John 15:9–17

Easter Six (Revised Common Lectionary) | 05.05.24 | John 15:9–17 | Carl A. Voges |

The Passage

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my Name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” [English Standard Version]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus Our Lord

Easter Day, with the Son’s stunning resurrection from death, is like water gushing out of a faucet. That reality, however, was six weeks ago! As we come into this Sunday (Easter Six), the water of the resurrection is no longer gushing, its flow is more like a trickle! It did not take long for the realities of the Son’s resurrection to begin to recede from the Lord’s parishes as well as from the lives of the Lord’s people.

We understand why this happens. The world’s life, still a prominent reality in the lives of those who are baptized, pushes back on the reality of the Son’s resurrection. It wants its life to be the dominant one. It pulls us back into its rhythms, cajoling us with its attractiveness and reminding us that if we do not keep looking out for ourselves, who will?

We see this pushing back in parish newsletters where the focus is on needed contributions as well as attracting more members. In such media, there are few, if any, references to the workings of the Father, the Son and the Spirit in their parish communities. Instead the chatter is from the world’s perspective, focusing on what we need to be doing so the parishes can function in a better mode.

In spite of these observations the realities of the Son’s resurrection are still pulsing through the Church’s life even where gushers are giving way to trickles! Last Sunday, for example, we were brought into John’s fifteenth chapter where Jesus described, astoundingly, how the Lord’s people are woven into the vine and branches of the Holy Trinity’s Life! Such weaving, which begins at Baptism, enables the Son’s resurrection to continually gush from the lives of his faithful people.

Let us remember that John’s fifteenth chapter is part of Jesus’ Farewell Conversation

with his disciples on the evening of Maundy Thursday (the entire conversation runs from

John’s thirteenth chapter and concludes in the seventeenth). Recall, too, that Jesus, in that evening, transformed the Passover Meal with the disciples into his Supper, the Holy Eucharist. Jesus then went through his prayerful agony in Gethsemane before being arrested by the temple soldiers and taken into a so-called “trial” during the early hours of Friday morning.

Today’s Gospel has three sections to it – verses 9–11, 12–15 and 16–17. Let us look briefly at each section because they have eternal realities pulsing through them. These sections take the world’s breath from our lungs because Jesus is unpacking the relationship that exists between him and the Father, a relationship now becoming more clear because of his approaching crucifixion and resurrection.

In the first section (verses 9–11), Jesus describes the love that exists between him and the Father. Strikingly, the Greek word for that love is “agape.” This love is unique to the Holy Trinity; it flows from them to the world’s people, it has imitators in this world but no parallels. “Agape” is a pure gift, a person can only receive it; he or she cannot create it or buy it or earn it!

Incredibly Jesus says that such love is extended to his followers! We are not deserving of it, but he is responding to our desperate need for it, he is determined to pour it into our self-absorbed and aimless lives! Jesus also orders his followers to abide in that love; “abide” carries meaning of “remain in” or be “imbedded.” Such an order is spurred by the Lord’s decision to mark us as his daughters and sons, not only for this life, but also for the one which is completed in eternity.

Remaining in or being imbedded in that “agape” is reflected in the keeping of the Father’s and the Son’s commands. Such keeping is much more than trying to commit the Ten Commandments to memory, trying to follow them as well as we can. Jesus here is referring to all of his teachings, the teachings which pour out from his three years of ministry. As the teachings streamed from his life and work, it became clear that they are from eternity, that they are grounded in the Old Testament Scriptures and, by extension, fill all the New Testament Scriptures.

Our remaining in and being in the Trinity’s “agape” reflects both Jesus’ keeping of his Father’s commands as well as his remaining in the Father’s love. Jesus is speaking of these things to his followers so that his joy may be in them and that such joy may be full (recall that the Greek word for “joy” echoes the reality of eternal life making its way into the world’s life).

In the second section (verses 12–15), Jesus teaches us to love one another as he and the Father love us. This will be demonstrated the next day (Good Friday) as he gives his Life on the cross. This love is continuous and runs throughout a person’s life. It shapes us as Jesus’ deep friends because he, the Father / the Spirit are enabling us to respond to his teaching.

We are not servants (or slaves) anymore because his teachings are making the Father known to us. Being Jesus’ friends now, what is his command? Note that the plural word, “commandments,” is giving way to the singular! The command is to love one another as he loves us. Again, our Lord is using the Greek word “agape.”

His order to us is much more than reflecting the love we find in the world. The world’s realities of love include the sexual (the Greek word is “eros”), its friendship (the Greek word is “philia”) and its family (the Greek word is “storge”). “Agape” reflects a much greater love than these three realities because the Son of God is laying down his Life for his friends. Consequently, we are Jesus’ friends if we do what he is commanding. He is no longer calling us servants (or slaves) because a slave does not know what the Master is doing. He calls us friends now because everything he has heard from the Father he has made known to us!

In the third section (verses 16–17), Jesus points out that he chose us, we did not choose him! In Baptism he marked us to go and reflect his Life in the world, a reflection that is continually imbedded in him. Immersed in the Son’s crucified and resurrected Life, the Father gives us whatever we ask for in Jesus’ Name, an overwhelming reality that is truly stunning! Gifted with the Son’s teaching makes it possible for us to love one another with the love we have actually received from the Holy Trinity!

Yes, these three sections take the world’s breath from our lungs and fill them with the breath of the Holy Spirit. Such breath is life-giving and life-sustaining! Such breath expands the trickling of the Son’s resurrection to gushing! Such gushing continues this week as the Church observes the Son’s ascension this coming Thursday. That festival, which is the triumphant conclusion of the Son’s rescuing work for the world’s people, is one of the oldest festivals in the Church’s life. It is vital for the Lord’s people to have access to it. It is distressing and embarrassing that there are only a few parishes which observe it. The gushing of the resurrection continues as the Ascension festival moves us into nine days of prayer (the Latin word is “novena”) in which the Lord’s faithful people anticipate and plead for the Son’s promised Spirit on Pentecost.

Working from the holy places of the Scriptures along with the Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and Eucharist, the Holy Spirit replaces the bad breath of the world’s consuming and self-centering life with the good breath of the Son’s crucified, resurrected and ascended Life! Earlier we noted how the gushing of Holy Week and Easter Day can, after six weeks, reduce to a trickling. Because of sin’s presence in our lives (you know, the desire to be like God!), our task is not to change the trickling into gushing on our own! Instead, our task is to let our lives be increasingly exposed to the Lord’s holy places of the Scriptures and the Sacraments. From there the Holy Trinity, with us as full participants, will see to it that the gushing of the Son’s resurrection continues!

In such working we’ll see how the Holy Trinity continually re-sets the relationships we are privileged to have within our families, friends and parish communities. Our parishes will loosen the grip they have on themselves and be alerted to the grasp which the Holy Trinity has on the lives of their faithful people.

Yes, we will have to contend with the realities of sin’s power and presence, but those realities will not have the last word in who we are and what we do as the Lord’s baptized people. The Son’s crucifixion, resurrection and ascension has given us the real last word – one that always breaks the grip of sin, Satan and death, one that continually draws us into the eternal realities of the Life that streams only from the Son, the Father and the Spirit!

Now may the peace of the LORD God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus Our Lord

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Pr. Carl A. Voges, STS, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com