May 15, 2009
Sunday Scripture
Sixth Sunday of Easter
BY FATHER DONALD DILGER
In this sequel to the parable of Jesus as the vine and Christians as the branches of the vine, (last Sunday’s gospel), the subject is love. Jesus’ love for us originates in the love between Father and Son. How do we remain in the love of Jesus? “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” As the love Jesus has for us originates in the love between Father and Son, so our doing of the commandments originates in and finds its strength in the example of Jesus doing the Father’s commandments.
In chapter ten, John revealed the supreme commandment the Father gave the Son, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again . . . I have the power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.” One gets the sense here that even though the obedience of Jesus is commanded by the Father, His obedience to his Father is totally free. Why? Because of the love between them. Quite a model for the obedience of children to parents! They obey out of the freely given love of the parents, and the parents respond to the children’s obedience with continued love.
Although Jesus has spoken of keeping his commandments (plural), he now sums up his commandments in one commandment, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” In other gospels the so-called great commandment is the command to love God above all things. John has already implicitly affirmed this commandment by describing Jesus’ love for the Father. In the other gospels Jesus asserted that there is a second commandment like the first commandment, to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Here we have John’s version of that second commandment which is so like the first, “Love one another as I have loved you.”
What does Jesus mean by the words, “as I have loved you?” John answers, “Greater love than this no one has than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” For Jesus and for many of his followers that meant death rather than deny one’s faith. For most of us this means living for others, like for example, good parents live for their children. Other examples, teachers; people in ministry; those who serve the poor, the sick, the elderly — all of these are ways of “giving one’s life for one’s friends.”
Jesus notes that his disciples are not his servants, his slaves. Some ancient religions gave this reason for the creation of humans — the gods were too lazy to do their own work, so they created humans as slaves. Our Judaeo-Christian tradition teaches that God creates out of love. God’s love for created beings still seems love only on the part of God. Is there no return? John’s gospel answers affirmatively, “No longer do I call you slaves, because the slave does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, because all that I have heard from my Father I have revealed to you.” Jesus does not ask them to love him in return. Their love for him is implicit in their love for one another.
There are two models of such friendship in the Old Testament. Abraham is called God’s friend in Isaiah 41:8. Of such a friend God says in Genesis 18:17-19, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? No, for I have chosen him . . .” Of Moses we read in Exodus 33:11, “The Lord spoke to Moses as a man speaks to his friend.” The Lord also chose Moses for leadership, “Come on! I will send you . . .,” Exodus 3:11. To his disciples, his friends, Jesus says in today’s gospel, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit may endure . . .”
Simon Peter crosses the boundaries into the Gentile world. Observant Jews according to custom did not enter the houses of Gentiles (non-Jews). Peter needed repeated persuasion and a direct command from a heavenly voice to take that step. Once he does, he speaks what is perhaps the most ecumenical statement in the New Testament, “Now I definitely understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, whoever respects God and acts uprightly is acceptable to God.” God immediately approved of Peter’s great step. While Peter was still speaking the Holy Spirit “fell upon all who were listening to the word.” The other Jews with Peter were astonished at this breach of tradition. Peter had crossed what had long been an unsurpassable racial barrier. Have We?
The series of readings from the First Letter of John continues. Like today’s gospel, the subject is love. The most compelling statement: “Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.” How do we know this to be true? “In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him”