Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me

 

 "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 -- 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."

 

- John 14:1-17 

 

This week the lectionary focuses on Jesus' final discourse to the apostles at the Last Supper, known as the Farewell Discourse.  He has given the disciples one final, new commandment.  He said to them, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35).  This is the foundation for His Church going forward. 

 

  "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."   My study Bible comments that many mansions is a word-picture, a kind of parable, of an abundance of living accommodations around a central courtyard.  "Mansions" also speaks of the multitude of blessings that await those who enter the Kingdom of God.  In the ancient world, it was typical that extended families formed clans in which living accommodations were spaced together, and extended as family expanded.  Hence, "many mansions" conjures a picture of a very large extended family.  See Mark 3:32-35.

 

 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."   Jesus defines Himself here as the way, the truth, and the life.  My study Bible remarks that the way we reach the Father is forever established in the Person and work of the Son.  The Son is the truth because He is the unique revelation of the Father.  Additionally, Christ is the life who became Man so that we may have life, and as He is our life, not even death can stop us from coming to Him.  Furthermore, only in Christ can we come to know the Father, because only in Christ is the way of all truth and all life found.  The word in Greek translated as "way" is also used to mean road or path.

 

 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'?"  My study Bible explains that our response to Christ determines our relationship with God the Father.  It says that if we reject Christ then we will never find the Father; but if we believe in Christ and follow Him, then we ourselves will become "children of God," who live eternally in the love of the Father (John 1:12).  

 

"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."  While human beings are made in God's image (Genesis 1:26), my study Bible reminds us, the Incarnate Son is Himself the exact image of the Father (Colossians 1:15).  Jesus did not say, "I am the Father," for He isn't the Father.  Instead, here He declares that He and the Father are one in essence, and undivided in nature, while being distinct Persons of the Godhead, the Holy Trinity.  

 

 "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."  My study Bible comments that the greater works indicate that Christ's working through mere humans after Pentecost is greater than His performing signs and wonders directly.  These works find testimony in the Book of Acts.  They include spreading the gospel throughout the world, miraculous healings, and raising the dead.  

 

"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."  According to my study Bible, to pray in Christ's name does not mean to simply attach the phrase "in Jesus' name we pray" to the end of prayers.  To pray in Christ's name means to pray according to His will.  Just as an emissary of a king can only be said to be speaking in the king's name if he says what the king would want him to say, my study Bible explains, so also we can only be said to be praying in the name of Christ when we pray according to what He wants.  The purpose here is not to get God to do our will (that would be akin to practicing magic), but for us to learn to pray properly, according to God's will (Matthew 6:10).  

 

"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."  Helper (in the Greek,  Παρακλητος/Parakletos, often rendered "Paraklete") is a reference to the Holy Spirit.  This title, my study Bible explains, also means "Comforter," "Counselor," and "Advocate."  The Spirit of truth is in every believer, my study Bible notes here, and we are called to know Him.  Moreover, the Holy Spirit prays in us and for us when we do not know how to pray, thereby enabling us to pray in Christ's name (John 14:3-14; Romans 8:26) and giving us words of witness when we speak the gospel (Mark 13:11).

 

Let us consider what it means to pray -- and indeed, to live -- in the name of Christ.  For one thing, as we read in Jesus' words here, where Christ is, so the Father is also.  This means, additionally, the presence of the Holy Spirit, for where One of the Holy Trinity is, there the others are also.  The word used most often for the Holy Trinity, in describing the essence of God, is consubstantial.  This means that although Father, Son, and Spirit are three distinct Persons, they are one in their essence or substance.  So, therefore, Jesus can say, in His Incarnation as the Christ, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father."  Whatever we see Christ do, whatever we read that He said, the commandments He has given, and all the ways in which He has instructed the disciples from the beginning of His ministry right through this moment recorded at the Last Supper, He has reflected God the Father.  When, for example, He taught, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35), this commandment also reflects to us the Father, and indeed, the Holy Spirit.  St. John, the author of this Gospel, is also the one who wrote in one of his Epistles, "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:8).  As followers of Christ, so we are also called to participate in His life, and share in this nature; that is, to grow in "image and likeness" as we are able and through cooperation with the Holy Spirit, the Helper Christ names in today's reading.  In seeking to guide us regarding praying "in His name" we should consider that Christ Himself has said, as cited above, "For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother" (Mark 3:35).  This is about a lived reality, a participation in the life of Christ.  This understanding is particularly embodied in the Eucharist, which Jesus will introduce to His disciples at this Last Supper, taking place just prior to His betrayal and arrest, shortly before His death and Resurrection.  This lived reality is so essential to the understanding of Christ's faith that we receive Christ as a gift from the Father, Incarnate as the human Jesus, so that we understand what it is to be "embodied" in His name:  just as He explains that those who see Him see the Father, and so we are meant also to grow -- through God's grace and our acceptance and participation in it -- in the same image and likeness.  Thus, His final commandment that we love one another as He has loved us -- and that by so doing, all will know that we are His disciples.  In the same sense, our prayer, if we truly pray in His name, is to reflect our "embodiment" of our faith, our participation to the greatest extent possible for us at any time, in His life and the life He offers to us.  Let us endeavor to find His way, and truth, and life for us.  Jesus begins, "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me."  In the Greek, to "believe" is translated from a word whose root is to trust.  Let us commit ourselves to this trust, for this is the way we learn how to live.

 

 

 

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you

 

 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.  You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  These things I command you, that you love one another.  

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.'  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.  He who hates Me hates My Father also.  If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.  But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'

"But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.  And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning."

 

- John 15:12-27 

 

Currently we are reading through Christ's Farewell Discourse at the Last Supper.  In yesterday's reading, Christ told the disciples, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.  As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full." 

 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."  My study Bible remarks that many religions and philosophies teach people to love one another.  But what makes Christ's commandment new and distinctive is the measure required of our love (see John 13:34).  We must love as Christ has loved us.  Christ will lay down His life not only for His friends, but also even for His enemies.

 

"You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  These things I command you, that you love one another."  My study Bible notes here that friendship is higher than servanthood.  Servants obey their masters out of fear or a sense of duty.  But friends obey out of love and an internal desire to do what is good and right.  Abraham was called a "friend of God" (James 2:23) because he obeyed God out of the belief of his heart.  The disciples, and all the saints for that matter, are honored as friends of Christ because they freely obey His commandments out of love.  My study Bible adds that those who have this spirit of loving obedience are open to receive and understand the revelations of the Father.

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.'  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.  He who hates Me hates My Father also.  If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.  But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'"  My study Bible explains that the term world (Greek κόσμος/cosmos) is used in several distinct ways in Scripture.  In some cases, it says, "world" refers to all that is glorious, beautiful, and redeemable in God's creation (John 3:16).  Other times, it refers to that which is finite in contrast to that which is eternal (John 11:9; 18:36).  In still other instances, as here, my study Bible says, this word indicates all that is in rebellion against God (see also John 8:23).    My study Bible adds that the rebellion against God reveals several things.  First, while union with Christ brings love, truth, and peace, it also brings persecution, because the world hates love and truth.  Second, the world hated Christ, and therefore it will hate all those who try to be Christlike.  Additionally, the world hates Christ because it neither knows nor desires to know the Father (verses 21-24 in this passage).  Finally, hatred for Jesus Christ is irrational and unreasonable, for Christ brings love and mercy; therefore Christ is hated without a cause.

 

"But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.  And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning."  With respect to God's working salvation in the world, here we see that the Son sends the Holy Spirit from the Father.  With respect to the divine nature, my study Bible explains, the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father alone.  In other words, it explains, the Holy Spirit receives His eternal existence only from the Father.  In conformity with the words of Jesus, the Nicene-Constantopolitan Creed confesses belief "in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father."  While the Son is begotten of the Father alone, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone in the understanding of the Orthodox.  That is, the source, the Fountainhead, of both Persons is the Father.

 

Jesus says, "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.  You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you."  In a modern secular context, it might seem hard to reconcile some of Christ's statements.  He speaks of love, and commands His disciples to "love one another as I have loved you."  The extent of that love is all-inclusive in terms of what He gives, He will lay down His life for His friends.  But those friends are the ones who will "do whatever I command you."  For many people this rankles, but let us understand Jesus, and the depth of shared relationship.  He says, "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you."  In this relationship, everything is brought to the table by the One who gives the commandments.  He holds nothing back from them.  Whatever is given by the Father is made known to the disciples.  This is a kind of open-ended giving that effectively renders servants friends, as they are those who receive everything given to the Master.  Lest we forget, this is a Master who will lay down His life, and truly give all, for His friends -- even, moreover, for His enemies, for Christ's salvation is offered to everyone who can accept it and live it in the discipleship He asks.  The commandment to "love one another as I have loved you" is given in this context, and is the cementing of the fullness of community with Father, Son, and Spirit at the center, and inclusive of all of those who would be disciples.  That is because love is the bedrock of this community, it is the stuff of which this Kingdom is made, its ground of being, for its center and Source is love (1 John 4:8).  His commandments, therefore, are love, and teach us how to love ("We love because He first loved us" - 1 John 4:19).  For we should consider that it is this communion, its working in us, God's presence within us and among us (Luke 17:21), that forms the Kingdom of God, is the Kingdom.  We understand its beauty, goodness, and truth in its fruits, in its love, in Christ's compassion, in God's creativity, and all the things that spring and grow from that.  For this is how He wants us to love one another, and the love He asks us to share to build that Kingdom among us.  Let us remember that it comes into a world that will hate and persecute it, a light that shines in the darkness that cannot comprehend nor take it in.  But He sends us the gift of the Helper, the One who testifies of Christ, so that His presence and His word remains always with us -- and in this is also testimony that His Kingdom is love. 

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you

 

 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than that, than to lay down one's life for his friends.  You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  These things I command you, that you love one another.

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.'  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.  He who hates Me hates My Father also.  If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.  But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'

"But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.  And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning."

 

- John 15:12-27 

 

In our current readings, Jesus and the disciples have just completed the Last Supper, the Passover Supper before His Crucifixion.  He has begun what is called the Farewell Discourse to the disciples (beginning with this reading).  In yesterday's reading, Jesus said, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.  As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full." 

 

"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than that, than to lay down one's life for his friends."  Jesus repeats His new commandment.  My study bible comments that many religions and philosophies teach people to love one another.  But what makes Christ's commandment new is that it gives us a measure of love required, an example:  to love as Christ loved us.  Here He states the measure of that love, to lay down one's life for his friends.  

"You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  These things I command you, that you love one another."   My study bible notes that friendship is higher than servanthood.  Servants obey their masters out of fear or a sense of duty.  But friends obey out of love, and an internal desire to do what is good and right.  Abraham was called "a friend of God" (James 2:23) because he obeyed God out of the belief of his heart.  The disciples, and truly all the saints, are honored as friends of Christ because they freely obey His commandments out of love.  Those who have this spirit of loving obedience are open to receive and understand the revelations of the Father.  

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.'  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.  He who hates Me hates My Father also.  If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.  But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'"   According to my study bible, the term world is used in several distinct ways in Scripture.  In some cases, "world" refers to all that is glorious, beautiful, and redeemable in God's creation (John 3:16).   Other times, "world" refers to that which is finite in contrast to that which is eternal (John 11:9, 18:36).  In yet other instances, however, as here, the term indicates all that is in rebellion against God (see also John 8:23).  In this latter case it is connected with the power and influence of the "ruler of this world" (John 12:31).   "They hated Me without a cause" --  see Psalm 69:4.

 

 "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.  And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning."  My study bible explains God's working salvation in the world:  the Son sends the Holy Spirit from the Father.  In terms of the divine nature, the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father alone.  Thus, the Holy Spirit receives His eternal existence only from the Father.  The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed confesses believe "in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father."  My study bible explains that while the Son is begotten of the Father alone, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone according to Christ's words here.  The Father is the source, the Fountainhead of both Son and Holy Spirit.

 

In today's reading, Jesus speaks of both love and of hate.  Of love, He teaches us a new commandment.  When He specifically offers this new commandment, it is something we simply must pay attention to.  There are no two ways about it.  This language, "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you," and, "These things I command you, that you love one another," are meant to emphatically give this commandment to us.  In this Farewell Discourse, this is not the first place this command occurs either.  Earlier, Jesus taught the disciples, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35).   Let's note that this commandment doesn't just go one way, but speaks to us corporately, as a group.  We are to love one another.  It is so important as a command, that this is the one way He states that all people will know that we are His disciples.  This love of one another is meant to distinguish Christians from those of other faiths and philosophies.  Well, how good are we at loving one another?  Do we put the proper emphasis on this in our Churches and communities, in our families?  Let us note that the command to love one another comes in the midst of another setting Jesus proclaims here, that of the world that will hate His followers.  We are taught to expect persecution from those who do not love God.  Let us note this is not about those who declare themselves openly opposed to God, or non-worshipers, or atheists.  It is about those who cannot internally accept a depth of message of love, a commandment to love one another.  It is a comment on those who may profess faith, but do not have the love of God the Father in their hearts.  It is also a comment on the influence of the "ruler of this world."  That is, the spirit of the one who hates truth, the opposition to the Spirit of truth.  So once again, we are presented with an image of life as in the arena, a struggle, a contest.  But note here once more that the real emphasis is on the distinction of Christ's followers as those who love one another.  More specifically, on those who seek to love one another as Christ has loved us.  We are, in that sense, our own sort of sanctuary within a hostile world that does not love the truth of Christ's commandments.  But in this picture, we are faced with one sort of problem that most people don't seem to think of as a problem.  What does love look like?  How do we know what it is, and how to practice it?  We may have a depth of feeling or understanding when someone loves us, a sense of trust.  But practicing love is sometimes a difficult road.  It doesn't come without strings, or values attached.  Love is often confused with indulgence of passions or desires, but this is far from the truth of what love will teach, just as a good parent gives their child guidance as to what is destructive and what is healthful and life-giving.  Hence, we have the commandments of Christ, and the life of Christ, to show us what love is.  Finally, we have the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to testify of Christ, to teach us what is good, to illuminate the word we're given.  With these things, Jesus presents us with a full picture of our place in the world as His disciples, His followers.  I doubt that He expected perfection, but He arms us with help in the midst of a hostile world.  He teaches us about love.  His example is one of tremendous strength and courage, coupled with the willingness to sacrifice for love, and the gentle kindness of One who knows both knows our problems, and will be firm in what is needed of us.   Therefore, as Christ's disciples, our call still remains the same.  We are commanded to love one another as He has loved us.  Our constant companion should be the question and reminder that we need to do this.  How do we love one another as He has loved us?  How will the world know that we are His disciples?  This is our primary calling, even in a world that will hate us for doing so.

Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward

"Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer.  You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going, you cannot come,' so now I say to you.  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?"  Jesus answered him, "Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward."  Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You now?  I will lay down my life for Your sake."  Jesus answered him, "Will you lay down your life for My sake?  Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times."

- John 13:36-38

On Tuesday, we read that Jesus said,  "Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say?  'Father, save Me from this hour'?  But for this purpose I came to this hour.  Father, glorify Your name."  Then a voice came from heaven, saying, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again."  Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered.  Others said, "An angel has spoken to Him."  Jesus answered and said, "This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake.  Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.  And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself."  This He said signifying by what death He would die.  The people answered Him, "We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can You say, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up'?  Who is this Son of Man?"  Then Jesus said to them, "A little while longer the light is with you.  Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.  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.

 "Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer.  You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going, you cannot come,' so now I say to you.  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."   As it is Holy Week (in the Western Churches and the Armenian Apostolic Church; Eastern Orthodox and Coptic Orthodox celebrate Easter 2015 on April 12th), the lectionary varies in the passages we read.  As I enjoy blogging the Gospels in the same order as the verses appear in the text, I have chosen the reading that fits between chapter 12 (Tuesday) and chapter 14 which will will begin this Monday.  It is just two verses (John 13:36-38), but I have added these verses before them to include an essential teaching of Christ.  My study bible makes the point that many religions and philosophies teach people to love one another.  But what makes this particular commandment new, it says, is the measure required of our love:  we must love as Christ has loved us, laying down His life not only for His friends, but even for His enemies.  It is a significant sign of this mission that a great part of it is just that, to teach us what love is, does, looks like.   God manifest in human form can do that as no other teaching form can do.  Ultimately, with Christ, everything goes back to the Father and the relationship He has with the Father; from this we learn, too, what love is, means, looks like -- and that we participate in this source of love ourselves.

Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?"  Jesus answered him, "Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward."  Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You now?  I will lay down my life for Your sake."  Jesus answered him, "Will you lay down your life for My sake?  Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times."   My study bible tells us that Jesus gives a prophecy here of the martyrdom of Simon Peter, which he wold suffer for the sake of Christ by being crucified upside down in Rome in about AD 67 ("you shall follow Me afterward").  

In today's reading we're given not only Jesus' prophecy of the future death of Peter as martyr, but also, of course, the prophesy of Peter's denials which will follow more immediately.  We know our human weakness.  It's as if today's reading is juxtaposing for us the great standard of Christ, as well as our very human tendencies.  And really, maybe that is in some sense what Holy Week is all about.  It invites us to think about the standards (of love, for example, in loving one another as He has loved us) set for us.  Christ knows the eventual work of Peter as a great apostle and leader of apostles, a pillar of the Church.  He knows Peter's eventual martyrdom for the love of Christ and for His sheep.  And yet, He knows Peter as the one who will deny Him three times that very night, despite Peter's plea to follow and lay down his life for Christ's sake.  Part of loving us means that Christ knows our natures and our weaknesses, but He sees things we can't necessarily see -- or, if we do, we see by God's grace:  who are the sheep who also hold His kind of love (John 10:14).  As we've observed most particularly through the chapters we've read in John's Gospel, Jesus always goes back to the Father.  If you want to understand anything, you must go to the First Source, the Father.  Christ showing, living, and being love in the world is a reflection of the Father to us; where He is, there the Father is also.  Everything is teaching in this mission.  But maybe most importantly, we are to love one another as Christ has loved us, and we have to think about what that really means.  Has He ceased to tell about the Father and the love for the Father that is not only in Himself but must also be in us?  This is one key to understanding what Christ's love is all about, that it's not a philosophy and it's not a theory.  It's about relationship between persons/Persons.  Ultimately, love is a personal reality, because it is a living part of what it means to be a person, to have personhood.  Love is the expression of ourselves as persons, just as it is given for us to know from a Person.  Our faith is not in mere intellectual concepts, it's not only in philosophies, although all things that convey truth are a part of that faith.  In this Monday's reading, we will read Jesus' statement that He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).  Thereby for us as followers of Christ, truth takes on many powerful meanings and great significance.  It's not only that we need and respect truth in all things, but that we understand that our faith is in the Person who is Truth, and perhaps the deepest part of that truth is the love that He teaches in this great commandment He adds and leaves with all of His disciples.  He teaches us truth that sets us free, that which liberates us from a slavery of sin.  He teaches us to reach for that standard of love which belongs to us, too, and which He has brought by example into the world.  He teaches us to share His light.  All of this, in the end, is about the kind of love He teaches by example; it is a love that takes us further, that gives us new standards, that helps us to truly see and to illuminate the world for others as well.  Despite Peter's weakness and denials, Peter will go on to be a martyr for this particular love.  And so, it's important that we remember today that Christ teaches us who we are, and most especially that means what we're capable of being and doing.  We can love like He loves, too.  We can love His truth, we can bring it to others, we can be set free from a kind of slavery to lies, and false truth, and demagoguery that says that life can't get any better than a flawed system of willful blindness to love.  Christ gives us a measuring stick, Himself, but most of all He gives us His love and grace, which is always "on call" for us when we have doubts about how to proceed, how to decide, and what love is in any particular situation.  Oh, we're not expected to be perfect in the sense that we don't have a long ways to go.  Look at Peter, the denial we start from today, and the martyrdom that will come later on as the powerful apostle meets his death at Rome.  But we are on a road.  And we are on a road with Him, the Good Shepherd, the Teacher, the One who loves us, lays down His life for us as His friends, and teaches us how to be like Him.  And that's the important thing -- that we are on that road, and we start today, with His love which He shares with us and teaches us to share with others.  It is love inside of us that teaches us to follow Him.

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you

"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'

"But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning."

- John 15:12-27

In today's reading, Jesus continues the Farewell Discourse from the Last Supper. Yesterday, He taught the disciples, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser." He taught us all to "abide in Him," and in this way we should bear much fruit. We abide in His love and the love of the Father's, through the Comforter or the Helper as my study bible text translates "parakletos" from the Greek. He said, " If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."

"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." My study bible says here: "Just as God loves us unconditionally, so we are to love each other unconditionally in Christ's name--whether there is a response or not!" I wonder, when I read these words of Christ, how far we fall short on this score! The great commandment He gives us here is His own, after He has spoken of abiding in His love and so following His commandments. If anything, abiding in His love should teach us how to love!

"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another." Just as in yesterday's reading, Jesus taught that we are to abide in His love and follow His commandments in relationship, so He elaborates a little here. Couched in love, following His commands remains within this bond and relatedness, in which He and the Father and the Spirit dwell in us and are our Friends. My study bible points out that friendship is higher than servanthood. "A servant obeys his master out of fear; a friend is a servant who obeys out of love. Abraham was called a 'friend of God' because he believed and obeyed God. The disciples and the saints are honored as friends of Christ and heirs of God." To love one another and to abide in His love is to live with Him in relationship, as friends, and to follow His commandments within that bond of love. As in yesterday's reading about the vine and the branches, it is by abiding in that love and relationship -- as friends -- that we will bear the fruit He asks, and glorify the Father from whom all comes.

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you." My study bible says, "Regarding the world we learn that . . . while union with Christ brings love, joy and peace, it also brings the world's hatred and persecution." Here is the strange fruit of the world we may find hard to understand: abiding in Christ's love may bring us the hatred of those who don't know what this is within themselves. It may bring the hatred of those who don't understand nor know this love for themselves. One thing is certain: He does not promise us a world full of love in return for our love of Christ -- but rather the strife that comes from those who do not accept this for themselves, and don't know nor understand the reality of abiding in that vine, in His love. This is His promise: that the servant is not greater than the master. I believe this antipathy may come in many forms, among even those closest to us, as He has said.

"If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'" Ultimately, the First Cause of all things is the Father -- from whence Christ's love and commands come. As He has repeatedly taught that he who sees Him also sees the Father, as He is a reflection of the Father in the world and has done the Father's will and spoken the words the Father has given, He also points out here that the animosity or hatred encountered is ultimately the hatred and ignorance of the Father. The relationship goes fully all ways: to abide in His love is a complete chain: between us, the Spirit, the Son and Father. To hate without a cause is to hate indeed -- it is to be in opposition to the God who is love.

"But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning." What is it to receive this Helper, sent from the Father? It is to receive true testimony, so that we may understand as do the disciples. The disciples themselves will bear witness, because "they have been with Him from the beginning." And so we have the living word, the Gospel, which also bears witness for us from the beginning of His ministry. It is the Helper that gives us the understanding of His words, that helps us to live His life in the world, as He would ask of us, that bears witness for us as He also did for the Apostles after Jesus' death. How can we not be grateful for such a gift?

To bear fruit, then, takes so much more than the good works we can do or think of doing. It is to be in relationship, to be friends -- to abide in His love and in the vine, the true indwelling of Father, Son and Spirit. Are we living in that love? Do we seek it for ourselves? Do we let it into our hearts as deeply as it can go each day, teaching us what we need and how to serve? What is it to love one another as He has loved the disciples, and loves us? To know this love is to live indeed -- and it also may mean one experiences hatred without a cause. The servant is not greater than the master. In this, we share all things, a sign of true love and friendship indeed.