Read 1 John 5:1-6 and John 15:9-17 ....
Our scriptures this week pick up where we left off last week, continuing with both Jesus’ goodbye to his disciples in the gospel and the letter of 1 John. So perhaps it is unsurprising that they continue that theme of love.
Now remember, as we learned last week, this love isn’t the type of warm feeling we have for one another, but instead it is show in what we do. Frederick Buechner described it as, "In the Christian sense, love is not primarily an emotion, but an act of the will. When Jesus tells us to love our neighbors, he is not telling us to love them in the sense of responding to them with a cozy emotional feeling. You can as easily produce a cozy emotional feeling on demand as you can a yawn or a sneeze. On the contrary,he is telling us to love our neighbors in the sense of being willing to work for their well-being even if it means sacrificing our own well-being to that end, even if it means sometimes just leaving them alone. Thus in Jesus' terms, we can love our neighbors without necessarily liking them."
So, when Jesus says "This is my command, that you love one another as I have loved you." He’s asking no small thing. Because what Jesus taught us is that God loves us all, unconditionally. And that’s how we’re supposed to love in return.
This sounds like an almost impossible task here. It’s easier to judge others. It’s easier to remain blind to another’s need. It’s easier to view the world as a cruel, unfair battleground and keep our "us against them" mentality. But that isn’t what Jesus asks us to do.
Jesus’ love demands an equal, generous, non-judgmental relationship . . . with everyone. Even the people we don’t know. Even the people we don’t like. Even the people we feel are actively working against us.
We cannot treat loving Christ and loving other people as if they were separate and distinct pieces. We cannot selectively choose only one part: 'I'll have the love of Jesus please, but hold all of that messy caring for the sick and welcoming the outcasts." No, Jesus makes it very clear here that we love him, by loving each other, by following his teachings.
One day a little girl came running into the house to her mother, exclaiming: "Mamma, I love you!"
The mother hugged her little girl with a smile. "I am so glad you love me." Then she pulled back and looked down at her daughter "I have had a hard day, and I am so tired. If you love me so much, will you wash the dishes for me?"
The little girl solemnly replied: "I do love you, mother, but not in that way."
When we truly love Christ, we wash the dishes. We bring food to someone who is grieving. We sit next to hospital beds and feed the hungry and visit the prisoner and welcome the stranger. We simply cannot separate loving Jesus with loving our neighbors, with following his teachings We cannot even just follow the teachings we like, and ignore the ones that are hard or make us uncomfortable. And this is what Jesus presents his followers as he is saying goodbye to them.
Jesus tells us that "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." Which, I don’t think any of us would argue with. But how often do we come across the situation where we lay down our lives for one another these days? Sure, we hear stories in the news of people who run into burning buildings or jump after drowning victims, but those aren’t the norm. Most of the time, that just isn't what we are asked to do. Most of us will never be in a position to do such things. So how can we follow this instruction?
Robin Maas offers insight, "Few, if any of us, will be called to martyrdom; but all of us are called to a series of little deaths in the form of invitations to restrain or deny self….The sending of God by God was the sending of Love – a crucified Love willing to lay down its life for friends and enemies alike. Your mission and mine – which we can only perform insofar as we are in communion with God and with one another – is to submit, out of love for one another, to countless, daily ‘little deaths’ until we have yielded every least and last remnant of self to the purpose of Christ." Which means, we can sacrifice our life not just all at once, but instead with the years and days that make up our lives.
Have you ever seen the famous drawing called The Praying Hands by German artist Albrecht Durer? There is a legend behind the painting that tells of two struggling artists. One is a musician whose goal in life was to play and compose music to the glory of God. Durer, the other of the two, was a painter and engraver. They had flipped a coin to decide who would go on to become an artist and who would work in the goldmines to support them financially. Albrecht won the coin toss, and so he went on to Italy to work on his art, while his anonymous friend worked in the mines. One day when Albrecht came back to his hometown he saw the gnarled, work-ruined hands of the man, too hardened to return to his career in music. The legend is that those hands have become the model for the famous praying hands. Whether or not the story is true, it is an example of the love John talks about here. Laying down one's life is not always a matter of life or death, but at a time of postponing or canceling dreams and plans so that another might fulfill their dreams or plans.
We are drawn to such stories. And perhaps a bit intimidated by them. We aren’t sure if we are capable of such dramatic sacrifices. But these sacrifices exist on the small scale too. Every day there are small quiet sacrifices of love. A teacher takes money out of her own pocket to buy supplies that enhance her students’ learning. A neighbor delivers a casserole to a sick friend. Someone goes out of their way to stand up for another who needs their support. Maybe it’s as simple as taking time from a busy schedule to listen, maybe even give a hug, to someone who is feeling down or unlovable.
Dave Simmons tells a story about his eight year old daughter making such a sacrifice. He came upon a petting zoo while out with her and her younger brother. Thinking to give them a chance to play while he shopped, he gave them each a quarter and headed off. He relates what happens next. "A few minutes later, I turned around and saw Helen walking along behind me. I was shocked to see she preferred the hardware department to the petting zoo. Recognizing my error, I bent down and asked her what was wrong.
She looked up at me with those giant limpid brown eyes and said sadly, ‘Well, Daddy, it cost fifty cents. So, I gave Brandon my quarter.’ Then she said the most beautiful thing I ever heard. She repeated the family motto. The family motto is ‘Love is Action!’
She had given Brandon her quarter, and no one loves cuddly furry creatures more than Helen. She had watched Sandy take my steak and say, ‘Love is Action!’ She had watched both of us do and say ‘Love is Action!’ for years around the house and Kings Arrow Ranch. She had heard and seen ‘Love is Action,’ and now she had incorporated it into her little lifestyle. It had become part of her."
Even small sacrifices reveal immense love and caring. While they do not cost us our lives, they reveal the true depths of the love Jesus calls us towards. In this passage, I feel like Jesus is saying "Look, I want you folks to work on loving one another, because now you have seen love. You have seen how much I love you. In fact, I love you not as my followers or servants, but as my friends. And the reason I’m willing to risk everything, the reason I’m willing to lay down my life for all of you, is because I love you. So I want you all to continue practicing this love. Not so much because I’m making you to do it, but because you know what that love is like."
Love for the sake of love. That is all Jesus is asking of us. We call this the greatest commandment (because Jesus gave it to us as such), but Jesus hope we get beyond this. Jesus wants us to practice love so much, that we aren’t just loving because Jesus has told us to, but because love is an essential part of our living and being.
We give of our lives not in one giant dramatic moment, but in the choices we make every day. We return the love we have already been given by choosing to put another before ourselves. And in so doing, we find that our lives are fuller, and our joy is complete.
So this week, how will you choose to live?
