This morning I get to speak at our church, and so my post today is the ‘guts’ of that message.
Though out of season from the traditional church calendar, today I am going to take us back to Passover, specifically the Passover surrounding the final days of Jesus.
The message today comes out of the account of the Final Supper, is told from the perspective of John, and is recorded only in the gospel (the good news) of John.
Here is the setting:
Jesus is having a meal with his 12. And he decides that his dirty dozen need their feet to be washed.
Then there is Judas, who had all that Jesus offered to all of the disciples, but then the bread is dipped into the wine, and Jesus holds it out to Judas …
Can you imagine being Judas? Imagine looking into the eyes of Jesus, and choosing to take the bread, fulfilling the prophesies of the Old Testament, records of the Psalms and Zechariah. He CHOSE to take the bread. And, as soon as did, as soon as he made the choice, verse 27 tells us that “Satan entered into him.” So, Judas leaves to do Satan’s work.
Jesus is aware that the clock is ticking in regards to his human life. He is now with his 11 disciples, whom he is counting on to spread the news of who Jesus is, and who will give accounts of his arrest, his trial, his death, his rising from the dead and ascension into heaven. He knows that whatever he says may be the last of his words that these men hear.
He is about to share with them, his magnum opus … his greatest work yet. It is a testament or sermon, common in Jewish culture.
This reminds me of an annual practise in our household when our children were in elementary school. Each September we would get a notice from school … the earthquake preparedness notice. We would be instructed to put together, in a Ziploc bag a list of items (large garbage bag, nutritious snack bars, a deck of cards, a small toy, a water bottle, and a note).
That note … it made my heart stop every year. I would fill the plastic bag, ticking off every item on the list, leaving the note to last. And finally, after going to bed, after the house was dark and still, my quickened heart beat will force me out of bed, and I would boil the water, and stick a tea bag into it, then I would sit at the dining table, with paper and pen, and write what might be my final message to each of my children. And the tears would flow like the water in a spring brook … without choice, just flowing from a place higher up, that removed personal choice, from the action.
It was in the writing of those letters that what is really important, became really important to say.
Dear Cris,
I wish I was with you right now, but I am so glad that you can be with your school friends and your teachers who will look after you so well.
We are so proud of you. You have a heart for other people, and you do not care who they are, what they wear, how old they are … you just love people. Keep doing that, for that is what you were created for.
Be brave, like we know you are, my sweet girl, your daddy’s Red Rocket.
We are going to do all that we can to get to you, just as soon as possible.
Keep answering this question … you know the answer.
Mommy and Daddy love you, but who loves you the most?
It’s Jesus … don’t forget that. It is always Jesus who loves the most.
Do you hear our song? …
A, you’re adorable, B, you’re so beautiful, C, you’re a cutie full of charms …
Love you, to the moon and back,
Momma and Daddy
In John 13:33-35 (The Message), Jesus gave a new command to his followers (aka. those who would be the early Christian/Christ-following, yet imperfect) church:
“My children (he starts with “my children” … he is coming from a parental perspective, a perspective of limitless love, care and concern, just like my earthquake notes to 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. Let me give you a new command (here it is, what is most important becomes the only message when it might be the last): Love one another. Now repeat after me Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another ponder those words … now look around this room of believers … he, the Christ, who died for you, and me, is calling his disciples, is calling us (his church), to love each other as he loved … his love was self-sacrifice, it was his death.
Then he finishes his last testament with these words:
This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”
You know what I am hearing right now?
“We are one in the spirit
We are one in the Lord
And we pray that our unity
May one day be restored
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love”
“This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples
—when they see the love you have for :
- The poor?
- The unborn?
- The drug addict?
No, when they see the love you have for … one another, each other.”
The Matthew Henry Commentary speaks to that verse:
“if the followers of Christ do not show love one to another, they give reason to suspect their sincerity.”
When the world outside of our church doors sees and hears of divisions within the relationships of Christ-followers, it makes the world doubtful of our authenticity, doubtful of the difference that Christ can make in the world. Jesus knew that this would be the case, and this is why he reminded his followers, all of his followers, in the form of a new commandment … love one another.
If we cannot get this one commandment right, the world will never fully see that we are followers of Christ, no matter how much we do for the poor, the unborn, the addict or any other person of need.
It is important that all members, like the disciples, who were the first followers of Christ, love one another. This speaks to the world more loudly than whether or not we are members, if we have ever taken part in communion or how we were baptized.
By loving each other we mirror the way Jesus lived, we show his unique, sacrificial, undeniable Christ-like love to the world. If we do not show love to one another … are we truly His followers, His church?
This past week was one where I came to understand and appreciate afresh the church as the love story that God intended.
I have endearing memories of being at my grandmother’s house on Halloween night, helping her to hand out candy (and hoping she didn’t hand it all out, because I was more than willing to take it all off of her hands).
itsawonderfilledlife 