Sunday in the Church Year: 6th Sunday of Easter
Biblical Passage: John 15:9-17
Note: On May 9 during our sermon time, we discussed this complex biblical passage together. Jesus’ words raise more questions than they provide answers. If you are reading this sermon for the first time, I invite you to open your Bible and read John 15:9-17 and then truly consider the questions I raise during this sermon. To find some of the community’s reflections on these questions, go to the Grace In The City: Grace Lutheran Church Facebook page and find the May 9 live stream worship feed. As always, if you would like to discuss these questions over the phone, email, or in person, I would love that! Feel free to contact me.
In the gospel of John today, Jesus is gathered with disciples, his closest companions. The message he shares is for them, not for the Pharisees, not for the crowds, for the disciples. He is gathered with them the day before his death, calling his disciples friends, naming them intimate companions. No one knows Jesus better than the disciples as he himself says here: I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. What is this intimate message Jesus shares with his closest friends? I invite you to actually open your Bibles to John 15:9-17 and walk through this passage with me.
First of all, our passage begins in the middle of a paragraph at the beginning of which Jesus declares: I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. A few verses later, Jesus says: I am the vine, you are the branches. Jesus tells his disciples that they rely on him for nourishment and that they and he have the closest of connections for the branch cannot survive apart from the vine. The disciples’ connection with Jesus connects them also to God, the vinegrower. In verses 9 and 10, we hear a similar sentiment. Jesus’ love for us is similar to God’s love for Jesus. Jesus then connects abiding in his love with following his commandments. First of all, how do we abide in Jesus’ love for us? Secondly, how does abiding in Jesus’ love empower us to keep Jesus’ commandments?
Then, in verse 12, Jesus repeats a command he shared with the disciples earlier that evening after he washed their feet. “Love one another as I have loved you.” How did Jesus love the disciples? What implications does this have for how we ought to love one another?
Jesus, of course, knows that he will die the very next day, that he will lay down his life for his friends. So, after telling them to love one another, he tells them that great love involves laying down one’s life for one’s friends. And, in case you didn’t know it, disciples, Jesus says, you are my friends. I lay down my life for you. Is Jesus calling us to go and do likewise, to lay down our lives for our friends? Are we expected to be capable of such great love?
I don’t know if Jesus meant for his followers to literally lose their lives for the sake of their friends. I do know that losing your life for a friend was not simply Jesus’ definition of great love. In the broader first century culture, philosophers of old heralded the virtue of laying down one’s life for one’s friend.
However, the reality today is that we are rarely called upon to lose our lives in order to save the lives of others. For us, the more relevant questions are: Will we lay down being right? Will we lay down popularity? Will we lay down our comfort? …to better steward Earth, to support public policy that creates wellness for the greatest number of people, to end structures that discriminate against some more than others.
Jesus is not done. He tells the disciples: You did not choose me but I chose you. We know Jesus picks who he wants to follow him. He doesn’t put an announcement in the bulletin that reads: Disciples Needed for ministry. If you’re interested, please talk with Jesus after service. No. Jesus goes and picks who he wants to follow him, and they do. He’s chosen us too—in Holy Baptism. And he tells the disciples further: I appointed you to go and bear fruit. Clearly, in this passage, the fruit is love. We, the branches, are called to grow and blossom and bear the fruit of love.
In verse 11, Jesus tells the disciples: I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. I rarely consider Jesus’ countenance, his general mood, his attitude. But here, he speaks of being joyful and wanting to share his joy. If we were to abide in his life and bear the fruit of love, how does this bring us joy?
Of course, the news is always good for us if it’s from Jesus. Even a command is good news for this command to abide in Jesus’ love and to bear the fruit of love catapults us into a life of joyous love—for ourselves, the world, and God—and then to receive that love right back. Thanks be to God! Amen.