Love One
Another
John
31: 31-35
May 6, 2007
31- 35
When he had gone out,
Jesus said,
“Now the Son of Man has been
glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in
him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.
Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me;
and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you
cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this
everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
another.”
The hour has come. Judas has left Jesus and
the other believer. He has gone out to do what he believed was the right
thing to do for his nation and for his people. Jesus
took that time to teach the disciples about obedience. He immediately let
them know that his glory had come and he knew the way to glory was through
the Cross. The greatest glory anyone can receive in life is when that
person sacrifices everything for others. Glory comes when one is willing
to risk it all for the sake of another person.
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the
Declaration of Independence? Five signers were captured by the British
as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes
ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army,
another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds
or the hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged
their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were
they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants; nine
were farmers and large plantation owners, men of means, well educated. But
they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the
penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships
swept from the seas by the British navy. He sold his home and properties
to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the
British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served
in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His
possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward. Vandals or
soldiers or both, looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton,
Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the Battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British
General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters.
The owner quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home
was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt. Francis Lewis had his home and
properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few
months. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying.
Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his grist mill were
laid waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning
home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he
died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered
similar fates.
Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These
were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of
means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more.
Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of
this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of the Divine
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and
our sacred honor."
They gave so others could enjoy the freedoms of life.
Jesus understood this truth. He knew that he
had to surrender his life for the life of all of God’s
children. Thus he was glorified in that moment when he committed himself
to the Cross. He gave so that others may live and know true freedom
through God’s divine grace. At the same time,
Jesus was doing more than glorifying
himself. He was glorifying God. Through his
obedience to the father’s will, Jesus
glorified God. Jesus
gave the supreme glory and honor to God
through his supreme obedience even unto the cross.
God also glorified and
does glorify Jesus. At that moment, the cross
was the glory of Jesus. There was more to
come. The Resurrection, the Ascension and the full and final triumph of
Jesus of Nazareth was to come. Through those
upcoming events, God was and is going to
glorify Hid Son and our savior.
Jesus went on to challenge the early
believers to take their faith to a higher ground when he said:
“I give you a new
commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also
should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one another.”
His challenge
rings true today for all who profess His name. He lived out the ultimate
love for his disciples and for all of God’s
children by being willing to go to the Cross. William Barclay wrote: “He
loved his disciples selflessly. Even in the noblest human love there
remains some element of self.” Many times in life, we have a tendency to
think “what is in it for me?” A man told me years ago that the reason he
was attending worship and participating in some of the events at the
Church was so that he could get elected to the city council. He had an
ulterior motive. His actions were for him and no one else.
Jesus did not walk that walk. His thoughts,
his teaching and all of his actions were for others. His one desire was to
give himself and all that he had for others.
Jesus loved his disciples understandingly. He
knew them intimately because they had traveled together with each other
for over three years. When one is in an intimate friendship with someone
over an extended period of time then one really gets to the know the
person quite well. Jesus and the disciples
shared their meals together. They slept side by side in the wilderness.
They spent hours with each other as they shared the “Good News.”
Jesus knew his disciples and he loved them
more than life itself. He challenged them to take the love that he was
giving to them and share it with each other. He challenged them to love as
he loved. Jesus’ love was a forgiving love.
They were going to deny him, run away when things got tough, and even hide
when they were frightened by the powers of others. Yet his love constantly
reached out to them and forgave them of their transgressions against him.
Jesus’ love for the disciples was built on
forgiveness. He challenged his disciples that day and he is challenging us
today to grow that type of love in our own beings. The emphasis is not on
feeling an emotion of love but on acting in love. C. S. Lewis has a
helpful comment on what Christian love involves:
“It would be quite
wrong to think that the way to become "loving" is to sit trying to
manufacture affectionate feelings. Some people are "cold" by temperament;
that may be a misfortune for them, but it is no more a sin than having a
bad digestion is sin; and it does not cut them off from the chance, or
excuse them from the duty, of learning "love." The rule for us all is
perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you "love" your
neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we learn one of the
great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will
presently come to love them. If you injure someone you dislike, you will
find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find
yourself disliking him less. There is however one exception. If you do him
a good turn, not to please God and obey the
law of love, but to show him what a fine forgiving chap you are, and to
put him in your debt, and then sit down to wait for his "gratitude," you
will probably be disappointed.... But whenever we do good to another self,
just because it is a self, made like us by God,
and desiring its own happiness as we desire ours, we shall have learned to
love it a little more or, at least, to dislike it less.”
Jesus
then said: ”By this
everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
another.” How will others ever know
the love of God unless they experience it?
They will experience it when the followers of Jesus
of Nazareth walk the walk that he walked on this earth. I once read that
Gandhi stated: “he was not a Christian due to the actions of Christians.”
People watch you and me everyday. They watch to see if we are going to
treat someone fairly. They watch to see if we are going to treat someone
with respect. They watch to see if we live up to our talk.
The disciple’s talk is to be
the talk that Jesus shared throughout his
ministry. The disciple talk is to be one of love that is forgiving and
accepting of another person.
Susan and I had a friend
– he passed away a few years ago – that went through some troubled times
in his marriage. His wife left him and she became the talk of the town. He
was hurt. He was angry. He overcame those emotions. He still loved his
wife. The day that she asked him if she could come back home, he said:
“yes!” He showered her with his Christ like
love before that day and after that day. He lived and walked the walk. He
showered all with the love of Jesus
Christ.
Jesus calls on all of his disciples to love
one another as he has loved us so that others may know of His saving
grace. At his table today, let us become one in Him who knew and who knows
how to truly love.
In the name of the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit.
Amen
