Recently, I watched the film Quartet again. It is a funny and moving story surrounding an old people’s home for retired musicians. What a lovely idea. Every year they hold a concert to raise funds for the home and every musician who is still able takes part.
Into this scenario comes a retired diva to live in the home, once married to one of the other residents. The air crackles with tension which is gently resolved. The finale is four of the finest operatic voices from their day singing the Quartet from Rigoletto.
I love the film which is extremely witty and filled with uplifting music. However I knew nothing about the opera Rigoletto or its storyline. I was shocked therefore to discover it is all about the debauched court of an Italian duke. It is bawdy and frankly vulgar as well as being a story of betrayal, revenge and murder. It is a true tragedy.
How can such a terrible tale have such wonderful music? Everything evil wrapped around by everything enriching and beautiful. How can it be?
I immediately thought of the Garden of Eden – God’s paradise on Earth. Totally beautiful, perfect and everything that is good into which comes evil incarnate. Why did God permit the devil to enter his perfect world?
The answer is love.
William Shakespeare wrote ‘Love is not love that alters when alteration finds.’
God is love and he does not change even when evil comes into his perfect world. True love is not fickle, it doesn’t give up. As we read 1 Corinthians 13: 4 - 8, we see what true love is really like.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Love never fails.
The reality is that love has to be freely given and freely received. Love permits terrible choices to be made - to choose evil over good even though the consequences are terrible.
God allowed the devil to deceive Eve even though the outworking would be tragic. If he had stopped her or not let the devil into the Garden, it would be a form of manipulation and control, not love. Eve’s decision, freely made, led to the destruction of so much of God’s incredible creation and cost the life of his Son.
But love always wins. Romans 12: 21 says, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Love overcomes even terrible wickedness. In the end God will have his way – he will restore his beautiful creation, planet Earth to the perfection he always intended. This time evil will be completely destroyed and Man, the highest of God’s creation, his redeemed ones who have freely chosen him, will inhabit this restored world for all eternity.
It never fails to move me deeply. The perfect Son of God killed in the most barbaric manner in order to save his wayward, sinful and uncaring creation, Man. That is true love.
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