The
Passion of Christ - God's Love for the Household
by Fr. Jomy Joseph, Switzerland
For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Down through the ages, God's love perpetuated into the life of Israelites, the chosen people.
Israel's life in relation to God and its historical environment is often described in terms of
“Oikos/ Bayit” - being at home or being uprooted from home. (God has created Israel as a household out of many tribes and is accordingly viewed as the constructor and ruler of the
household). Thus, from the Biblical tradition “Oikos/ Bayit” can be understood as:
1) The household in which God wants to give access to life.
2) It is the household of the creation in which God wants God's creation to live together in symbiosis.
3) God wants to make a home by establishing God's justice and peace.
At times when they struggled with God, they were troubled, they became captives, they lost their livelihood, but by
God's might and grace they were again restored in “Canaan.” Thus in the history, God acted as a “Mighty Steward”, one who really cared for the livelihood and survival of the
household. “And you shall remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you
out…" (Deut 5:15). To be precise, God doesn’t want “His Chosen
People” to be live as slaves but to give them access to life according to His justice and peace.
History never changed, the “Chosen People” again fall into deep pit of sins. As medicine of life, to defeat the death that which pierce into the world through
Adam's sin, He came, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the only son of God, to love the people, to live with the people and to lay down his life for the people. He emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, but by sharing in human nature, humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross! Thus, the passion of Christ become the very new praxiological symbol of
God's love for not only for the “Household of Israel,” but also for a new
“God`s Household” at large. (“I have other sheep that do not come from this sheepfold I must bring them too, and they will listen to my voice, so that there will be one flock and one
shepherd” John 10:16).
“So then you are no longer foreigners and non-citizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the
cornerstone.” (Eph 2:19-20) Thus, the Church, the new
God's Household, the called-out community, is called-out to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Lets thank
God's love that which still flows abundantly.
