Texts: Acts 5: 17-26; Psalm 34:2-9; John 3: 16-21
God's revelation of His love to man reaches its peak in giving us His only-begotten Son. God has revealed His love to humanity in various ways. The creation of heaven and earth reveals the love of God for man. God created everything for the sake of man and put him in charge of them. It is said, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Gen. 1:27-28).
The love of God is also evident in entering into communion with man. It is out of love that God enters into communion with man. This is shown in His coming to the garden to speak with man. It is said, “But God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ (Gen. 3:9). The revelation of His will to man in His words, commandments, is also out of love for man. He loves us and so He reveals His will to us. It is said in the Psalm thus: “He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and ordinances to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances. Praise the Lord!” (147:19-20). Today’s first reading shows that the word of God will always triumph. It is said, “But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, ‘Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.’” God will always reveal His love of us through His word to us. The attack on the apostles was an attempt to stop the spreading of the words of Life. The message given to the apostles is the words of Life because it is the message which gives life.
Whatever way God might have revealed His love of man, before His Son became one of us, reaches its fulfilment in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, we are recreated and made co-heirs with Him. We are made sons and daughters in Jesus Christ. Our communion with God in Jesus Christ is total because He became one of us; He united Himself with us in Him, that what is ours becomes his. We can now say God, who is immortal, died for us. What an irony made possible by love! Just look at it again: God who knows no sin carried away our sins. It is truly an irony! It is an irony I do not pray for. I want to be holy and reap the fruits of holiness, not the reward for sinners. I want to be immortal and never know death; I want to live forever. Hence, in today’s gospel reading, it is said, “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” God’s love of us in Jesus Christ breaks all barriers; it is beyond our understanding. The world is saved by such a love. We are called to emulate such a love.
It is also in Jesus Christ that God speaks to us as one of us. We encounter God in Jesus Christ as one who knows our conditions, concerns, feelings and share in them. In Jesus Christ, God is a friend we can see, behold and touch, relate with, etc. In Jesus Christ, God is not another kind of being but human like us; He is not a friend different from us, not with different life and not living in different world, but sharing the same life and world with us. The experience of God’s love in Jesus Christ is concrete and real. God ultimately reveals His will to us in Jesus Christ, in a way that is friendly and cordial. The revelation of God’s will in Jesus Christ is not imposed but convincing, reasonable, appealing, luring and inviting. God speaks to the heart and reason in Jesus Christ. God’s love in Jesus Christ reached its peak in laying down His life for us.
As we recall year by year the mysteries by which, through the restoration of its original dignity, human nature has received the hope of rising again, we earnestly beseech your mercy, Lord, that what we celebrate in faith we may possess in unending love. Amen (Collect)
Fr. Andrew Olowomuke
