John is the gospel of goodbyes. While all the others focus on Jesus' ministry, John zeroes in on the last two days of Christ's life. Spending 12 chapters on 33 years, and 7 chapters on two days gives you an idea of just how affected John was by his Lord's goodbye. In those seven chapters, there is a long passage where Jesus tries to teach the disciples how to live when He is gone. His intention is to equip them for the day after Good Friday. So He gives them this commandment.
12 I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you.13 And here is how to measure it--the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends. John 15:12-13 (NLT)
Jesus was trying to make these men understand the value of a Christian community. He was beginning to build His church. Community matters.
So now as Jesus hangs on a cross, He's continuing that work.
Have you noticed yet how unselfish Jesus remains to the last? The first three statements deal with others' needs - forgiveness, pardon, and now community. John would point to this very act as the beginning of the church.
Seems a strange place to start a church. Jesus didn't do any market research. He apparently hasn't stopped to consider the demographics or the programming needs of Mary and John. After all, they are from different generations. Mary would need at minimum a senior adult group, maybe a small group for coping with grief. John may have a family with both small children and teenagers. How can these two possibly have all their needs met. And what about music? She might prefer the Psalms, where John might enjoy praise music. Oh and are we reading in Hebrew or Greek? So many details to consider when starting a church...
And yet, just like John and Mary at the foot of the cross, Jesus has put together His church. Rich and poor. All colors, all sizes, all nations, all together. The Republicans and the democrats. The 'Noles and the Gators, the Jackets and the Dawgs. And at times, there's not a whole lot of "like" to be found.
"But what law say we got to like each other? We just gotta love each other. Likin' each other ain't part of the bargain."
And here at the cross, there are two people who need each other, and a Savior besides. Can't you see them there? An old woman, head draped in a dark shawl, shoulders weighed down with grief. A younger man, himself racked with sobs, reaching over to put his strong arm around Mary as they stumble away toward his house, now their home.
That is a picture of Christ's church beloved. Everybody has hurts. Everybody needs a family.
What Calvarys have you walked away from with a friend's arm around your shoulder, helping you bear a burden too heavy for you alone? The church is where Jesus is creating a family out of strangers. It may not be a place of "like", but it had better be a place of love - or it is not a church.
In his latter years, John realized what Jesus had done that day, and he wrote this to you and me, so that we too might understand how Christ grows His church.
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God.8 But anyone who does not love does not know God--for God is love.9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.10 This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.
12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love has been brought to full expression through us. 1 John 4:7-12 (NLT)
This Holy week would be an excellent time to rediscover Christ's family. Come home to church. Experience Christian community. Learn to love each other. If you can't, then you'll miss heaven by a mile.
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