6 May 2018
Sixth Sunday of Easter
As we continue to rejoice in the joy of Easter, it is still vitally important to step back and to see who or what we love, who and what we worship. Is our love authentically directed to our God, who is love, or is it disordered, distracted, and pulled in all the wrong directions?
Our Gospel is coming from the powerful fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of John. Jesus is with his closest friends in the intimate setting of the upper room sharing the last supper before his passion and death. These are known as the Last Supper Discourses. However, as we read them now in this Easter season, we read them in light of the resurrection, knowing the fullness of the story and how Christ will suffer and die but over-come death through the resurrection of the body. This is our faith, the apostolic faith, stemming from these closest friends of Jesus. In this most intimate setting, Jesus is not afraid or shy or bashful to tell his friends, “I love you.” “As the Father has loved me, so I also love you.” I challenge you to find any other place in scripture that Jesus is this direct about loving his disciples, which includes us, now, today. There are many parts of the Gospels where Jesus is teaching about love, about loving others, about Jesus’ love to the father, but here, John 15, verse 9, Jesus says directly to us, “I love you.” He then goes on to explain how and why he loves us in three specific ways. And these three ways are exactly the challenge and lesson for us today.
First, because Jesus is loved by the Father, so he loves us. Knowing that He is first loved allows Him to love. Is that the same for us? Before we can love others, do we need to experience the love of another, of God, first? Second, this love is transformative. Jesus, in this intimate setting, transforms the relationship that had existed between Him, as Lord, to the disciples, his servants, to one of complete equality, that of friendship. For Jesus to call us friends means that there is a mutual sharing of who he is with us. And, who Jesus is, is God, is love, is Agape. Thus, we are transformed from servants to God’s close friends. Third, and lastly, this divine love that Jesus shares is intimately connected to the divine command. As Jesus says, “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” We have been loved first by God. We are drawn into the equality of friendship with the divine. Because of this, we are commanded to love each other as co-equal friends of the Lord.