“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
The Gospel of John (5:13) takes us to a strange theological place. Throughout human existence, people have lived to preserve themselves at all costs. In defiance, Jesus triumphantly declares that life matters only to the extent that it matters for others. Indeed, in the economy of Jesus, love is defined by the other not the preservation of the self. Of course, Jesus made these comments with the understanding that death was coming quickly. One could say that at this point in his story, he had a bounty on his head. When you think about the inevitability of death, I guess we all do. It seems that the admonition of Jesus is, “We’re all going to die…so make it count.”
Mass suicides are not events that are going to inspire too many people to make their lives count. Jonestown is constantly treated as one of the most evil events in modern history. While there were unquestionable evils committed (i.e. the murder of children), the story is more complicated than that. There are countless pictures of bodies with arms wrapped around each other. These are people who refused to let each other die alone. If left up to their own devices, maybe a great many people would have run or even rushed the vat of cyanide-laced fruit punch to stop the tragedy. But the people of Jonestown seemed to have a deeper knowledge of love than that. Most seemed to know that there was no possible way that everybody could escape, so they preferred to die together. Whether they would understand the source of such knowledge or not, this was a community that understood the admonition of Jesus. These were a great many people who laid down their lives for each other…for their friends. There is no greater love.
Of course, most would prefer to stop at the determination of evil and be done. “Most” can think whatever they want. Truth is not beholden to the opinions of such.
Ease is always the most prolific adversary of love. The ease of the opinions of the ignorant be damned, Jonestown cannot be easily defined. Love was there. The embraced bodies still preach. I can hear them. Do not run from such images. Embrace them. Embrace each other.
Amen.
(Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood is a Baptist pastor, theologian and activist living and working in Arkansas. Dr. Hood’s extensive work has appeared in numerous media outlets, including in the Dallas Morning News, Huffington Post, Fort Worth Star Telegram, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Los Angeles Times, WIRED magazine and on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and NPR. He writes regularly at https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jeffhood/. The collection of his articles for this site appears here. He can be reached at jeffrey.k.hood@gmail.com.)