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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

April 29, 2012 1 JOHN 3:16 -18 NRSV


April 29, 2012

1 JOHN 3:16 -18 NRSV
We know love by this,
that he laid down his life for us —
and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. 
How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods
and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
Little children, let us love, not in word or speech,
but in truth and action. 

***

I don’t think this passage is about suffering, and I don’t think it’s about death. I think it’s about justice, and about life. 

It would be easy to hear the command that we lay down our lives for one another as a command to suffer and to die as Jesus did, but I don’t think Jesus came to earth for us to suffer and die. Jesus came to earth because we suffer and because we die. Jesus came to bring justice in the midst of our suffering, and love in the midst of death. Jesus came to show us how to live not to show us how to die. Jesus came to bring new life, but perhaps in order to bring new life he had to conquer death.

When we think of Jesus laying down his life, we think of the crucifixion. But the crucifixion is Jesus laying down his death. Jesus laying down his life happened throughout his life. Jesus laying down his life was Jesus living life for others. Jesus healed on the Sabbath, he turned over tables, he challenged those waiting to stone a woman, he befriended those of other cultures, he welcomed outcasts, he challenged the authorities. Any one of these things could have gotten Jesus killed, but in order to live for others, he faced death. I wonder if this is because death does not have a hold him.

Jesus lived as if he knew death was around the corner. Yet, he lived knowing death was not the final answer. Death was not the point. Life was the point. Laying down his life for others was the point. If Jesus been afraid of dying, what might he have not said or done? If Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been afraid of dying would Civil Rights look the same? If Nelson Mandela had been afraid of death what might not have learned? If Mother Theresa was afraid of death, who might not have been helped? If we too were not afraid of dying what might we do? If death were not the final answer how would we live? Would we be able to lay down our lives in service to another?

Would we willing to live for truth no matter the consequences? What would be our truth? Whose side would be stand beside? Who or what would we stand against? If we were not afraid of death what action would we take? Would we be willing to sell all of our worldly goods, and help brothers and sisters in need? How would we live if we knew we were going to die, and that death was already conquered?

As a hospital chaplain I saw many people who knew they were going to die. After an initial fear, many of them saw facing their death as a blessing. Like Jesus, they had the opportunity to live their life as they felt called. They reconciled with family, they spent time with loved ones, they helped others, they expressed their feelings, they were honest and truthful with themselves and those around them. They answered death with life, and life for others in truth and action. Those people who knew they were dying had the opportunity to live this scripture. How might we?

Many of us here are not facing immediate death. We know neither when it will come nor how. Yet, all of us here are facing life. All of us here are to live like Jesus. How do we lay down our lives for another? How do we share our goods? How do we help a brother or sister in need? How do we live like little children? How do we love in truth and action?

This passage is not about death. Death has been conquered. This passage is about life, and life anew. Let us love as Jesus did. Let us love with our lives laid down for one another. Amen