels him and drives him. As a child, he never recieved it; as an adult, no one could bring themselves to give it.

In order to win the love of the people, he brought back the gladiatorial games in the arena. He strove to win the love of his sister, Lucilla, whom he had watched with lustful eyes for a very long time. But nothing that he did gained him any sort of love, only hate. Soon, the crowds booed him and cheered for Maximus, the man who never commanded love but was given it because of his selflessness. And soon, even his sister could not conceal a cold, dark hatred towards him.

Being the emperor, he was in a unique position. He could have commanded love; indeed, he did just that. He contrived to kill Maximus, and he forced Lucilla to love him in return for her son's life. But yet, nothing he did won him the love that he so desperately wanted. Nothing he did earned him unconditional, freely given love.

It drove him mad. What furthered this condition was the fact that the love he wanted was given to his rival, Maximus. His father had loved Maximus and chosen him as heir. The crowd loved Maximus and applauded his defiance of the emperor. And, like a twist of the sword in an already deep wound, his very sister loved Maximus as a woman loves a man.

The differences in the two men are striking, perhaps intentionally so. Maximus earns the love of his men, the emperor, his squire, the emperor's daughter, his master, his fellow slaves, and the gladitorial mob. Commodus earns the love of absolutely no one, yet he tries the hardest. Maximus does nothing but practice selflessness and a sound mind; his one desire is to see his family once again. And later, after their deaths, he selflessly fights to keep Lucilla's son safe and Rome in the hands of the senate.

Is it possible that actual selflessness is the key to gaining love? God was in the exact position as Commodus. He, the Ruler of the universe, desired the love of His subjects. It was entirely in His hand to force them to love Him. He could easily have wired it into their minds. But He didn't.

We don't serve a Commodus. The God we serve practiced absolute selflessness - a human frame, and a human death - in order to win our love. We don't serve a Commodus, my friends. We serve a Maximus who wants only to win our love. We serve a God who is unselfishly jealous and humbly proud, who leads with wisdom and loves with passion.