Beloved in Christ, as
Christians, we need to have a good knowledge of the Hebraic origin of our
faith. There is a word in the Hebrew Bible that stops me every time I encounter
it. It is the very first word of our passage from Hosea. It is an urgent and
personal message that speaks to our hearts in this season of Lent. That word is
Shuvah, meaning “Return”.
Hosea does not say to the
Israelites “try harder”, “perform more religious acts”. He simply says, “Come
back”. He invites them to “turn around”, “come home”.
Indeed, Isreal had
wandered far away from God. They had trusted in Assyria, (the
superpower of their day), believing that political alliances would save them.
They had mounted their warhorses, convinced that military strength was their
security. The had bowed before idols fashioned by their own hands, worshipping
the work of their fingers rather than the God who formed them from the dust. Does
this sound familiar? The names of these realities and idols change across
the centuries; Assyria becomes economy without humanity, reputation,
technology, ideology, etc. But the restless heart that seeks security
everywhere except in God remains, sadly, the experience of many today.
And yet, even in the
midst of the chaos in the world today, we should listen carefully to God’s
word. God’s message starts with an invitation: “Return”.
And then, in one of the
most astonishing verses in all of prophetic literature,
God says something that should make every one of us pause in wonder: “I will
love them freely”. The Hebrew word is “nedavah; it refers to a freewill
offering, a gift not earned, irrespective of the recipient’s moral state. It is
the overflow of a love that needs no reason beyond itself. This is grace
before the New Testament even names it.
And what does that love
look like? God reaches for the language of nature, because human
language alone is not enough. “I will be like the dew”, silent,
sovereign, arriving in the night when the earth is most parched, asking nothing
in return. “You will blossom like a lily, take root like a cedar, bear fruit
like an olive tree”. Every image speaks of life that is given and not
achieved, of fruitfulness that flows from being rooted in God. And then the
most extraordinary image of all comes when God says: “I am like a green
cypress tree; from me comes your fruit.”
God calls Himself a tree.
The very thing Israel had been seeking in all its idolatry, be it shelter,
nourishment, or fruitfulness, God says: That is Me. You have been searching
for Me in all the wrong places.
Several centuries after,
the prophesies of Hosea find their perfect fulfillment in Jerusalem.
Today’s Gospel brings us to the Holy Week. Jesus has entered Jerusalem to the
shouts of the crowd, has cleansed the Temple, and is now engaged in a series of
debate with the religious authorities. A scribe approaches Jesus. Unlike the
others, he is not hostile. He came because he saw that Jesus answered them well
(v.28). He asks the question every serious soul eventually asks: “What is
the center of it all? What truly matters in this world?” In the rabbinic
tradition, the Torah contained 613 commandments, among which 248 were positive
and 365 negative. His question touches the heart of what religious life is
actually about. What is the center from which everything else radiates?
And Jesus answers with
the Shema Israel, as expressed in Deuteronomy 6: 4, to love and worship God
with undivided heart. “Love Him with all your heart. All your soul. All your
mind. All your strength.
Every dimension of our
humanity must be oriented toward the One who made us.
And then, inseparably, comes this “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Because the person beside me, whether in the public transportation, at work, etc.,
is also a bearer of God’s image, (Tselem Elohim). To love him or her is
to honor God in them.
The scribe understands this
fundamental truth. And Jesus looks at him and says perhaps
the most tender words in all the Gospels: “You are not far from the Kingdom
of God”! what a remarkable declaration.
He is not far, but not yet inside.
Dear friends, perhaps that
is where many of us live today. We are close enough to
understand God’s message, and yet not surrendered enough to enter into His
Kingdom. The distance between not far and inside is not a
distance of knowledge. It is the distance between hearing the Word and letting
it transform our life.
Hosea says return. Jesus
says Love. Both words point to the same truth: Only in God can our soul find
full rest, peace, and happiness. The dew of his mercy is falling in this season
of grace. The doors of His mercy are wide open! Let’s Come home!
