Meditation 286
John 15: 9-27
There is a song that says “Love is what it’s all about,” and in the passage in John 15 that seems to be the case that Jesus is making. He is not talking about the kind of love that gets packaged up in ads that we have see in the media, but the kind of love that had Jesus say “No one has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jesus did that. He laid down his life for his friends, for us.
Because Jesus has laid down his life, we are friends, not servants. (verse 14) When we hear the word “friend” we usually think of a comrade, or pal, a sympathizer, chum, or intimate. A friend is one who is attached to another by feelings of affection, a friend is a supporter. A friendship is a relationship between equals. It’s a big leap to say that we are equal to God, but, on one hand, Jesus did tell his disciples that we know Jesus’ plans. We are not kept in the dark like servants or subordinates. There is love and passion between Jesus and his friends. It is not a distant, correct relationship, but a caring, involved one.
In the May 2012 issue of The Presbyterian Record, Laurence Dewolfe who wrote “The Progressive Lectionary” column had a lot to say about love in the Bible. He considers two of the Greek words that are translated as love, agapé and philia. The word Agape is always translated as love, and we often translate philia as brotherly love, which we think of it as the root of friendship. In these cases, love is much more than a vague sense of obligation toward everyone else. There’s nothing vague about agapé or philia. They’re both about passion, and serious commitment and they command a very clear path in life. Agapé is a direction of the will toward another. It doesn’t grow out of feelings, but begins with a choice. This is not a light hearted choice, and once chosen, it determines other choices.
Agapé doesn’t spring up out of who we are or what we can do, rather agapé comes from the love that Jesus has for us. It comes from who he is and how he loves. Jesus doesn’t say, “Like one another, then try to love one another.” He doesn’t say, “Figure out who is worthy of your love, then do your best.” Jesus says love one another as I have loved you. Jesus commands a high standard, which is the most extreme love we can imagine. While it is extreme it is a love we have already seen in action in the life of Jesus. Agapé love is possible because we know Jesus, and how he loves.
Because Jesus loves us, we are called friends not servants or slaves. Servant is a word that falls one our modern ears more easily than slave, but the Greek word translated as servant can also mean “slave.” We like the idea of being friends rather than servants, and we surely we don’t want to be slaves. A slave has no power, a slave is at the beck and call of the master or mistress. If we are Jesus’ friends then it seems we still have our identity and our independence in place. But think for a minute, a real friend has a power to command. It is not power that is assumed by the friend, but power given by you. You take her or his word seriously. You want to do what the friend asks. You may even move heaven and earth for the sake of that friendship, and so Jesus as a true friend has loyalty from us deeper than that which can be commanded.