Focused Love
As we
begin this chapter, I’m going to really risk pushing the envelope today. In the first verse, we are really challenged
by John’s description of Jesus’ love.
John specifically says that Jesus loved His own. The Greek is even more specific. The Greek says that Jesus loves the ones who
were His own who were in the world.
Jesus’ love is a focused love.
Jesus loves His own.
Now, the
reason this pushes the envelope is because it is easy to push this idea too far
and say that Jesus did not love anyone but His own. That isn’t what the text says. In fact, John 3:16 is clear in that God so
loved the world. Jesus – being God –
loved the world. But His focused and
intentional love is upon His own within the world.
Washing The Feet
Then Jesus
begins to wash His disciple’s feet.
Jesus knew He was about to be handed over to death by one of His
own. Jesus knew He was about to meet the
roughly hewn wood of the cross. He knew
that He was about to experience the most violent and despicable side of
humanity as the mob mentality is brought out against Him and people cry out to
have Him crucified. Jesus knew that His
disciples would all panic and flee for their lives. Jesus knew this was imminent. How does He respond? Jesus washes the feet of His disciples. Jesus serves the very humanity who was deep
in sin. That’s God.
Jesus does
the unthinkable. Jesus puts Himself in
the place of service. Jesus – as He is about
to do in an even more incredible way as He goes to the cross – puts aside His
agenda and His needs and instead elevates the disciples into the position in
which they need to be. This is really
what makes Jesus such an incredible person.
Story after story is not actually about Jesus. Story after story is about putting people in
a place to relate with the Father. Jesus
does not pursue His own needs. Jesus
pursues the needs of the disciples {and
humanity!} to connect with the Father.
Jesus demonstrates how the call of the Christian is to remove their own
agenda and for the sake of others help connect them to the Father. That’s the servant mentality.
When it
comes to the church, I often mess this up.
I really do. So often I buy into
the “I want it this way” mentality. But
that’s just not right. I’m already in
Christ. I’ve already received the Holy
Spirit. While I should want to grow in
Christ always … I know that’s going to happen if I practice my
discipleship. So when it comes to public
gatherings, I should be less interested in what I need and more interested in
what the people around me need to become closer to God. It sounds so simple. It is the servant’s mentality that I need to
embrace. But it’s so easy to get wrapped
up into what I want and what I desire.
Judas
Then we
turn to the fateful display in Judas Iscariot.
I always mourn for Judas when I read about him. He was a disciple; but he wasn’t able to let
go of his own agenda. He was looking for
the Messiah; but he wanted the Messiah that he believed in rather than the
Messiah God sent. Judas always reminds
me of what it looks like when we try to follow both God and our own agenda at
the same time. God ends up being
sacrificed.
The neat
thing about this story is that Jesus knows the plan. He knows what Judas is up to. He knows, but even still Judas has free
will. Jesus does not forbid it. Jesus tells Judas to do what his heart
desires. Even if it means rebellion, God
will not remove us from our free will.
Judas could have repented. He
could have come to grips with what he was doing and I’m sure Jesus would have
forgiven. But Judas does not do this. Judas goes about his human plan of
rebellion. Judas wants to try and force
the hand that he believes in.
God does
not desire to force us to come to Him.
He does not desire to force our love.
He can get pretty forceful in revealing our sin, but ultimately it is up
to us to come to terms with it and repent of it. God does not want robots worshipping
Him. God wants us to see our nature and
choose Him instead. The story of Judas
always reminds me about this fact. As I
write this while texting a spiritual friend, I can’t help but thinking that
Judas reminds me of how we are all really just one self-mongerish belief away
from being Judas. It is only by the
grace of God that we can let go of our self-monger and embrace God’s agenda.
For the
record … and I’m not going to dwell on it … notice that the rest of the
disciples still don’t get it. They can
be so dense sometimes. We can be so
dense when it comes to God’s agenda sometimes.
Love
Jesus then
says two really important things. The
first is that Jesus gives them a command to love one another. Jesus knows He’s about to die. He knows that He is about to be taken
physically from this world. They are
going to need one another. They’re going
to need to see Christ in one another – especially in their love for one
another. We recognize Christ most in the
love we display for one another.
You’re Not Ready
The second
really cool thing that Jesus says here is that the disciples are not ready to
follow Jesus. But Jesus also says that
one day they will be ready. Peter will
learn the hard way through the crow of the rooster that he’s not ready
now. But there will come a day when they
are ready and willing to follow Jesus.
The reason
that this is neat is that it shows us that we are a work in progress. One does not usually wake up one day completely
transformed into the perfect God-following disciple of Jesus Christ. It is a work in progress. It is totally a process. Granted, there is an expectation that one day
we will arrive. In fact, the sooner the
better! But we are still a work in
progress. It is okay to be growing
towards God for a time before we are ready to sacrifice all for Him. Jesus did not forsake His disciples while
they were growing. Jesus will neither
forsake us.
But when
the Holy Spirit genuinely comes upon us, watch out. Then it is time! When the Holy Spirit comes upon us and we are
genuinely sealed with the guarantee of our salvation – watch out! From that moment, you will find yourself
following Jesus wherever He leads.
That’s when life really begins!
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