14 May 2023 Easter 6
If you love me you will keep my commandments. Ok, but what are they. And the answer to that is found in the chapter just prior to the one we have today. These chapters form part of what, in John, is called the farewell discourse, where Jesus is preparing the disciples for what is about to happen and preparing them for life after he is no longer with them. And as part of that preparation, he is outlining what he calls ‘a new commandment’. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” We hear it every week in our liturgy when we hear the ’two great commandments’. Love one another as I have loved you. Easy. Isn’t it. Is it? Let me think about how that plays out in my life. How well, how much, does Jesus love me. Unlimitedly. No matter what, that love does not diminish, that love will never be withdrawn, or have ‘limits’ or ‘conditions’ put on it. Can I do that? Can I love without limits, without conditions; can I love no matter what the other person does or says? Can I love everyone I meet. Can I love those who have different opinions to me? Can I love the street urchin. Can I love the refugee who ‘looks different to me’ and who follows a different God to me. I wish I could answer ‘of course’ to all those questions, but the truth is, no I cannot. Why? Because it is hard, because I struggle to overcome my own inhibitions, my own personal barriers, my own unconscious prejudices and, probably, unconscious racism.
All of our readings this morning reveal to us the scope of divine revelation and salvation. Death and the afterlife are part of God’s vision of salvation. Even those presumed lost or unaware of Jesus’ mission are still loved by God and they are recipients of Jesus’ ministry. Our hope is not in ourselves or what we can achieve, or the exclusivity of our faith, our hope is in God’s everlasting love that invites us to be lovers as well.
Today’s readings describe the relationship between love and knowledge. Love opens us to understanding the ambient God in whom we live and move and have our being. Love is not limited by culture, or space, or time, or even death. God’s salvation is intended to embrace all creation.
And while this ‘farewell discourse’ from Jesus is preparing the disciples for his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus is assuring them, and us, that resurrection is not the end of the story. There is life after resurrection, there is future; and Jesus promises us that ‘another Advocate’ will come and stay with us and be with us in all that comes next. We are not alone; we will never be alone. And everyone is invited and welcomed into that future. The Advocate will come to comfort us; to abide with us; to teach us; remind us; correct us; and lead us into truth.
But this passage is not saying that if you love Jesus you will keep his commandments; what it is saying is that if you love Jesus keeping the commandments will be your ‘default position’, it will be ‘how you live’, it will ‘just happen’. As that ‘great commandment’ says, love and love. Love God, and love others, everyone, enemies and friends alike, including those who no-one expects anyone to love. But we should not see this commandment to love and love as something that we have to ‘struggle with’, something we use as our ‘plinth’ for ‘how good we are’, for ‘how well we are doing as Christians’. Because if we do that, we will constantly find ourselves ‘wanting’, and we will end up feeling guilty for failing to ‘measure up’.
But the truth is, our capacity to love is ‘gift’. It is a gift we receive as we find ourselves ‘beloved’. Love comes naturally when we know we are loved. When you know you are loved, it is easy to love. Mind you, it is not necessarily without risk. As the letter from Peter points out, we will be in the firing line for hostility, violence, rejection, and Peter calls us to ‘stand firm’ in the ‘hope that is in us’ because nothing can separate us from the love of God.
So, what does living in the way of Christ mean for me? It means being prepared to withstand the hostility of the world, and being willing to stand up for the marginalised; for the ‘unseen’ in society; for those the world looks down on. It means being willing to love everyone I meet, no matter who they are, no matter where they come from, no matter what their belief systems are, because I know that they, like me, are children of God and we are all loved equally and without measure. Love because you are loved, it is as simple and as complicated at that.