Behold the Love of God: A Meditation on 1st John 3, for the Feast of All Saints

The Feast of All Saints is a festival largely forgotten in the western Church.  We celebrate this feast on the 1^st of November, or sometimes transfer the feast to the nearest Sunday.  What is generally celebrated as Halloween is a corruption of what used to be the eve of All Saints Day, as Christmas Eve is to Christmas Day.  But on this All Saints Day, it is good to give some thought to why we have this on the calendar, and what our readings reflect regarding it.

St. John’s first epistle is a marvelous and intimate letter, written to Christians whom he called his “little children.”  As a spiritual father and Apostle of Jesus Christ, St. John seeks to call his readers into the truth of life in their Savior, and away from the death of the world.  This life in Christ is presented as the polar opposite of the death brought about in the world, despite what might be seen in the experience of each Christian as they are persecuted and slandered, while the wicked seem to prosper in their vanities.  St. John points his dear little children to the truth that life is more than what we see—it is bound up in the love of God made flesh in Jesus Christ.

But what is life in Christ, if for the Christian this world is full of suffering and misery?  This is a fundamental fear of most Christians, because we all carry with us a wounded and fallen human nature that struggles to see beyond the current moment.  Our fallen nature is more influenced by our current pain or pleasure, poverty or prosperity than we might like to admit.  When hard times come upon the Christian, he is tempted to question the love of God for him, because he is suffering and confused.  In our weakness we cry out, “Why, O Lord, should the wicked prosper, and your people be ridiculed, litigated, persecuted, and martyred?”

From our human perspective, it seems the most reasonable question in all the world; but from God’s perspective, we have missed the deeper truth of our fallen condition, and the price that must be paid to rescue us.  The reason we find ourselves in a world bent on evil, where the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer, is because we are fallen people in a fallen world.  There is really none who is righteous in this world… no, not one.  That we retain any semblance of life at all is a divine mercy beyond all imagining—a measure of His willingness to suffer with our sin and depravity, our corruption of ourselves and the whole creation, so that He might offer salvation to all.  We are a fallen race, and the world reflects our descent.  We are the authors of our own suffering, the ushers of our own calamity.  Fallen as we are from the grace in which we were created, we have no power to lift ourselves out of this suffering and death, just as we have no power cure our poisoned nature, or to bring forth truly good fruit from our corrupted tree.

But the love of God for us is shown most brilliantly, in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The Author of Life looks down upon his fallen creation, and elects to take upon Himself our death and destruction, so that He might offer to us His eternal life and restoration.  This life that He offers is not for a moment or an age, but continues forever in Him.  Just as Jesus Our Lord is the eternally begotten Son of the Father, having no beginning and no end, so His life which He gives to us can never be diminished or extinguished, even by suffering and death in this fallen world.  The Life He gives by grace through faith in Him, transcends the moment in which we struggle, and extends into the infinity of His embrace.  This is life, that we know the only true God—and that we live in the life given through His Only Begotten Son.

But such life in a fallen world has consequences.  The same fallen world that crucified the Lord of Life, which did not know Him nor love Him, will persecute and hate those who live in Him.  The same fallen world that rejected the Word of grace and gospel that came from our Lord, will reject the Word of grace and gospel that comes from Him through you.  The same fallen world that preferred darkness to the light of God, will prefer its darkness over God’s light shining through you.  And so, as our Savior suffered and died for the sins of the world, taking upon Himself our misery and death, His people will also carry the form of His cross through this fallen world, suffering in our witness to Him.

This life, however, given to us by our ever living Lord, is a gift that outpaces anything this fallen world can present.  While life in the world might seem for a short time to satisfy the lusts and perversions of our flesh, both the world and our perversions are passing away.  The Kingdom of our God shall shine forth like the sun, purged of all wickedness, and those who preferred the passions of the devil over the blessings of life in Christ, will find their eternal torment in the hellish prison of their own choosing.  But those who are alive in Christ will find their eternal fellowship in His presence, at peace and in fullness of love with their Savior, and with each other.  Together with Christ, each person who lives by His grace, is purged of their wickedness and evil, so that they become all that they were created to be—each a unique reflection of God’s infinite love and mercy, redeemed in the Blood of the Lamb.

For the saints of Jesus Christ, alive in Him, this is our blessed fellowship, both in this world and the world to come.  For there is but one Christ, and one life into which all His people are grafted—one Church into which all His people are called, and in which all live by His grace.  Whether those saints are here on earth, battling out our daily struggles against the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh, or in perfected harmony with Christ in heaven, resting victorious in His victory over our mortal enemies, each and every saint of God enjoys a sweet and unbreakable fellowship with each other, and their Lord.  Each and every one of us, who live by Jesus’ life, live together in that same eternal life, sharing together the wonders of His mercy and grace.  No Christian is ever alone, no matter how dark their earthly prison, or the roaring of their enemies.  For each and every Christian is connected by Christ to each and every other Christian that has ever walked the earth, or ever shall until the end of time.  This is the beautiful mystery of the Communion of the Saints, where all the household of God is united and alive in Christ.

And while this eternal reality is more certain than the very earth upon which we now stand, to we who are weak and struggling in our faith, He has given us a sign of this blessed communion in His very Body and Blood.  The Holy Eucharist which He established on the night in which He was betrayed, remains the everlasting sign of His communion with us, and our communion with every other baptized Christian.  That same Body and Blood which suffered and died and rose again for our salvation, is given to us that we might always remember the greater reality of our life in Him amidst the confusing darkness of our world.  Here in this Eucharist is Christ our Savior, and here in Him we find not only ourselves, but all He has gathered to Himself.  Here we find not only our own personal communion with God restored, but our fellowship with all His people perfected through His Blood which washes and saves us all.

This Holy Eucharist, presented as simple bread and wine upon our humble altars, when combined with His Almighty Word, bring forth the confluence of heaven and earth in the immediate place of our sanctuaries.  Here is Christ, and in Him the Kingdom of God is fully come.  Here are the saints of all times and places, the martyrs and confessors, the doctors and the mystics.  Here are all those known only unto their Lord, whom the histories of the world have not recorded, but are found written in the Book of Life.  Here we find the great cloud of witnesses, the countless multitude of white robed martyrs, all united together in Christ our Savior.  Here we see those who live even though they die, knowing that the eternal bliss into which they have already pressed, is that same eternity into which we are now pressing.  Here we see the eternity of love and compassion our God extends to us, which shatters the dark and fearful lies of our present world.  Here we find present our future glory, and Christ our Righteousness presents Himself to us.  Here we find our true life that passes through death unscathed, emerging more brilliant than the stars of heaven.

Behold the love of God for us, that we should be called the children of God!  Behold the eternal life and sweet communion, won for us in the Cross of our Savior Jesus Christ!  Come to the waters of Holy Baptism, where your death is exchanged for His life.  Come to the servant of Christ, confessing your sins, that you may be absolved and made whole.  Come to the Supper of the Lord, where He gives us a foretaste of the feast to come.  Enter into the fellowship of all the saints of God, alive in Christ forever:  for He is the God of the living, not the dead.  To you Christ calls, together with all His holy saints and angels, Prophets and Apostles:  Come.  Amen.