No Greater Love
John 15:9-17[1]
I think most of us would agree that friends are a gift. They
help make life meaningful, interesting, and fun. Our friends add so much to our
lives, just by sharing themselves with us. And as we share the journey of life
together, it means the world to most of us to know that we have friends who are
there to share our joys and our sorrows. A friend is someone we know we can
rely on to be there for us no matter what, even when it may seem like the rest
of the world has turned against us. We trust our friends to keep our deepest
secrets and to be genuinely happy for us when we find success. Friends like
that are true gifts that make our lives so much better just by being there for
us.
But I think we might also agree that friendships can be tricky. Any
time you are dealing with relationships between human beings, it can get
tricky. We all have our flaws, our foibles, and our failings. True friends
accept us despite all of that. But even among true friends, sometimes things
can get tricky. In part, the fears I mentioned last week can be driven by our
broken relationships with others. We can be afraid of our families, because
they have the power to hurt us deeply with unkind words and actions. We can be
afraid of our friends, because most of us know the pain of having a “friend”
betray our trust. Many of us are afraid of others, simply because they are “other”
and we assume (whether we know it or not) they pose a threat to us. Friendships
can be tricky.
In our Gospel lesson for today, the idea of friendship plays a
central role in what Jesus was trying to teach his disciples. This section of
John’s Gospel consists of Jesus’ efforts to prepare them for his impending
departure. And of course, the most difficult part of that for them would be his
death on the cross. Jesus had said many things to them to help prepare them for
that crisis. I think one of the most moving statements he made about his death
is what he tells them here: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down
one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13). In this passage, he didn’t say he was
rescuing lost sinners. He said he was laying down his life for his friends.
I think this has some significant implications. Besides being
Teacher, Savior, Messiah, and Lord, Jesus here says that he is giving his life
for them because he is their friend. Despite the beloved hymn “What a Friend we
have in Jesus,” I don’t know that we think of Jesus dying for us as a friend. I don’t know about you, but
to me that makes a difference in the way I view the cross. Jesus offered
himself willingly, even joyfully according to our lesson for today, on behalf
of those whom he considered his friends. Not sinners lost and dying. Not
wandering sheep gone astray. He “laid down his life” for his friends. Of course
that included the Apostles, but it also included everyone else. Jesus “laid down
his life” for us as a friend as well.
I think the context in which we most naturally understand
someone laying down their life for their friends is in the context of danger.
Some of the noblest and bravest heroes throughout history have laid down their
lives to save others from danger. And those heroes become living examples of
the “no greater love” Jesus spoke of. But I also think we can see examples of
this kind of friendship in everyday life. Hopefully we all have known friends
who have given of themselves to help us in a time of need. They are the ones
who sit by our bedside and take time out of their lives, simply because they
are our friends. And they do so without the slightest notion that we’re putting
them out in any way at all. They are the friends who willingly and freely take
the initiative to give of themselves because of their “no greater love” for us.
When you look at the cross from this perspective, it has
significant consequences for us.[2]
The goal of Jesus’ gift of “no greater love” for us all was to make us his
“friends,” and at the same time friends of God. But I think his purpose was
also to make us friends to each other. In the church, we may be used to the
language of brothers and sisters in reference to one another. And that biblical
theme resonates with us. But at the same time, family imagery can suggest some
constraints to our love. On the other hand, I think that becoming friends to
each other and to all those around us in the way that Jesus was our friend can
inject some new life into our understanding of what it means to be a community
that follows Christ.
The message in our Gospel lesson is that the “friendship” we’ve
been granted with God through Jesus Christ changes the way we look at the
people around us. We become their “friends” just as Jesus made us his friends.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that they change how they relate to us. They may
not become more “friendly” toward us at all. But if we seek to share God’s love
with others as “friends,” then it will necessarily change the way we relate to
them. Like Jesus, we will take the initiative to offer ourselves on their
behalf freely and willingly.
When we live our lives on the basis of the fact that Jesus “laid
down his life” for us as our friend, we
find ourselves naturally offering that same “no greater love” to others. We do
this because as God’s friends we know the assurance of total and unconditional
acceptance. We do it because as Christ’s friends we find ourselves called to
follow his example of freely giving ourselves for others. And as friends to all
people, we face the challenge of opening ourselves to everyone we
encounter—those who are like us and those who are different, those whom we know
and those who are strangers to us, those whom we trust and those we avoid. We
are called to the practice the “no greater love” that Jesus modeled by living
as friends to all those whom God
brings into our lives.
[1]
©2018 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 5/6/2018 at
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2]
Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the
Power of the Spirit, 116-21, 182-89, 314-17; cf. especially ibid., 189:
“Christian fellowship is a fundamentally open fellowship and not merely a
community of fellow-believers”; and 316: “Friendship is an open relationship
which spreads friendliness, because it combines affection with respect.”
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