There is something disturbing about the love of God. Do you really think about God's love for us? I mean really? Here's a love that kills His own Son to be with us. We say "Oh, thank you Lord" with glazed eyes and dewy tones, and don't really let the notion sink in. This God killed His Son! Out of love! That's a little unsettling, and becomes more alarming the more you think about it.
Imagine you're a woman. Not a difficult task for some of you, more so for others. Regardless, you're a woman and a man has fallen in love with you. You're not really interested in him all that much. He seems nice enough, he makes some bold claims and appears to be able to back them up. Still, you're not bowled over. Then, he up and kills his son, his only son whom you have seen him dote upon, whom he has told you time and again is the absolute apple of his eye. And he kills him! For you! And you don't even like him all that much! Now, wouldn't you be a bit wary of this guy? Who is so overwhelmed with passion for you that he kills his son in order for the two of you to be together? That's a disturbing prospect!
Now don't get me wrong. This isn't meant to make you question your faith, to take a new look at the Gospel and shake your head and say "well, that's messed up, I think I'll stay home Sunday morning from now on." Far from it. The point is simply to illustrate the absolute ferocity of God's love for us. That's why I love Hosea and the portrait painted by God in that book. Hosea's wife has run off and committed adultery. That's bad enough to have her stoned to death in ancient Israel, and to kick her to the curb even now in this relativistic age we live in. But then she becomes a prostitute! Forget about the personal betrayal for a moment; can you imagine the disgrace, the shame, the justifiable anger Hosea must have felt upon hearing about this? The prophet of the Lord, the chosen one designated to bring the Word of God to His chosen people, the chosen of the chosen, the holiest man on earth at the time (for that's basically who the prophet was in those days), a model for the Israelites to look to, and his wife's a whore! She's for sale! This prophet of God can't even keep his wife from the red light district! I imagine the rulers and priests murmuring, "What kind of a man is this who speaks the Word of Yaweh yet loses control of his wife? Can we even trust him at all? Is it possible that he isn't actually the prophet of the Lord? And if so, then why would God chose this guy? What's God up to? Has He gotten confused?" Add this to the personal sense of betrayal that Hosea must have felt as a man, a Hebrew, and a deeply religious individual, and the tension must have been unbearable!
So what then does God do? He tells Hosea to go and claim his wife, to bring her back and make her his wife in reality as well as name. Rather than reject her for her sins against him and against God, which would be completely justifiable and understandable, even commendable, God tells Hosea to go buy her back. (She was selling herself into slavery. As if the humiliation of prostitution wasn't enough, she was reduced even further to a slave, a piece of livestock.) But what a picture of God's love! To run after his bride, who has betrayed him in every possible way! Not only to persue her once again, but to even buy her back, to spend wealth to claim her again in the midst of her sins, at her lowest possible point!
I sat down and wrote this in about 20 minutes, as the spirit of contrition is upon me. Even today I have sinned grievously against God in my mind and in my body. The familiar stench of dispair swirled around me as I read a chapter in The Ragamuffin Gospel (Brennan Manning). This post was inspired by a quote from his chapter "The Second Call." Here's the quote:
'And God answers "That's what you don't know. You don't know how much I love you. The moment you think you understand is the moment you do not understand...My words are written in the blood of My only Son.'
I was stricken by those words. Too often I imagine that I have pushed God too far, that my sin or my despondency or my laziness or my disbelief or my self-loathing or my pride or my insensativity or my fear have driven a wedge between me and God. And that's because I have forgotten how little I know about God, how much He loves me, how He has called me His own.
This is the third verse of Rich Mullins' song "The Love of God".
Joy and Sorrow are these Oceans
And in their very Ebb and Flow
Still a Door the Lord Has Opened
That all Hell could Never Close
Here I'm Tested
And Made Worthy
Tossed About
But Lifted Up
In the Reckless
Raging
Fury
That they call
The Love of God
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment