For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. — John 10:17

This statement from Jesus is puzzling: does the Father only love Jesus because Jesus lay down His life? Surely the Father’s love for the Son is from eternity, unconditional and unbreakable?

Two ways of understanding this come to mind. First, Jesus is giving us a glimpse into His eternal relationship with the Father – a relationship of joyful, voluntary submission of the Son to the Father, and of the Father’s love for His Son, continuing from eternity to eternity. It is scarcely surprising that we should find it difficult to understand something belonging to the profoundest depths of God’s being.

Second, Jesus’ death on the cross doesn’t mean that the Father didn’t love Him before but does now, but it does bring a new dimension to the Father’s love for the Son. Now the Father’s love is not only for the Son in and of Himself, but for the Son as redeemer and representative of the whole human race – and especially those who are united to Him in His death and resurrection, as we are in our baptism.

Lord Jesus, who laid down Your life and took it up again, vindicating the Father’s eternal love for You, keep us united to You in that same love of the Father, through Your death and resurrection. Amen.