Just hanging out
Monday, July 13th, 2009“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.”
John 15:9
I love this whole section of John’s Gospel. The Farewell Discourse, as it is usually called, is the single largest section of this gospel (five whole chapters), beginning in chapter 13 and going through chapter 17. (In comparison, the entire story of Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection is only four chapters, 18-21). If space is one of the criteria for what was important to any particular writer (which I truly believe), then this should make us perk up our ears a little more at what is going on in these five chapters.
So, let’s back up to chapter 13 for just a moment. 13:1 says that, “before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come…” John’s understanding of the timeline for Jesus’ life is a little different than the rest of the disciples. Instead of Jesus having his final meal with the disciples on Passover (and then making the new covenant with them and with us through his body and blood), John records what Jesus said the night before Passover!
Jesus and his disciples are sitting around eating dinner (probably something they were well accustomed to do), when Jesus “got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet” (John 13:4-5).
Jesus is clearly acting out a parable instead of just telling these disciples another story, probably hoping that they would “get it.” After all, as soon as Peter is done arguing about it and allows Jesus to finish what he intended, he sits back down and explains why he did this foot washing: “So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one anther’s feet. I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (John 13:14-15). Now, I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t intend for us to spend all day washing each others’ feet, because we would end of with some very pruney toes. Washing feet, in those days, was the job of a servant or a slave, someone who had no honor or respectability. Jesus, taking on that role even though he is the Lord and Teacher of all, showed us that we should serve others before ourselves, to not be so prideful and love one another in actions, not just words.
This becomes the point of the entire five chapter dialogue between Jesus and his disciples (with a dialogue between Jesus and God there towards the end). Jesus, in fact, rewrites all of the laws in the entire Old Testament into one rule: Love one another (13:34). Then, Jesus proceeds to explain the only way we have a chance of living into this new commandment, and that is because we have first been loved by God.
This love God gives us, new every morning and fresh every day, is called Grace. Hopefully you’ve heard this word before, and you are familiar with it. God’s love is called grace because it is completely undeserved. We do not, and in fact can not, do anything to earn God’s love. We are so lost in our selfishness that grace is God’s only response!
Martin Luther pointed out that God gives us grace in two ways: through Law and through Gospel. And Law and Gospel works on us each in two different ways. (Luther had three uses of God’s law and one use of the gospel, but I much prefer the duality-laden theology of William H. Lazareth in his book, Christians in Society: Luther, the Bible, and Social Ethics.) The first step (The first use of the Law) is to convince us of our sin. Jesus gives us this commandment to love one another,and at least one of the first things that it should remind you of is how often you do not love other people.
The second step (the first use of the Gospel) then forgives us our sin. Like the laws we are given, we have no control over the forgiveness we receive. We are, in fact, not even told that we have to confess our sins, or even repent from them (literally, turn around, change direction, from them) in order to receive forgiveness. We just get it, undeserved, because it’s grace!
Then the third step (the second use of the law) orders our society. This use of the law is easy to see in the seventh commandment: You shall not steal. This orders our society, so that what is yours remains yours, and what is mine remains mine. How does Jesus’ commandment of loving one another in deed and not just words order our society? It tells us that we need to care for those who are lost, forsaken, dying, sick - all those who need love.
The fourth and final step (the second use of the Gospel) re-orders our society in grace-ful ways. We don’t just love one another because we are told to, we love one another because we want to. The difference between the second use of the Law and the second use of the Gospel is the negative verses positive sides that Luther gives in his explanations to the commandments. The second use of the Law says you should not do _________. The second use of the Gospel says you should do _______________.
And we can do all this because we have been loved first. God the Father loved God the Son, God the Son loved us. So now we abide in his love.
Abide is an Old Testament word that means “live.” When the Israelites were wandering the desert during the exodus, God ”lived” with them in the tent they built. When they established their cities in Judea, God ”lived” with them in the tent there. When they finally built the temple, God “lived” there.
And so Jesus abides in the love of God (15:10), and invites us to live there too! What could be better than to hang out, to live in the love of God? Once again, though, we’re not talking about a love that is just touchy-feely good vibes. Oh no! This is an active love, always doing something strange, new and different. This is a freely flowing love that is constantly seeking out more and new ways to get into our hearts, and to pull us along with the current.
This is a love that, while we just hang out, spits us out into the world to do something! Just like God’s love for the Son was so complete that God sent Jesus into the world and will send him back at the end of history, the love that we live in sends us out into the world to do Jesus’ work of telling everyone that the grace of God is a free gift, no money down, no layaway necessary.
So, while we hang out with Jesus in God’s love, we should never forget that this is an active, moving love, blowing us out into the world that God loves so much! Amen.