My secret weapon this week is a group of seniors at a local care facility. We have a team of folks at the church who do some visiting, and we have regular celebrations of communion with the residents. So when I help out with a service there, instead of a sermon during communion, we usually have a bit of an informal bible study and discussion afterwards on the readings for the upcoming Sunday. This week we looked at John 15: 9-17, the continuation of Jesus' discourse on the vines & branches, and what it means to "abide" in him, and in his love.
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
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. You did not choose me but I chose you. 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. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
This may appear at
first to be a diverse collection of one-off thoughts and sentences
cobbled together from Jesus' mouth by John. There are a few strange
companions in this passage: joy is mentioned along with sacrifice
(even unto death); friendship is mentioned alongside negation of
choice. And while the theme is "love", it is also equally
"commandment". We would tend to see these things as opposites. Joy
seems to have little to do with death; friendship and freedom from
servitude seem to have little to do with being appointed and having no
choice in the matter (is the Master slipping into his old ways?); and
for most of us, love which is based on commandments is no love at all -
it is mere duty. In the old Anglican circles, this is captured
perfectly in one of the prayers from the Morning Office, when it is
declared that we pray to a God "whose service is perfect freedom".
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.
So how has the Father loved Jesus? True enough, we can focus on the eternal aspects of that love: Jesus is the Father’s only begotten Son. The Father loves Jesus with everything He is and everything He has. He loves Jesus so much that they are one. They are closer than any friendship or relationship we can imagine on earth. What does the Father’s love for Jesus look like? The Father has loved Jesus from all eternity past, and the Father will forever love Jesus for all eternity to come. Jesus will be with the Father for all eternity. The Father has given all things into Jesus’ hands. Jesus sits at the Father’s right hand. Everything that the Father has, he shares with Jesus. The Father loved Jesus through life and through death – raising him up to everlasting life. What does Jesus want his disciples to remember? – “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.” Jesus loves us the same way his own heavenly Father loves him. Jesus has loved us with the same kind of love. He has loved us from all eternity past – and he will love us for all eternity to come. Everything that Jesus has – he offers to share with us. He invites us to sit at his right hand. He offers to love us through life and through death – and to raise us up to everlasting life with him.
Yet, at the same time, one can't help but realize eventually that being loved by the Father in such a way did not prevent the suffering of Christ (in fact, I suggest it was the only thing that allowed it to happen). The Father's love did not shield Jesus from suffering and sacrifice. Nor, I think, will Jesus' love for us, strong as it is, necessarily shield us from suffering and sacrifice. It is only by abiding in that love that we can then imitate Jesus and begin to "lay down" our own lives, in whatever fashion he calls us to lay them down.
In the middle of this we have Jesus talking about joy: "I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete." How is joy to be found in what Jesus is really saying? It seems that the road to joy passes through love - but not just anything which goes by the name of love is the real thing. Jesus ties joy and love and sacrifice for the sake of "an other" together. This is the most counter-intuitive of teachings. Nor are love and friendship without "commands". Again, very counter-intuitive for most of us to hear those things placed side by side.
And yet, we routinely accept that love involves specific boundaries, specific "commands" if you will, which direct and guide that love to its proper goal, always aware that human loving can tend to go astray. For example, why do we have such forms of marriage as include vows and promises of fidelity, which mark the boundaries of affections? No one (ideally) marries with the intention of cheating on their spouse, yet the solemn vows, the legalistic guidelines, are clearly spelled out. Human ways of loving can wax and wane; Jesus gives us a command to "grow into", not one that restricts us. To fulfill his command is to become what one is intended to be.
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. You did not choose me but I chose you.
Dr Phil and Oprah might analyze this a bit and give us the conclusion that Jesus is trying to take emotional hostages: "If you loved me, if you were really my friend, you would do what I ask..." I think most of us have either been that kind of person, or experienced that kind of person at some point or other. Is Jesus taking us hostage? Is is giving John Calvin lots of ammo for an argument on predestination? Is he simply saying that friends are equal, but some friends are more equal than others?
I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.
I think that this is one of the key lines in the whole deal. I mean, let's face it. Most of the stuff we do doesn't really count all that much in the long run. What is going to last? I can't help but think that Jesus is simply telling us to invest in people - you know, those people who live next to you, or the ones who bother you in the church with their wrong opinions on just about everything. I think it important to note at this point that Jesus does not tell his followers to love the Father, or even to love him. Instead, Jesus tells them to begin the project by loving one another.
maybe more later, maybe not...
related post: John 15: 1-8
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