Jesus Reveals God's Love

God's love impelled him to take action to help his creatures gone astray so when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman (Gal 4:4) Jesus is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, who was sent for love of mankind:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.... The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (Jn 1:1-5,9-14)

In the last three years of his life, Jesus taught the truth behind the Jewish law (cf. Mt 5:17): the fullness of the truth about man and his place in creation. The morality of Christ is not a set of arbitrary laws designed to keep people from enjoying life. Quite the contrary. Jesus' teachings reveal who man is, and by accepting the truth about oneself, one becomes truly free. This is why Jesus himself proclaimed, ``You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.'' (Jn 8:32)

Jesus' teachings unleash life from endless pursuit of self, the cycle of violence of the law of vengeance (`An eye for an eye...') and the exacting observances of Jewish ritual. Christ's shows the purpose of the Jewish law to be service to the truth about man and his life. Jesus thus channels life back to its true and original direction: love of God and love of neighbor. That is why St. Paul says that he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law (Rom 13:8)

It is a great tragedy that many non-Christians see slavery, not freedom in the truth of Christ. Perhaps they see Christ presented as an angry, exacting judge and condemner of sinners. The contrary is true, for God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him (Jn 3:17, cf. Jn 12:47). Jesus associated himself with sinners despite the reproach of the `good people' of the time (cf. Mt 9:10-13, 11:19, 21:31; Mk 2:15-17; Lk 5:30, 7:34). Among the most moving words of Jesus is the parable of the prodigal son, which portrays God as a loving father welcoming home the wayward son who squandered his share of the family fortune (cf. Lk 15). So while it is true that those who remain in their sin until death will suffer eternally after, Jesus extends his hand to help those who are in sin to repent. Jesus condemned sin, not the sinner. His call is an invitation to reconciliation and to God's love.

Jesus himself became a perfect sign of God's overwhelming mercy by taking on the punishment due to man because of sin and he became the perfect example of his own teaching of the truth about man by embracing the wood of the cross. He emptied himself, becoming weak, taking the form of a slave--abandoning for a little while his radiant, overwhelming majesty-- to win us (individually and collectively), to woo us, to take us to himself and become one with us, to abandon his life for us and to hand over his life to us.