The month of February is synonymous with love. The 14th February is celebrated as Valentine’s day in many countries. Valentine’s day became celebrated as a day of romance in the 14th century. The day however, has deep roots associated with Christian martyrdom.
One legend is that the day was named after a priest who was martyred in AD 270 by emperor Claudius Gothicus. The story goes that the priest signed a letter to his jailer’s daughter, after he fell in love with her, with the words, “from your Valentine.” Another legend is that St Valentine secretly married couples to spare the husbands from war as emperor Claudius ll outlawed marriage as he decided that single men made better soldiers.
By the 1700’s printed cards were used and in the 1800’s the image of Cupid was featured on the cards. Cupid was the ancient Roman god of love. The Roman god of love was referred to as “Amor” in Latin poetry. This inspired Gabriel Ruiz to compose the song “Amor, Amor Amor” in 1943. The English version of the song captured the imagination of many famous singers, amongst whom are Bing Crossby, Julio Iglesias, Matt Munro and in 2001, Luis Miguel. The song expresses the undying love of the lover. The Greek counterpart for the god of love, was Eros. The English word erotic, most probably derived from the name of the Greek god.
Love is also the central theme of Bible. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for love is אהבה ahava. The word in Hebrew is spelt aleph-hey-bet-hey. The Hebrew alphabet evolved from pictographs. The letter aleph א is a pictograph of an ox and represents the strong leader. The letter hey ה means, look or behold, and the letter bet ב is a picture of a house. The letter bet also speaks of Jesus. Jesus is the Word Who became flesh and dwelled amongst us. Differently stated, He “housed” among us. John 1:1 uses the word “tabernacled” amongst us.
There is a mystery hidden in the construction of the letter bet. The letter is constructed with three vavs. The letter vav is a picture of a nail. Jesus was nailed to the cross with three nails. But the mystery is even deeper than this. The letter vav is the sixth letter in the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of six. The three vavs in the letter bet therefore has a numerical value of eighteen. This is also the numerical value of the Hebrew word, חי chai, which means life. Jesus gave His life, so that all who believe in Him will have eternal life.
But there is even a deeper mystery in the word ahava. Interpreting the pictograms, the word ahava reads: “ The strong leader, behold, the Son, behold.” Embedded in the word ahava is the word “father, av .” The first and third letters of the word אהבה spell the word אָב av. “For God (the Father) so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
This required that Jesus gave His life for a sinful world. On the eve of the Passover AD 30, Jesus was having the Last Supper with His disciples. Jesus knew that His time had come and during the supper, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples. Peter refused to let Jesus wash his feet as he could not understand how Jesus, Who was his master and Lord, could take on the menial task of washing his feet. This act was particularly significant in the light of the cultural background. It was only given to the lowest of servants. This act underscored the essence of Jesus’ love. He said that He did not come to be served but to serve. Jesus explained to Peter that only by allowing Jesus to wash his feet, can he demonstrate his loyalty, submission, and preparedness to serve. Peter in his usual spontaneous and forward manner, now that he understood, wanted Jesus to wash his whole body.
After Judas Iscariot left the dinner table that night to conclude his act of betrayal, Jesus started His last intimate conversation with the eleven disciples. This is what He said: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” This love spoke of the unselfish ministry of Jesus: meeting all the needs of the people, teaching them, healing all who came to Him, and even performing the menial task of washing His disciples’ feet. And this love required that Jesus gave His life to express His love. This was not in response to what man deserve, but totally undeserved. The apostle John expresses it like this, 1 John 5:8: “But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” John 13:15.
