John 15:12-17
[Jesus said:] "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another."
“Love” may well be one of the most over-worked and mis-used words in our vocabulary and yet understanding this word is the key to grasping this week’s scripture. We love our favorite singer’s newest song; we love the smell of roses after the rain; we love to sleep-in on our days off; we love ‘Moose-Tracks’ ice cream! I’m pretty sure what Jesus is talking about here goes a lot deeper than any of these.
Much of the New Testament was originally written in Greek, and the folks who read Greek (I don’t) tell us there are five different Greek words commonly used for love in New Testament times.
First is mania, which is lust taken to the point of obsession. I think we can safely eliminate that one. Another is storge – this is commonly translated as mother love – the love we feel for those we take care of. Someone might be willing to lay down their life because of this love -- a mother for her child, for instance – but this is too narrowly focused for what Jesus is getting at here.
Philos is brotherly/sisterly love, the love we feel for those who are in a similar situation or circumstance with us. It probably comes the closest to describing the love we here in church feel for each other. We share interests, we share experiences, we work together and we grow to love each other through that experience. This is a good kind of love and often used to describe the early Christian communities but still not what Jesus is referring to here. Philos is a fairly easy-going kind of love, not generally the kind that requires us to lay down our lives for it.
Eros is the one of these five Greek words that isn’t actually in the Bible. It is where we get our word erotic, and goodness knows there’s enough of that is scripture – but it isn’t really just about sexual love - it’s about passionate, emotional, romantic love - it is certainly alluded to but never actually used in the Bible.
The last of the five words is agapao. This is the word that describes what Jesus is talking about in this reading. Agape is a love that is all about the giver, not the recipient. God loves us because of who God is, not who we are. There is not a soul on earth who has ever “earned” God’s love because God’s love isn’t saying anything about us at all. It’s all about God. God loves because that’s who God is.
This is the love that St. Paul tells us “never fails.” Agape makes it possible for us to love our enemies – even though we may not like them at all – we make a choice to love them for Jesus’ sake – period. This is the love that lays down it’s life for another. This is the love Jesus commands us to have for each other.
Jesus commands us to love in this way – and assumes we will obey – not because of any forceful compulsion or threat – but simply because if we truly claim to know Jesus and follow Jesus and love Jesus – there is no other way we can possibly go.
We will love everyone with whom we come in contact – we will love them for Jesus’ sake, and for their own sake, and.....for our own sake. Drug addicts, welfare cheats, liars, haters, foreigners, Wall Street robber barons, illegals, atheists, people of every color, shape, gender, sexual orientation – the arrogant, the clueless, the down-right nasty – we will love them all with the compassionate, caring love of Jesus. Not because they all deserve to be loved, but because that’s the kind of people we have become in Christ. We are the people who recognize that Jesus loves us – the clueless, the selfish and the self-absorbed - not because we in any way deserve to be loved, but because that is the kind of Lord Jesus is.
If we commit to following Jesus there is no backdoor through which we can escape this agape love. We will lay down our lives – and even harder than that, we will lay down our cherished opinions and assumptions – all for these sisters and brothers we never wanted but – oh, look – here we all are together. Brothers and sisters in the all-encompassing love of the God who loves us all – because that’s just who God is.
We can buy in – or not. We can accept Jesus’ love for us – or not – but that won’t in any way change the fact that we are loved. But if we don’t buy in – if we are not ultimately willing to set aside our pride and our treasured resentments and our assumptions of rightness – if won’t do these things we will never truly know the deep, deep joy of loving as Jesus loves.
It really is not that hard. Just let go of demanding our own way and try following Jesus’ way. We might actually find that we like it.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
Much of the New Testament was originally written in Greek, and the folks who read Greek (I don’t) tell us there are five different Greek words commonly used for love in New Testament times.
First is mania, which is lust taken to the point of obsession. I think we can safely eliminate that one. Another is storge – this is commonly translated as mother love – the love we feel for those we take care of. Someone might be willing to lay down their life because of this love -- a mother for her child, for instance – but this is too narrowly focused for what Jesus is getting at here.
Philos is brotherly/sisterly love, the love we feel for those who are in a similar situation or circumstance with us. It probably comes the closest to describing the love we here in church feel for each other. We share interests, we share experiences, we work together and we grow to love each other through that experience. This is a good kind of love and often used to describe the early Christian communities but still not what Jesus is referring to here. Philos is a fairly easy-going kind of love, not generally the kind that requires us to lay down our lives for it.
Eros is the one of these five Greek words that isn’t actually in the Bible. It is where we get our word erotic, and goodness knows there’s enough of that is scripture – but it isn’t really just about sexual love - it’s about passionate, emotional, romantic love - it is certainly alluded to but never actually used in the Bible.
The last of the five words is agapao. This is the word that describes what Jesus is talking about in this reading. Agape is a love that is all about the giver, not the recipient. God loves us because of who God is, not who we are. There is not a soul on earth who has ever “earned” God’s love because God’s love isn’t saying anything about us at all. It’s all about God. God loves because that’s who God is.
This is the love that St. Paul tells us “never fails.” Agape makes it possible for us to love our enemies – even though we may not like them at all – we make a choice to love them for Jesus’ sake – period. This is the love that lays down it’s life for another. This is the love Jesus commands us to have for each other.
Jesus commands us to love in this way – and assumes we will obey – not because of any forceful compulsion or threat – but simply because if we truly claim to know Jesus and follow Jesus and love Jesus – there is no other way we can possibly go.
We will love everyone with whom we come in contact – we will love them for Jesus’ sake, and for their own sake, and.....for our own sake. Drug addicts, welfare cheats, liars, haters, foreigners, Wall Street robber barons, illegals, atheists, people of every color, shape, gender, sexual orientation – the arrogant, the clueless, the down-right nasty – we will love them all with the compassionate, caring love of Jesus. Not because they all deserve to be loved, but because that’s the kind of people we have become in Christ. We are the people who recognize that Jesus loves us – the clueless, the selfish and the self-absorbed - not because we in any way deserve to be loved, but because that is the kind of Lord Jesus is.
If we commit to following Jesus there is no backdoor through which we can escape this agape love. We will lay down our lives – and even harder than that, we will lay down our cherished opinions and assumptions – all for these sisters and brothers we never wanted but – oh, look – here we all are together. Brothers and sisters in the all-encompassing love of the God who loves us all – because that’s just who God is.
We can buy in – or not. We can accept Jesus’ love for us – or not – but that won’t in any way change the fact that we are loved. But if we don’t buy in – if we are not ultimately willing to set aside our pride and our treasured resentments and our assumptions of rightness – if won’t do these things we will never truly know the deep, deep joy of loving as Jesus loves.
It really is not that hard. Just let go of demanding our own way and try following Jesus’ way. We might actually find that we like it.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
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