On the Church Liturgical calendar, we have begun the
season of Lent, a 40-day period of spiritual preparation leading up to Easter
Sunday and the celebration of the Resurrection.
This period of preparation includes acknowledging and confessing our
sins and shortcomings, and performing acts of self-sacrifice and penitence as
we remember Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross to demonstrate the depth of God’s
love for us.
During Lent this year, our proclamations and worship
services will focus on the “Farewell Discourse” in the Gospel of John, chapters
14-16. This discourse occurs in the
evening, just before Jesus is betrayed by Judas Iscariot. Jesus is together with the disciples—except
for Judas—and some other followers.
Jesus uses this time to prepare followers for his imminent betrayal and
crucifixion. He uses this moment to
teach them about his relationship with God the Creator and to reassure them
that God will continue to look over them and lead them, even after Jesus has
gone.
We began our reflections on the “Farewell Discourse”
last Sunday with John 14:8-18, where Jesus describes his relationship with God
the Creator while also promising to send an “Advocate,” who will come to the
disciples after Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven.
This Sunday, March 17th, we will focus on Jesus’ explanation of the role
that love plays in our relationship with God, as we reflect upon John 15:12-17.
Our scripture begins with Jesus
reiterating part of the teaching which we examined last week. Jesus says, “This is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you” (verse 12). In our passage last Sunday, Jesus grounded
humans’ love for God with keeping his commandments—that is to say, Jesus’
teachings. As we saw last week: To love Jesus is to keep his ‘commandments’
or teachings, while to keep his commandments is to love Jesus.
In our scripture this week, Jesus
slightly emends his teaching by stressing that the object of our love should be
loving one another as Jesus’ has loved each of us. The present subjunctive tense in the command,
“Love one another,” suggests that our love for one another should be ongoing. Jesus sets up a “chain of love,” when we view
this verse within the context of what he has already said in John 15:1-11: The Creator (Father) loves Jesus; Jesus loves
his followers; and his followers are called by God to love one another—and by
implication all other persons.
After establishing the centrality of love for discipleship, Jesus
next describes the depth of love. He
says, “No one has greater love
than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (verse 13). Of course, this is precisely what Jesus
proceeds to do over the next 24 hours.
Following his “Farewell Discourse” with his followers, they go out to
the Garden where he was betrayed by Judas; Jesus is condemned in a “show-trial”
and then executed by crucifixion the next day.
In his crucifixion and death, Jesus demonstrates once and for all the
awesome love of God, which is quite literally beyond the comprehension of the
human mind.
After observing that the
greatest love a person can have for his friends is to “lay down his life,”
Jesus immediately reassures his followers that they are his friends. He says,
“You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you
servants any longer, because the servant does not know
what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made
known to you everything that I have heard from my Father” (John 15:14-15).
The Greek word translated as “friend” is philos, which is one of two words the
Gospel writer uses interchangeably for love. When Jesus speaks of friends here, he
is really saying “those who are loved”. Our English word, “friend,” does not
fully convey the presence of the love that undergirds the Johannine notion of
friendship. Perhaps it would be better to translate philos as “beloved.” Because
Jesus has freely shared everything about God with his followers, they are now
Jesus’ friends. Jesus has involved the
disciples in the intimacy of his relationship with God.
The language of friendship is
immediately contextualized by language of election in verse 16a, when Jesus
says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” With this language of election, Jesus
reminds the disciples (including the readers) that their place with him is the
result of his initiative, not theirs; relationship with Jesus is ultimately a
result of God’s grace.
Jesus
follows this reminder of election with a reminder of commission and vocation: “And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit
that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my
name” (verse 16b). The Greek word
translated into English as “appointed” is tithenari—the
same verb used in v. 13 when Jesus says that the greatest form of love is ‘to
lay down one’s life’ for one’s friends.
So, when read in the original Greek, the connection between the commissioning
of the disciples and the example of laying
down one’s life for one’s friends would be quite explicit and dramatic. The disciples are commissioned by Jesus to go
and do works of love. Jesus then
concludes, “I am giving you these commands so that
you may love one another” (verse 17).
To summarize this scripture, Jesus
begins by reminding his disciples that we are to love one another, just as he
has loved us. Then, Jesus elaborates by
pointing out that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s
friends. And, Jesus reassures the disciples
that we are his friends. Of course, we
readers recognize that laying down one’s life for one’s friends is precisely
what Jesus does the next day, when he is crucified. In the crucifixion, Jesus demonstrates that
God’s love for us is awesome, literally beyond human comprehending. In
response to his incredible love for us, Jesus asks us to follow his teachings,
which may be summarized as loving one another.[1]
If you live in the Lincoln, Nebraska area and do not
have a place of worship, then I invite you to come and join us at Christ United
Methodist Church this Sunday, March 17th, as we continue our spiritual preparation
for celebrating Easter and the Resurrection.
In the service this week, I will share a special way to demonstrate the
love of God for each of us, and how God intends for us to respond to that love.
Christ UMC is located at 4530 “A” Street. We have three worship services on Sunday
mornings at 8:30, 9:45, and 11:00. The
8:30 and 11:00 services feature a traditional worship format and the services
are held in our Sanctuary. “The
Gathering” at 9:45 is held in our Family Life Center (gym), and it is more
informal and interactive.
Come, join us. Everyone is welcome and accepted because God
loves us all.
[1]
My interpretation of John 15:12-17 was informed by the following commentaries: Gail R. O’Day, Commentary on the Gospel of
John in the New Interpreter’s Bible,
vol 9, (Nashville, Abingdon Press, 2002), CD-ROM Edition; Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John (xiii-xxi)
in “The Anchor Bible series (New York, Doubleday and Company, 1966); and John
Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New
Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Book House, 1981) vol 1.
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