8 May 2015
Sometimes the message of the Lord is very clear. And today is one of those times. Jesus has been saying the same thing to his
disciples since day one: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love
you.”
And being made in the image of God as we are—God who is love
itself, Jesus commands us in a sense to become who we’re made to be. We’re made to love. We’re not made to hate one another; we’re not
made to be jealous or self-pitying or anything like that. We’re made to love. And so Jesus commands us to be fully human,
fully alive.
The Incarnate Word is trying to “speak” us into being, just
like God commanded that there be light, and there was light. Jesus is trying to recreate us and reshape
us, if only we wouldn’t listen. And, for
the most part, we do. And what we hear
the Lord say is: “Here, do it this way. Love
one another as I love you. Just follow my lead.” He not only commands us to become the
creatures of God we’re made to be; he also gives us a Flesh-and-Blood example
of how to love.
Of course, following his lead—or anybody’s lead—takes
trust. Jesus calls us “friends” not
because we comply with his demands, but because we trust him. We trust him enough to follow his example. We trust that what he says is true and good. It is good
for us to love one another as Christ loves us.
And it is true that
self-giving love is what and who we are created to be.
The message of the Lord is very clear today because we know
in our hearts that it is entirely good and true. The next best thing to knowing this is to live
it. And so, Jesus issues a command in
the hopes that we will trust him and follow him: “This is my commandment: love
one another as I love you.”
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