Thursday, January 19, 2023

 

Thursday, January 19, 2023


Psalm 45

Genesis 9

John 8:21-30


When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realise that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me.


We are so restricted in our English language when it comes to describing love. I love my dog, and I love my wife. But I wouldn’t take my dog to a restaurant for a steak, or take my wife out and hose her down in the back yard. Ancient Greek had a few more words that described different types of love: we recognise agape as the love of God to humankind. Filia is also recognisable because it has entered our own language: filial love. Eros, the love between a husband and wife, needs no further explanation either.


Perhaps our greatest linguistic weakness is in the inflexibility of love. Love is often a passive endeavour. Love is something that happens to us, that comes out of that part of the body that bubbles and boils and releases emotion. Acting on love is, especially according to Hollywood, a selfish act. It is the renaissance man (or woman) seizing the moment and enforcing their will on the events in their life.


God’s love is far more generous and active. It is a love that moves. When God loves, He does not sit back and admire; He does something about it. His love is not selfish, either. He does not lean in for the kiss, as if receiving love in return would somehow fulfil His desires. The greatest and most succinct statement on how God’s love works is in that famous line from Jesus’ lips that we hear read out every ANZAC Day: that greater love has no man than this, than He who lays down His life for His friends.


To return to today’s Gospel reading: Jesus is saying several things at once that cover many topics. He is self-identifying as the Messiah, the Son of Man as foretold by the prophets. He is also telling us that He is the same God who spoke to Moses in the burning bush, that His name is “I Am Who I Am”. He goes on to explain that the one God of all creation has at least two Persons: that He and the Father are united completely.


All of these layers can only be held together if there is one overarching, binding aspect of God’s nature that we properly understand: that God is love. Jesus thinks nothing of Himself and His own opinions (filled with righteous judgement as they may be), but speaks only under instruction by the Father. He also speaks of His own exaltation (“lifted up” is the same as “glorified” in the Greek), that He will go to the cross one day soon. He is exalted because of what He will undergo: the giving of His love to us by His sacrificial death on the cross.


Christ’s love is Christ’s glory. And Christ’s glory is the ultimate revelation of the love of God. God’s love is in God’s giving. By giving Himself to us, we have been showered with the greatest love God could possibly muster. It is the broad, deep, and binding love that can only come from the infinite, one, true and living God.



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