John 13:31, 34
When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him.
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. NIV
Here’s a question: why does Jesus wait until Judas leaves before He starts to talk about loving one another? Surely if He had said this before Judas left, it would have changed the whole betrayal episode? Judas may have questioned his own motives about whether or not he really loved Jesus, causing him to reject the idea of betrayal. But somehow Jesus chooses to talk about love after Judas was gone. Is there something we should learn from this?
Church people can be the most loving people on earth. At the same time, church people can be the most hateful people on earth. There’s a fine line at times between loving one another and loathing each other. I’ve been in parish ministry for over 21 years, on both sides of the Atlantic, and do you know what? People are the same on either side of the pond. They can love you or leave you, hate you or help you.
I’ve seen people walk away from one another in church or refuse to help because they end up on the same ministry team. I’ve been asked not to pair certain people as greeters at the church door because they can’t stand one another. I’ve also watched some people at meetings aggravate one another simply because of an unresolved issue which has gone on for decades. Or then there’s the political fallout each time a presidential election comes along. Every congregation has their feuding families. Every church has their competing and contentious personalities.
Maybe that’s why Jesus waited until Judas left before speaking about loving one another. Perhaps He had had enough of Judas and knew that his heart couldn’t be changed. Judas had a reputation for seeing the worst in other people – remember the woman with the perfume – and he also was accused of dipping into the cash flow for his own purposes. People like that are hard to please, hard to live with and, above all, hard to change. So maybe Jesus wasn’t about to do Judas any favors.
Love one another? Foggetaboutit! It’s hard enough getting people just to live with one another at times….
Prayer: Lord Jesus, why didn’t You make it easier for Judas to turn away from his betrayal of You? Why didn’t You stop him in his tracks and keep him from becoming a traitor? And why did You ask us to love one another? You know how hard that is, especially in church, never mind the world!
O Lord, help us to love one another, even if it kills us to do so. Amen.
Stushie writes the Heaven's Highway daily devotional and loves to blogachute to waste time. You haven't tried it? Shame on you - that's what Fridays are for!
"I find it difficult to nest truth in either camp. "
ReplyDeleteThis is the great difficulty in the church, Pappy. People are being slaughtered in the middle - its not that we're losing significant numbers on either side of the spectrum. it's that we're losing thousands in no man's land, to coin a WW1 phrase.
Trenches cost lives, but not in the trenches.