Day 18 • The Week of Joy

Scripture Readings:
Psalm 125
Malachi 3:16-4:6
Mark 9:9-13

If you haven’t ever read the book of Malachi, I’d invite you to do that someday. It is only four chapters long and paints the picture of God’s heart towards the people of Israel and, equally important, Israel’s heart towards God.

The entire book begins with the prophet laying out this juxtaposition plainly. It simply says, “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you ask, “How have you loved us?” This opening not only powerfully paints the current relationship between God and Israel, but it gives us the lens through which we are to read the rest of the entire book. It is all framed by these words from God, “I have loved you.”

By the time we arrive at our reading today in Malachi 3:16-4:6, the theme of this fractured relationship between God and Israel has been set. The prophet presents God’s desire, and then Israel questions that desire. Let me give you just a few examples. “How have you loved us?” (1:2). "How have we wearied you?” (2:17). “How are we robbing you?” (3:8) “How have we spoken against you?” (3:13). “What do we profit by keeping God’s commands? (3:14). Rather than consider the repentance God is calling for, Israel is disputing that charge, deflecting responsibility, and even questioning the value of their relationship with God in the first place. All while we hear God saying, “I have loved you.”

All the while, God is offering total restoration for Israel through the prophet Elijah. As you read, you will see the promise that widows, orphans, and resident aliens will no longer be oppressed, workers will receive non-oppressive wages, broken relationships will be restored, and, as we see in our reading, intergenerational reconciliation will happen. Why? Because “I have loved you.”

What we find in Malachi is a consistent theme all throughout the scriptures. God’s deep desire for a relationship with us and for us to have a good relationship with each other. That is God’s abiding desire for us. God isn’t looking for how our relationship will benefit God or what we can do for God, God is simply wanting a relationship with us and for us to have a good relationship with each other.

We know all too well how damaging broken relationships can be in our world. Broken relationships tear apart friendships, families, states, nations, and beyond. Broken relationships lead to mistreatment and injustice towards others. When we don’t see one another as our equal, it opens the door to all kinds of evil and exploitation. Through it all, God looks upon humanity created in God’s own image and treats humanity as an equal. Desiring a loving relationship and wanting that for us as well.

I think so much of Western Christianity has made our relationship with God and with others very transactional, much like we see Israel doing in Malachi. Because we have come to see our relationship with God and others as transactional, we have come to define repentance more as a threat rather than an invitation to healing and wholeness. We hear so many calls for repentance sounding like, “You better get your life right with God, or else you are going to burn!” How tragic to frame God’s love this way. In reality, the repentance God is calling for sounds more like, “I want to bring healing, restoration, and justice to you and all the world because I have loved you. Do you not want that too?”

The Christmas season already paints this picture so well. It takes little effort to see the narratives of God desiring to bring hope, peace, joy, and love to the world through Christ. The Advent season helps us to reorient and even redefine unhelpful pictures of repentance to help us remember that rather than threatening the world, God is inviting us and the whole world into hope, peace, joy, and love. Because “I have loved you.”

Reflection Steps:

Do you struggle to own these words from God for yourself? “I have loved you.” Have you inherited any kind of theology that makes you immediately think that you have to earn that love or fundamentally change everything about yourself in order to be loved? Have you been told that God is only interested in a relationship with you because of what you will do for God? I want to invite you to reflect on how you can combat those false narratives. Perhaps a simple way is to simply repeat “I have loved you” whenever you feel these narratives begin to mount in your heart and mind. The more you build the habit of believing you are loved, the more you will be able to embody that love to others.