John 13:31-35
“The Look of Love”
May 19, 2019
Do not lose heart. Love can even be found between the rock and a hard place. The rock was Judas who had just left that Last Supper and is off to abandon Jesus by his betrayal, which Jesus knew was about to happen. The hard place that comes after this part of the story will be Peter denying that he knows Jesus, not once but three times.
There’s a lot going on here and we’re in the middle of big changes and Jesus is prepping these precious friends for the death that is to come, the one they will have trouble understanding and accepting. And it is here in the midst of pain and doubt and preparation and mystery that Jesus offers the single most important lesson through a command but not in the bossy, know it all way so many of us resist when someone tries to make absolutely sure we’ve gotten the message. Rather, Jesus here points out after a clear as mud lesson on the glory of God as found in himself, that as he is leaving them he wants them to only do one thing – it’s always the simple instructions that can be the hardest to live into, isn’t it?
All of a life’s work can be boiled down to just this – Love one another. The love that Jesus has modeled up until this time, on the brink of death, is the takeaway. To be a Jesus follower who truly wants to walk in his footsteps is to love without concern for whether someone deserves it or is pleasant or even what each of us might define as good – none of that matters. It’s just love. Let’s also notice here what Jesus chooses not to mention. He says nothing about believing the right things. He doesn’t say anything about embracing any particular doctrine or living any specific lifestyle. He does not mention specific practices like how to worship or what church to attend or to pray every day or read the Bible or even go out and preach it. What God does say is love one another.
The fact that this is what Jesus says right in the middle of betrayal and denial, when there is fear and desperation in the air strengthens this commandment, because that’s real life. He recognizes that for the thousand excuses one can have that the loving way is too hard, it is also the only true way – love others as they are loved by God. To love always and everywhere and to let love be the badge we wear so that those we encounter might have a glimpse of God through us would never happen if we waited until the right time.
Having just sung our reminder of the concept through the words of that hymn, do people know we are Christian by our love? It sure is the simplest of commands and yet the most difficult to live out. If I were to do an inventory of all of my interactions this past week with other people, I’m thinking there might be more than a few times where I forgot to act in love. I’m guessing I might have some company and yet we can begin again, every day, striving to love like Jesus.
In the book, Out of Africa, the writer Isak Dinesen tells the story of a boy named Kitau. One day he showed up at her door looking for a job as a servant in her home. Only three months later she was taken by surprise when the boy asked her for a letter of recommendation. He wanted it for a Muslim man named Sheik Ali bin Salim who lived in the next town. Dinesen was happy with Kitau’s work and didn’t want to lose him so she offered him a raise if he’d reconsider and stay but money was not why he was leaving. It turns out Kitau had made up his mind to either become a Christian or a Muslim. The reason he had sought the job with Dinesen was that he wanted to see day-to-day how a Christian lived. Since he’d witnessed how Dinesen lived as a Christian for three months it was then time to see how Sheik Ali lived as a Muslim. After that he would decide which religion to embrace. Dinesen wrote that she wished Kitau had told her so before he came to live and work in her home. Imagine the folks we interact with every day who may be getting all the information they need on being a follower of Jesus by how we live and love.
What would it look like if we seriously lived into this command of Jesus’? Consider the hardest person you know to love – they could be someone who has betrayed you or deeply disappointed you or lives in a way you disapprove of or is just not a nice person. If we cannot figure out a way to love even these folks what does that say about this dying wish of Jesus’? Is it too hard for us to try? If what Jesus wants to convey to us is the love of God that doesn’t rely, thank goodness, on us always being good and kind and generous and helpful and instead is the desire that God wants us to know we are loved unconditionally, isn’t it worth trying and then trying a bit harder? This love proclaimed by Jesus when the going is getting pretty tough, shows us that, to quote one writer, “it is a love that loves anyway.” (Karoline Lewis, Working Preacher, 5/12/19) To love in spite of pain, disappointment, the inevitable hurdles that can set us back big time, is to love in such a way that can be transformative which, after all, is what the message of the resurrection is all about, isn’t it? Change doesn’t come easy or cheap. The stakes are high. If we want others to know that God is love and that they are loved, we are the vehicle through which that is going to happen.
Fortunately, we don’t have to do this solo, of our own volition. We need only follow Jesus’ direction – to love “As I have loved you.” Or as Jesus himself did it: “Weep with those who weep. Laugh with those who laugh. Touch the untouchables. Feed the hungry. Welcome the child. Release the captive. Forgive the sinner. Confront the oppressor. Comfort the oppressed. Wash each other’s feet. Hold each other close. Tell each other the truth. Guide each other home.” (https://www.journeywith jesus.net/essays/2216-if you love). This love is not a feeling. This love is an action. It is our life’s work.
Let us hear then these words of the great Christian mystic Meister Eckhart:
What keep us alive, what allows us to endure?
I think it is the hope of loving, or being loved.
I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey to find its source,
and how the moon wept without her lover’s warm gaze.
We weep when light does not reach our hearts.
We wither like fields if someone close does not rain their kindness upon us.
May we be the rain of love on this parched earth. Let us love one another as we have been loved by God. Amen.