“If you love me, you will keep my
commandments…they who have my commandments and keep them are those who love
me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father.”
Jesus says if you love me, you will keep
my commandments…they who have my commandments and keep
them are those who love me. Jesus says, “my commandments. My
commandments” what about the
commandments? Jesus’ commandments and the commandments? What is Jesus
saying here? In a word, Jesus is
saying, as he said all along, the commandments can no longer define the
good life. To love God and one another the commandments are no longer
enough.
Jesus gives us new commandments, and he puts all his
commandments into one new commandment. “this is my commandment, that
you love one another as i have loved you.” Jesus calls us beyond the
commandments of old. In Jesus God commands a new way of life. In Jesus God
commands a new way of love. In Jesus the so called golden rule is no longer
golden. In Jesus the so called
golden rule is no longer the rule. Love one another not as you love
yourselves. Jesus commands, love one another as i have loved you. This is the
new golden rule.
Again and again in our worship we confess
that we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. Shouldn’t our
confession more rightly be, “that we have not loved one another as Jesus
commanded us to love”? If we
follow Jesus’ command, the measure of our love should be not how we love
ourselves. If we follow Jesus’ command, we are not the measure by which
we are commanded to love. Loving
one another as we love ourselves will not really change the world. Loving one
another as we love ourselves will not really turn the world upside down.
Loving one another as we love ourselves will not make all things really
new. Jesus commands us to love as he loved. His love is our
measure, and his love is without measure.
How did Jesus love? How far did his love reach? The
cross, that’s how, that’s how far. Jesus gave of himself, Jesus suffered and
died on the cross, overall not because of our sins, but because of love. He
gave of himself, and he suffered and died on the cross to reveal what true
love is and what our love should be; he suffered and died on the cross to
reveal how to love and how far love should reach. This is the love Jesus
commands. Total and unconditional. In this way of loving we are saved. In this
way of loving we become what it means to be human and we become what it means
to be made in God’s image. In this way of loving the world is
really changed and all things are made really new. William temple,
the saintly and brilliant archbishop of Canterbury, well over a half
century ago, explained that the cross is central to us and to the world not
for what was accomplished there, but for the love that was perfectly and
finally revealed there. Paul reminds us that
there are many who see the cross as foolish, that many see love that
goes that far as foolish. We at last have to understand that it is only when
people, even really good people,
see our love as foolish,
it is only when people think that we go too far in our love, only then
do we love as he loved, only then do we follow his command, only then do we
keep his commandments.
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I
have loved you… I am giving you these commands that you may love one another.”
So how do we love as Jesus loved? What are Jesus’ commandments he gives us?
The answer is on every page of the gospels.
Jesus commands us to be poor in spirit. He commands us to
mourn for ourselves and for our
world—to see ourselves for what we are not and for what the world is not—and
so to open our eyes and hearts to the work God has given us to do. He commands
us to be meek, to hunger and thirst for righteousness. He commands us to be
merciful, to be merciful as our heavenly father is merciful. He commands us to
be pure of heart. He commands us to be peacemakers.
Jesus commands us to love our enemies, to do good even to
those who hate us, to bless those who curse us, to pray for those who
persecute us.
Jesus commands us to see him in everyone, to see him
especially in those in need, and even in the least of us. He commands us to do
for others, because whatever we do or do not do for others, we do and do not
do for him.
Jesus commands us to forgive, and to forgive not just
seven times, but seventy times seven times. Forgive, he commands, and you will
be forgiven.
Jesus commands us, do not judge, and you will not be
judged. He commands us not to
look for the speck in our neighbor’s eye, but first take out the piece of wood
from our own eye.
He commands us, do not condemn and you will not be
condemned.
Jesus commands us to give, to give of ourselves, and it
will be given to us.
Jesus commands us, that if anyone strikes us on the right
cheek, we turn the other also, and if anyone forces us to go one mile, we go a
second mile, that we give to everyone who asks for our help.
Jesus commands us to seek first the kingdom of God. He
commands us to keep straight what should really matter. He commands us to
trust in God, taking example from the lilies of the field.
He commands us,
ask and it will be given, seek and we will find, knock and the door
will be opened to us.
Jesus commands us to give alms, to make purses for
ourselves that do not wear out. He commands us to put our treasure where our
heart should be, and our heart where our treasure should be.
Jesus commands us to root out whatever gets in the way of
our relationship with God and with our neighbor, and he commands us with
strong words---to cut off our foot, to pluck out our
eye, if they cause us to stumble’
Jesus commands us to learn from him because he is gentle
and humble of heart.
Jesus commands us to wash one another’s feet, he commands
us to let our light shine before others.
Jesus’ commands us to be open to the spirit of God, not
to maintain what was past, but to grow into his full stature and to continue
his love in all times and in all places
Jesus’ commandments look beyond the commandments of old.
Morality is no longer about what we don’t do and shouldn’t do.
Morality is about what we can do and should do.
Morality is about opening up. It’s about growing up. Morality is about
the power and the freedom and the joy of the love of God in Jesus the Christ.
Morality. To be right with God, to be right with each other, to be right with
the world are about our possibilities in the power of the spirit, the same
holy spirit who dwelled in Christ Jesus. And the name of the spirit of God is
love. We are commanded not to be minimalists. To be right with God
and with each other and with the world we are commanded to be maximalists—to
make all things new. Our moral
vision, the moral vision of the whole human family, is no longer about limits.
Our moral vision is about total and unconditional love and living in the full
and indeed infinite energy of the spirit in Christ.
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I
have loved you… I am giving you these commands that you may love one another.
His commandments are beyond the commandments of old. But. But we
have to face reality in all honesty and with humility. What Jesus commands is
beyond us. His moral vision looks impossible.
His moral vision is impossible. On our own. We can and we will follow
his commands insofar as and only if we abide in him. Jesus commands us to
pray. And more, Jesus commands us to feed on him, and he promises us and
assures us that those who feed on him will abide in him, and he in them. Jesus
is the vine and we are the branches. And Jesus promises us and assures us that
his commands will abide in those who abide in him and that we will be his
disciples and that we will bear much fruit.
Amen.
-- ©The Rev. Russell Ruffino
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This
is the love Jesus commands. Total and unconditional.