Easter is the fulcrum of the Christian calendar. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die for our sins. He defeated death and was resurrected on the third day that we, unworthy as we are, might have abundant life and be reconciled to the Father through Him. This is what we commemorate at Easter.
The purpose of Christ’s coming was to die — not for dying’s sake, but because of God’s love for us. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”1
Through the millennia, theological arguments have raged about the Bible and its contents. Passages some consider controversial, slightly discrepant, and even mutually exclusive. People have debated over what the nature of God is, how best to describe Him, and what virtue best represents Him. Who God is in the Old Testament versus the New Testament, whether He is a magisterial king vs a kindly parent, or both, etc. etc. etc.
However, one idea which is hardly disagreed upon is that God is love. This is borne out throughout the Bible and is aptly exemplified by one of the most popular biblical stories, that of Jonah. God told Jonah, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”2 It was enroute to Tarshish that the ship he boarded was engulfed by a storm until Jonah confessed that God had caused it because he was fleeing. Having asked that he be thrown overboard, a great fish swallowed him, and he remained therein for three days and nights. Upon being vomited onto the land after making his peace with God, Jonah then went to Nineveh to warn them of their impending destruction. They took heed and, from King to pauper, partook of a fast and acts of repentance, causing God to forgive them and relent.
Jonah’s reaction to this is so illuminating. “But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, ‘Isn’t this what I said ,Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now ,Lord, take away my life ,for it is better for me to die than to live.’”3 The chapter ends with God showing Jonah that He loves all people and never wishes their destruction, using the example of Jonah bemoaning the death of a plant God had caused to grow and provide him shade. “And the Lord said, ‘You pity the plant, for which you did not labour, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?’”4
By and large, what people know about this story is that Jonah was swallowed by a great fish. What is less known is why Jonah ignored God’s directions in the first place. Simply put, it was because Jonah knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that God is love. Thus, even when His anger is amply justified, God’s love remains a constant refuge.
As an aside, this is one of the biblical passages I find most humorous. I picture Jonah saying, ‘I knew it! You are so full of love; so, Your anger was going to dissipate the moment Your children cried to You. That was why I went on my merry way to Tarshish, because I knew You were unlikely to go through with Your threat of destroying them. Now, is this not exactly what has happened?’
Ezekiel 18:23 encapsulates God’s loving nature thus: “Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign LORD. Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live.” This is reiterated in 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” God is merciful because God is love.
To have God is to have love: “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”5 We as Christians must be love; we must show love; we must have love. Love must be manifest in our relations with one another, for this is our instruction from Christ: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”6
St. John the Evangelist does not mince words in saying: “We love because He first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”7 This is why it baffles me no end that the evidently un-Christ-like rhetoric we hear, often from our neighbours to the south, finds support strongly amongst those who are loudest in announcing their ‘Christianity’.
The world is a big place with innumerable ideas and practices limited only by the imaginations of its over eight billion inhabitants. Having now lived in five countries across four continents, I have been blessed to have met a diversity of people from many more places spanning the breadth of the earth. I have thus encountered many ideas and situations which have required me to ‘test the spirits’. The way I have done this is by asking the simple question: ‘Is love there?’ I ask this because God is love and where love is, God is there – ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 provides a beautifully instructive description of love: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour 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.” So, when I notice that love is lacking, that is my sign to flee from all appearance of evil. This can be likened to a philosophical razor, and it has never failed me.
As we head into the bright Easter morning, may we have God within us, which is to have love in our hearts, and may His love spring forth in our love for one another.
- John 3:16
- Jonah 1:2-3
- Jonah 4:1-3
- Jonah 4:10-11
- 1 John 4:16
- John 13:35
- 1 John 4:19-21
