And I know that His command is everlasting life

 

 Then Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me.  And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.  I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.  And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.  He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him -- the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.  For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.  And I know that His command is everlasting life.  Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak."

 

- John 12:44-50 

 

In our present readings, Jesus is now at the Passover of the final year of His earthly life.  It is Holy Week.  He has been received into Jerusalem as Messiah, making what is known as His Triumphal Entry, but the religious leaders now plot to put Him to death.  He has been teaching in the temple.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus told them,  "While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light."  These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them. But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke:  "Lord, who has believed our report?  And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?"  Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them." These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him. Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. 

 

 Then Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me.  And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.  I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.  And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.  He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him -- the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.  For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.  And I know that His command is everlasting life.  Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak."  My study Bible comments on today's text that Christ does not judge with favoritism or with partiality.  He has spoken the words of life, words of love, forgiveness, repentance, virtue, and mercy.  His words will be the unbending standard, my study Bible says, by which all people are judged on the last day.

 

As has been frequently observed throughout our reading of this Gospel, Jesus continually emphasizes His closeness to the Father, the union of wills that exists between Them, His obedience and loyalty to God the Father.  Continually, also, the Gospel portrays Christ's very human impulses and desires (such as the natural fear of death, a "blameless passion") juxtaposed with His loyalty to the Father, as He serves the Father's will.  At the Last Supper (in chapter 14), St. Philip the disciple will say to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us."  Jesus will reply, in harmony with His teaching in the temple in today's reading, "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."  This is the pattern established in the Gospel:  Christ and the Father are one (see John 10:30).  So close are the Father and the Son that Jesus can say, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand" (John 10:27-29).  This declaration illuminates the thread that ties Father, Son, and believers together, for all comes from the Father, and the salvation that the Son offers to all of us is this unification in one body as sheep and good Shepherd, through the Father's love.  But Jesus' teaching is more than simply about the Father and Himself as Son, for He brings into this picture of their unity the notion of judgment, which applies to us.  His love and teachings and mission are all from the Father.  Moreover, here He emphasizes that the very words He gives to us also come from the command of the Father.  It is God the Father who, in fact, gives the very words conveyed to us by Christ, the Logos (the Word).  Hence, we are tied, also, by faith.  Faith in Christ's teachings, should we take them to heart, is also a way of unity with the Father, a binding that affects our souls, perhaps more deeply than we may be capable of realizing.  As Jesus teaches this, faith goes far beyond a simple intellectual assent to an idea.  It is an acceptance of trust (the meaning of the root of the Greek word for faith, πιστις/pistis) that touches also love, confidence, fidelity.  This unification of Father, Son, and believers in this deep sense of the soul is why Jesus can teach that the command, the word He receives from the Father is also that which will judge.  He teaches, "And I know that His command is everlasting life."  The word from the Father is therefore the promise of everlasting life for those who may take it to heart and live it, creating, in fact, an identity through this love and fidelity.  

 

 

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

 

 "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 

 

 We are currently reading through what is known as the Farewell Discourse in John's Gospel.  It is Jesus' final teachings to the disciples at the Last Supper.  Yesterday we read that Jesus taught:   "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father's house there 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 aid 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 the 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 -- 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."  In the Greek, the word translated as Helper is parakletos/παράκλητος, sometimes used in English as Paraclete.  My study bible tells us that Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit.  This title can also mean "Comforter," "Counselor," and "Advocate."  Literally it means one who comes when called; it was commonly used as Advocate in the sense of legal representation or one who can present evidence in court to assist.  The Spirit of Truth is in each believer, my study bible says, and we are called to know Him.  The Holy Spirit prays in us and for us when we do not know how to pray.  He enables us to pray in Christ's name (John 14:13-15; Romans 8:26) and gives 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.  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."  My study bible comments here that the brief separation of Jesus from the disciples at His death will lead to a deeper mystical union after the Resurrection, and to the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  When Jesus says, "At that day . . . ," He is referring to Pentecost.  St. John Chrysostom comments that it is "the power of the Holy Spirit that taught them all things."

"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."  Again, Jesus refers to the Helper, and calls Him by name the Holy Spirit.  My study bible comments that we have confidence in the apostles' doctrine (Acts 2:42) because the Holy Spirit is their Teacher.  The Holy Spirit brings to remembrance not only the words of Christ, but also their meaning.  My study bible adds 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).  St. Ireneaus teaches, "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 was the customary Jewish word both for greeting and for farewell.  Perfect peace, my study bible teaches, is brought by Christ, who reconciles humanity to God (Ephesians 2:14).  Peace is also part of the traditional greeting of Christians to each other (Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3).  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."  Here is an important distinction regarding the relationship and unity between Father and Son.  My study bible explains that Christ's words, "My Father is greater than I" do not mean that the Father is greater in nature or essence, as the Father and the Son share one divine nature.  Neither does it mean that the Son is created, for, as we say in the Creed, the Son is begotten from all eternity.  Instead, we are to understand it as meaning that the Father, as the Fountainhead of the Trinity, is the eternal cause of the Son.  If this seems confusing, it is due to the disparity of language to include a functional understanding that regarding the Holy Trinity, we attempt to describe events that took place outside of time.

"And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe."  Jesus is referring to His Passion when He tells the apostles that He has told them before it comes.  Telling them these events beforehand strengthened their 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 is the devil, whom my study bible says dominates the realm of those who do not love Christ or keep His commandments.  It adds that Jesus says the devil has nothing in Me because there can be no compromise between Christ or His followers and the devil.  Jesus became Man, but was never stained with sin.  

 

 "Arise, let us go from here."  My study bible comments that Christ takes His disciples to another room or location to complete His discourse in order to gain their undivided attention.  According to St. John Chrysostom, their current location was susceptible to intrusions, and the disciples were likely to be distracted from fear. 

 

There are many ways in which today's reading serves to give us a setting of life as a contest, to teach us that we are in an arena of some kind, as in the ancient athletic contests.  Certainly this image has been given us throughout the history of the Church, and in St. Paul's letters as well, such as when he refers to himself as in an athletic contest by saying, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7).  But the setting for the contest Jesus describes is more than simply physical.  We are given the language of the courtroom, in which there is a contest of sides before a judge.  As Christians who seek to live in a peaceful society, we often find ourselves in a place where peace seems to mean an absence of contest.  But in today's reading, we're given a clear framework which Christ expresses as contest.  My study bible comments that Christ's blessing of peace:  "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" -- is not simply a benign wish or gift to those with faith.  It conveys, rather, that perfect peace is brought by Christ, because He reconciles humanity to God (Ephesians 2:14).  In this peace, therefore, is not a mere absence of struggle, but a culmination of the struggle in reconciliation to God, the ultimate Judge.  This means that true peace is the victory of God, and that we must come to understand a contest or struggle through a different lens than a purely material or worldly one.  Clearly there is a courtroom setting applied in the word used for the Holy Spirit, translated as Helper, as this word is also the one commonly used for advocate, one who can make a good judgment call, present evidence in court.  This sense is augmented in passages where Christ warns the disciples of persecutions to come, but teaches us not to worry about what we will say, as "the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say" (Luke 12:12).  But perhaps nowhere is "contest" more evident than when Jesus says, "I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me."   My study bible comments that Jesus says the devil has nothing in Me because there can be no compromise between Christ or His followers and the devil.  But I am also reminded of the event that defines the preparation for Christ's public ministry, in which Christ was "thrown out" by the Holy Spirit (as Mark 1:12 literally reads) into the wilderness to face the varied temptations by the devil, immediately after His Baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist.  In that contest of temptations in the wilderness, Jesus truly asserts that the ruler of this world has "nothing in Me," for He resists all the temptations put before Him.  There is no successful "hook" that can be used to catch Him and make Him stumble or lure Him in.  And this is where our contest comes in, where we can begin to understand what it means when Jesus teaches us that we must take up our own crosses in life and follow Him.  Because when we understand life as a kind of athletic struggle or contest, or possibly a courtroom in which we're called to testify, to stand before a Judge, with a Helper or Advocate on the side, we might understand better just exactly what it is that our faith calls us into.  Whether we wish to acknowledge it or not, there is a contest going on, and we are at once engaged in it, because we human beings are the ground for which darkness and light -- in the language of John's Gospel -- cast their claims.  It is in the ground of the heart, mind, spirit, and strength within us that this contest takes place (see Matthew 22:37-40).  Our peace is with the One who loves us, and we contend against the one who wants to sell us a false bill of goods, a "bait-and-switch."  The One who loves us tells us the truth, and the Holy Spirit is also called here "the Spirit of truth," who will come to dwell with us and live in us.  In the Orthodox tradition, all services begin with a Prayer to the Holy Spirit (found at the top of this page).   It is when we forget that we are, indeed, in a contest, that we are likely to be caught up in something that -- like the temptations faced by Jesus -- sounds good, but really isn't.   Let us carefully read the words of Christ in today's reading; they are His farewell given to the disciples at the command of the Father, and they are His gift to us.  Let us not forget the only true place to find our peace, and to contend for that peace.   We do so by keeping His commandments, for which we are given abundant help.

Which is the great commandment in the law?

 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, "What do you think about the Christ?  Whose Son is He?"  They said to Him, "The Son of David."  He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:

'The LORD said to my Lord,
"Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool"'?

"If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?"  And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.

- Matthew 22:34-46

Yesterday, we read that after being questioned by the Pharisees regarding payment of taxes to Rome, the same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked Him, saying:  "Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.  Now there were with us seven brothers.  The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.  Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh.  Last of all the woman died also.  Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be?  For they all had her."  Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.  For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.  But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?  God is the not the God of the dead, but of the living."  And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."  My study bible explains that the Pharisees had found 613 commandments in the Scriptures and debated about which one was central.  Jesus gives us the first and the second.  These form a summary of all the Law and the Prophets, the central tenets.  While this lawyer (an expert in the Law) had come to test Jesus, St. Mark's Gospel tells us He was converted by Jesus' answer (see Mark 12:28-34).    My study bible also points out to us that the second command is written:  "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  It says that this can more clearly be stated, "as being yourself."  It's similar to the "golden rule" that Jesus teaches -- "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (Matthew 7:12).  The commandment is not to love your neighbor "as you love yourself" -- the standard is not how much we love ourselves.  The point is that we are to love "neighbor" as being of the same nature as ourselves, created in God's image and likeness as we are.  My study bible says, "As the Fathers teach, we find our true self in loving our neighbor."  Jesus commands, we note, are active.  His greatest teaching on this Law is found in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37), in which Jesus preaches being a neighbor, an active choice.

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, "What do you think about the Christ?  Whose Son is He?"  They said to Him, "The Son of David."  He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:   'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool"'?  If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?"  And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.   The question leads to one answer:  that Christ is God incarnate.  The supposition or expectation was that the Messiah would be only human.   Being a Son of David fits with this understanding.  But David, as king of Israel, would not address a person who was only his "son" as "Lord."  King David would only address God as "Lord."  In this excerpt from Psalm 110, David refers to the Messiah as "Lord."  The conclusion is that the Messiah is a descendant of David according to the flesh, but also truly divine, sharing Lordship with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  The Pharisees do not answer because they see the implications, yet are afraid to state the conclusion.

Jesus isn't afraid to ask some questions of His own.  They are hard and penetrating questions, leading to the heart of the controversy within the temple.  The leadership began by demanding to know how Jesus had the authority to do the things He was doing:  to cleanse the temple as He did on His first day after His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.  Where does His authority come from?  When Jesus asks His own questions, the answers are too difficult for these leaders to state out loud.  Jesus asked, "The baptism of John -- where was it from?  From heaven or from men?"  They could not answer for fear of the implications of their response.  Here the question has the same effect:  they cannot answer for fear of the implications of their response.  Telling the truth and asking truthful questions is not an offense against neighbor, today's reading seems to teach us.  Jesus challenges the authority of these men not by challenging the authority of their positions, but by calling them out in terms of their failure to exercise their authority properly.  The first and greatest commandment, to love God with all one's heart, and all one's soul, and all one's mind is not what they are doing.  Their positions come first; that is, their sense of their own authority.  But Jesus asserts correctly -- even according to these experts -- that the first and greatest commandment places God above every other consideration, so that it is God who is the "marker" for setting everything else, including our love of neighbor, in its proper place.  Putting God first automatically teaches us that we are to love neighbor as ourselves; that is, as another child or creation of God.  Within that context, everything else flows, including correction.  To love is not just to "coddle" but rather wanting what is truly best for someone, the highest good.  That's the direction that truly loving God first above all things takes us into with regard to love of neighbor.  Putting God first in truth would also help these men to acknowledge the power and spirit working in Jesus, as it was in John the Baptist.  The truth isn't something we should ever shun away from.  Whatever we need to do to make room for spiritual truth in our lives is important, appropriate, worthwhile.  It sets us on the good path of love of God and love of neighbor.  Jesus importantly teaches us that to live this second commandment is to be a neighbor.  Who needs your help?  What would you want others to do for you?  How do we truly honor a commitment of total love for God?