Sunday, May 5, 2024 | Trey Comstock
By Rev. Emily Larsen
If you tuned in last week, you know that this week sounds very similar in content and composition. There’s a whole lot of love going on in our scriptures. But this is the primary force for good in the world that Jesus was trying to convey to us while he was here. That God loved us while we were still unlovable. That love comes from God and that our place with God is a result of God’s initiative of love towards us, not the other way around. God’s free gift of grace is not the only thing that Jesus shared with his disciples (both in these words to them then as well as to us as his disciples now). Jesus loves his disciples as friends and keeps nothing about God from them. Jesus summarizes how their thinking and being is to be; they are to love one another as friends of God. Jesus tells them to look at the bond he has with the Father and how that bond of love has been shared with them.
The English word “friend” doesn’t truly encapsulate the depth of love that he is trying to convey in this farewell discourse. When Jesus calls them “friends'' here, the translation is more accurately “those who are loved.” Beloved ones. Dear friends. Jesus paints a picture of friendship, instead of slavery. Much like the Good Shepherd that we talked about a few weeks ago– the one that lays down his life for his sheep–this relationship that we have with God is so much deeper–so much more intimate–than we can imagine!
And because we have been loved in this way, we now are commanded to go and love others in the same way. It’s not a suggestion. Not a recommendation. Not something you should do if you have the time to get around to it… This is a commandment!
Verse 12 states ““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.”
If Christ loved us enough to lay down his life for us, we also should love others with this self-sacrificing love!
Sometimes when I hear this verse, I imagine the Hunger games. When Katniss volunteers herself as a tribute in place of her beloved younger sister, Prim. She knows certain death awaits her in the televised Hunger Games arena, so she bravely stands and takes her younger sister’s place so that Prim will not have to endure a painful and humiliating death.
There are even better real-life examples of this type of self-sacrifice. Firefighters who run into the flames to save strangers. Law enforcement officers, veterans, and military personnel who put themselves in the line of fire to protect others. I think of these heroes when I imagine those who truly take this verse to heart; those who are willing to lay down their lives for others in an act of true self-sacrificing love.
But there are many other everyday ways and everyday heroes that practice self-sacrificing love for others as well. Teachers, for example, who lay down their extra time, energy, finances, and more to help a struggling student. Missionaries and ministry workers who give of themselves to further the mission that God has for their corner of the world. Tired spouses who go the extra mile to make sure that their spouse and family are cared for even when they are exhausted or emotionally-depleted themselves.
People who give of themselves to others are the ones who tend to make a real mark on the world and to make a real mark on our personal lives. Think of the people in your life who have shown you love. I mean really, truly gone out of their way and given of themselves to show you how much you are loved! I think of my parents and grandparents, my brother and sister, my husband and kids, my best friends. Each of them in various times and places in my life have shown me this unconditional love, many times even when I was acting very unlovable. I’ve been shown incredible love in my life and I count myself truly blessed!
And because this incredible love has been demonstrated for me; first by God in the person of Jesus Christ, and then by others in my family and community; when I hear the commandment that I should love others, it feels less like an ORDER from some unknown General in the upper ranks. Instead, this love COMPELS and convinces me to go and share it with the rest of the world. This overwhelming love of God that we are given begs to be forwarded and given again and again and again. It’s not some finite resource that we must hoard to ourselves to make sure we don’t run out. It’s the infinite, unbreakable force for Good that we get the joy of carrying into the world. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that glorious mission from God?!