Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text for this meditation is written in the 13th Chapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 31 – 35
31 When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
33 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Relationship experts claim that everyone has two fears. One fear is that we will never be loved. The second is that we will never be able to love someone. Whether we want to admit it or not, whether we are the biggest killjoy or the most hopeless romantic, love is an essential part of our life. It’s what make or breaks relationships. It’s what causes us anxiety or a sense of peace. It’s what makes life miserable or worth living. But for something that is so essential to us, so important in life, we are really confused as to what love actually is. For us, love has so much to do about me: Am I lovable enough? Do I love someone enough? Or alternatively: I don’t care if someone loves me or not. I don’t care if I love this person enough or not. In this text, Jesus lovingly tells us that our ego-centred ideas of love are clumsy; and that in fact love doesn’t start or end with us.
Jesus’ teaches us that love ultimately originates and lives in Him alone. If we want to really understand true love we have to back up a little and pay attention to Holy Week. I know we’re celebrating Easter, but this is so important. Jesus’ life on earth was about to culminate. He was with his disciples in Jerusalem celebrating the Passover as his disciples were gathered around him he looked at Judas and said, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” So Judas left, quickly and his only concern was how he was going to force Jesus to make a stand. To be the true conquering Saviour of the Jews as was, and still is, the Judaist expectation. That one act of selfishness ironically would begin the chain of events surrounding what Jesus calls his glory.
“When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.” There are a lot of glorious things about God. The creation of the earth, stars, land animals and mankind. The Bible tells us that he is so glorious, so perfect, that he had to shield Moses’ eyes from even looking at him. Even Jesus performed some pretty glorious acts like raising Lazarus from the dead. But here, after one of his own disciples leaves to betray him, Jesus says that he is glorified. Just as the events of Holy Week were about to start he says that he is in his glory.
Jesus knew the disciples didn’t get what he was saying, He tried to clarify himself in the words, “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.” In other words Jesus was going to the cross. Jesus was going to die. Out of all the things he could have chosen to glorify Himself: his presence at creation, his birth with angels singing, his transfiguration. He chooses his death on a cross.
Doesn’t sound too glorious does it? We do have an advantage over the disciples in that we know the end of the story. We know that after his suffering and death that he will rise. But we can’t gloss over his suffering and death and go straight for his resurrection as his glory because Jesus includes it as a package deal as a part of his glory. Our sin and the punishment for it is central to this passage. The fact is that Jesus death is the whole reason Jesus came to earth. This was his one purpose and forgiveness; salvation and glory is ours as a result. Yes! We are glorified along with Jesus.
In this text, Jesus ties his Passion directly to love. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” The love Jesus’ disciples are to have is to be like His love for us. The love that drove him to action. The love that drove him to the cross. True Christian love always starts and ends with Jesus; we are not the initiators; we are the beneficiaries!
Friends, our human nature is such that when we read this section we begin thinking of people who really need to hear this. We create a list of people who could probably be a little more loving. Remember Jesus’ words “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you” Can we do that?
If we are to love as Jesus loves us then we can’t put ourselves first. Love isn’t even about how we feel. It doesn’t give to get. It’s not about the satisfaction we might get from loving someone else. Love doesn’t start or end with us.
Love doesn’t even draw a line in the sand and say, “I’m willing to do this for someone but not that.”
There is no limit to love. There is no ceiling or no cap. If we’re loving we can’t say, “I have been loving enough to this person and I am done.”
Jesus lesson to us is that we can’t love if we don’t actually love. We can’t convince ourselves that we actually love someone if we aren’t moved to action. Love is less of an emotion and it is more doing, and as we look at ourselves by Jesus’ definition can we truly say that we love? If we are truthful, we may find fear and doubt.
Take heart, this is a part of Jesus’ glory because he glories in the weak through the cross. Love doesn’t start and end with us. It starts with Jesus’ love and the scope of this love is beyond all human understanding. God the creator of the universe, who suspended the stars and carved out the oceans, who was so blameless and pure that he can blind men gave all of that glory up and he became man to live, suffer and die on this earth. This is the love that drove him to a cross and to the depths of hell for us. This is the love that raises him from death to his resurrection and our resurrection and salvation. This is the depth of his love for us.
How can we ever love like that, so selflessly and so freely Friends we can’t because this love has no origin in us. This love is not something we have to muster up. This is not a love we have to find. At the Baptismal Font, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, Jesus gives us the gift of all the love we need, and as it flows through us as God has ordained those around we will see Jesus in us. “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Remember how we said that Jesus’ glory is tied to his love? It is tied so tightly that his glory is his love for us. And when we love, people will know that we are one of his, because there is only one kind of love that is true. Love doesn’t start with us and it doesn’t end with us. It has been given to us.
The most amazing thing is that Jesus’ boundless love comes to us in spite of ourselves. Jesus loves us regardless of who we are and what we have done so that we in turn may love others regardless of who they are and what they have done. As we are told in (1 Corinthians 13) “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things”
Friends, if we feel that we are never thanked and never appreciated, we get nothing in return, Jesus commands us to keep loving as we are loved by him. From Jesus that love to us is an underserved gift of pure grace.
When we realise that love could never possibly start or end with us. When we realise that we are more unlovable than we could ever admit, and yet, in Christ, we are loved more than we would ever dare to hope, only then we understand that we live in the grace of God’s true love. If we fear that we will never be loved, look at the depths of Jesus love has for us. If we fear that we will never be able to love someone else; read the “Passion Account” as written in the Gospels and know the depths of Jesus love for us and remember His words as written in (John 14: 23) “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them”. That is a promise to uphold us all forever. Amen.
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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