If you love Me, keep My commandments

 

 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever -- the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  

"A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.  Because I live, you will live also.  At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.  He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."  Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.  These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.  

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.'  If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I.  And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.

 

"I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.  But that the world may know that I love  the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do.  Arise, let us go from here."

 

- John 14:15–31 

 

In yesterday's lectionary reading, we were given the beginning of Christ's Farewell Discourse to the apostles, spoken at the Last Supper.  He said to them, "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God; believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.  And where I go you know, and the way you know."  Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?"  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him."  Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us."  Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?"  He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?  The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.  Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.  Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.  And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the son.  If you ask anything in My name, I will do it."

 

  "If you love Me, keep My commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever  . . ."  My study Bible comments that the Helper (in Greek, παράκλητος/parakletos) refers to the Holy Spirit.  This title, it says, also means "Comforter," "Counselor," and "Advocate."  This term, in ancient Greek culture, signified one who came to help with legal matters, but expanded to include any form of support or encouragement.  In the context of the New Testament, it indicates the Holy Spirit, who acts as a divine helper and guide for believers.  

". . . the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you."  The Spirit of truth is in each believer, my study Bible says, and we are called to know Him.  The Holy Spirit, it recalls, prays for us when we do not know how to pray, enabling us to pray in Christ's name (John 14:13-14; Romans 8:26) and giving us words of witness when we speak the gospel (Mark 13:11).

 

 "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.  Because I live, you will live also."  According to my study Bible, the brief separation of Christ from His disciples at His death will lead to a deeper mystical union after the Resurrection, and to the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

 

"At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.  He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.  He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."  Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.  These things I have spoken to you while being present with you."   My study Bible comments that that day is a reference to Pentecost.  It cites St. John Chrysostom, who tells us that it is "the power of the Holy Spirit that taught them all things."

 

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."   Again, the emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit is given here, and more explicitly.  My study Bible comments that we have confidence in the apostles' doctrine (Acts 2:42) because the Holy Spirit is their Teacher; He brings to remembrance not only Christ's words, but also their meaning.  It says that we have confidence in the Church because the Holy Spirit is our Instructor as well from Pentecost until today, leading us into all truth (John 16:13).  There is a quotation cited from St. Irenaeus:  "Where the Church is, there is the Holy Spirit and the fullness of grace."

 

 "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."  Peace, according to my study Bible, was the customary Jewish word of both greeting and farewell.  Perfect peace is brought by Christ, who reconciles humanity to God (Ephesians 2:14).  Peace, it says, is part of the traditional greeting of Christians to one another (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:3), and the greeting "Peace be to all" is offered many times during the liturgical services of the Church.

 

"You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.'  If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I.  And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe."   My Father is greater than I does not mean that the Father is greater in nature or essence than the Son; the Father and the Son share one divine nature.  Neither does it mean that the Son is created, for the Son is begotten from all eternity (John 1:1-5).  Instead, it means that the Father, who is the Fountainhead of the Trinity, is the eternal cause of the Son.  According to my study Bible, before it comes is a reference to Christ's coming Passion.  To tell of these events before they happened was a way to strengthen the disciples' faith. 

 

 "I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.  But that the world may know that I love  the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do."  The ruler of this world, my study Bible says, is the devil (see also John 12:31; 16:11), who dominates the realm of those who do not love Christ or keep His commandments.  Jesus has said the devil has nothing in Me because there can be no compromise between Christ or His followers and the devil.  Jesus became a human being, but was never stained with sin.

 

"Arise, let us go from here."  Jesus takes His disciples to another room or location to complete His discourse, so that He will gain their undivided attention.  According to St. John Chrysostom, my study Bible says, their current location was susceptible to intrusions, and the disciples were likely to be distracted from fear.

 

In today's reading, the disciple  Judas asks Jesus a question (not Iscariot, for that Judas is no longer present at the Last Supper in this setting).  The text tells us Judas says, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."  What are we to make of this?  How can this not be the greatest gift possible in life, in this world, and for all of us?  There is a great, tremendous promise here.  Imagine that the Father will love us, and both Christ and the Father will come to us and make Their home with us.  We also have to understand -- given the whole text of today's reading -- that this We in "We will come to him and make Our home with him" includes the Holy Spirit also.  How can we not imagine that kind of grace as the most wonderful and stupendous gift in the whole world, and that is better, in fact, than the whole world and what it can offer to us?  But there is a sort of catch, a premise here made for us in order to realize that promise.  Jesus says, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word."   We first need to love Him, and that means we will keep His word.  We think of grace as that which comes to us undeserved, even when we are unworthy.  And this is the truth about grace, for we can never "earn" what grace offers, as we're not capable of paying some sort of indeterminable price beyond anything we can understand.  We don't have anything we can possibly do to earn what is beyond this world.  But that doesn't mean there are no conditions implied here.  That doesn't mean that becoming a person capable of receiving that grace doesn't involve some sort of two-way street.  For that is, in fact, what love is.  It's a two-way street.  One could possibly venture to say that without this two-way street of love, there is no love at all.  There is just some sort of strange entitlement, a power relationship that doesn't work at all and is no longer about love.  Christ asks for our love here, and not only does He ask for our love, He tells us quite plainly that love isn't just a question of feeling something or believing something.  Love is a matter of doing something.  To love Christ is to keep His word.  What does that mean?  How can we keep Christ's word?  Is this a question of being perfect all the time?  No, it is a question of love, of being loyal out of love, of making every effort to live by what He has given us, to cherish this gift He has given of His word, which He clearly says comes from the Father in the first place.  Therefore we keep His word in love, and in turn He and the Father (and the Holy Spirit, for where One Person of the Trinity is present, all are present) will come and make Their home with us.  This is the simple, straightforward way God finds and makes a home in us:  we love God and keep the word Christ has given us.  This is covenant, it is union, it is a kind of marriage.  We are the Bride and He is the Bridegroom, only our Bridegroom does not come alone to make a home with us.  He brings more, and so much more.  How can we not accept such a gift?  Where are we going to find a better one?  Jesus says, "If you love Me, keep My commandments."  This is what it means to keep His word.  Let us live that love He desires.