IV SUNDAY OF LENT - John 3:14-21
If we read the Bible, we will discover that it was written about God’s passion for human beings, portraying also the human reaction to God’s offer of passionate love, which many times is one of rejection.
To know God as the Creator, we do not need the Scriptures, and that’s why all peoples have some notion of a Creator - Shakapanga, as he is called in Kaonde, meaning that he is the father of all those that make things. He is the Supreme Maker (Creator). This notion is so deep that most of the songs of thanksgiving sung in the Sunday liturgy sing the praises of God the Creator. The Bible recognises God as the Creator of heaven and earth and everything else that exists, and dedicates the first two chapters of Genesis to the profession of this faith. However, besides those two first chapters, there is very little else written specifically about God as the Creator. The Bible is written about a God who cares for human beings, having decided to establish a relationship with them and binding himself to that relationship thwough a covenant. And slowly He revealed through his presence and his actions among people (mainly the people of Israel) that he has a plan of salvation for humanity, for the world. The Bible is written about God the Redeemer, the Saviour.
This Sunday’s first reading from 2 Chronicles 36 makes a summary of the response of the People of Israel to God’s proposal of eternal love.
They “added infidelity to infidelity, copying all the shameful practices of the nations and defiling the Temple that the Lord had consecrated for himself in Jerusalem. The Lord, the God of their ancestors, tirelessly sent them messenger after messenger, since he wished to spare his people and his house. But they ridiculed the messengers of God, they despised his words, they laughed at his prophets”. (2 Chron 36:14-16)
Surely, we reap what we sow, and suffer the consequences of our actions. And the people of Israel has suffered in many ways throughout history, but God has kept them alive as the people of the Promise, because God keeps his promises. He leaves us to ourselves for a while, so that we realise the emptiness of our dreans, the shallownes of our reasoning, the shortcomings of our efforts and the weakness and vanity of our power. When God steps away from us, even for a while, we fall into despair and take refuge in all kinds of false values that are no more than abominations. But God never stays away for too long. In fact, he is always near by, and he cannot forget us forever. When we less expect, we receive a helping hand. God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts.
God’s passion of love for us is so great that he sent his beloved Son to save the world. Sometimes, we paint an image of God as someone who is full of anger, always on the look out for the slightest faulty step so that he exacts punishment and revenge. Instead, God reveals himself as the one who is always ready to forgive and to welcome us with joy. Jesus is the greatest prove of this. And what is asked of us? That we recognise and accept this love, that is that we believe in Jesus Christ.
“Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost
but may have eternal life.
For God sent his Son into the world
not to condemn the world,
but so that through him the world might be saved.
No one who believes in him will be condemned;”
“The Son of Man must be lifted up
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” (Jn 3:14-18)
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