Easter VI: God's Love
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
A theme that draws together today’s readings is God’s love: what God’s love looks like, what it asks of us as disciples of Jesus, and how it works in the world.
And what precisely does today’s scripture say about God’s love?
The scripture says God’s love is impartial, includes outsiders and has been revealed to the world to inspire joy.
Most importantly, the scripture says that God has revealed his love to us through the Trinity, and that without a knowledge of the triune God we cannot know love or, for that matter, know God.
In our first reading from Acts 10, Peter re-directs Cornelius from worshipping Peter himself to sharing the good news of God’s love with those who are gathered.
God, Peter says, shows no partiality, but rather includes those who fear Him and do what is right.
Peter’s words of encouragement are then substantiated by the Holy Spirit, which falls upon the uncircumcised Gentile believers.
The circumcised believers who follow Peter are astonished that the Holy Spirit covers even those who are outsiders, inspiring them to speak in tongues and praise God.
Peter, having preached the impartiality of God, and God the Holy Spirit, having proved the substance of Peter’s preaching, the stage is then set for an extension of further grace through the sacrament of Baptism.
Through Baptism, in the name of God the Son, and inspired by the workings of God the Spirit, ultimate inclusion is achieved and the Gentiles are brought into the fold.
The circumcised believer and uncircumcised Gentile who comes to belief are fully and impartially enfolded in the economy of God’s love.
In today’s Epistle from John, the focus is less on God the Spirit and more on the working of God the Son, at the behest of God the Father.
John says that to know God, we must ourselves know and experience love, because God is love.
If we do not love, we are alienated from an essential part of who God is. Love itself, as the epistle says, is “From God”.
John says that God’s expression of love, par excellence, is the Incarnation, because God the Father revealed his love for us by sending his son into the world: to draw us closer to Him (or in the words of the Epistle “live through Him”) and also to offer himself for our redemption.
In other words, the Incarnation is an essential means by which we come to know God’s love and what love is per se.
Again, God expresses His love for us through the workings of the Trinity. God the Father, who created the world, sent his son to share completely in the created world, that we may be brought closer to the uncreated source, which is love.
In John 15, we shift from God the Father’s loving intervention through the Son, to the words of Jesus himself.
In Acts, God the Spirit has drawn the old and new believer into His fold.
In John’s Epistle, God the Father has shown his love for us, and taught us how to love, by sending his Son into the world.
In John 15, God Incarnate, Jesus Christ, speaks directly to his followers, not only about God the Father’s love for him, but also how the disciples must love one another, according to Jesus’ own commandment.
Again, Jesus’ language is grounded in the workings of Trinity, in particular his relationship with the Father.
Jesus says he loves his followers the same way God the Father loves him.
Because the Father and the Son are one, Jesus’ love for his followers is grounded in the same love that sustains the Trinity.
Jesus then gives his disciples a new commandment: that their love for one another mirror the love between God the Father and God the Son; in the words of John that his disciples: “Love one another as I have loved you”.
The word “commandment” has obvious connotations of the Ten Commandments. And Jesus elevates the commandment that his disciples love another to the same level as the Ten Commandments.
Jesus introduces his own teaching not to conflict with the Law but to bring it to perfection.
If God is love, as John’s epistle says, then love itself must be elevated to the same status of a divine commandment.
Jesus then prefigures his own sacrifice at Calvary by saying the greatest love is for one friend to sacrifice his life for another.
Just as the Holy Spirit in Acts works to bring Peter’s words to fruition, Jesus’ own self-offering will bring to fruition his commandment that the disciples love one another.
Jesus will lead by example, and purchase our redemption through his self-offering.
But other than revealing his purposes to his disciples, why does Jesus say these things to his followers?
Jesus says “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete”.
And why might Jesus’ words bring joy to his disciples?
Because Jesus has drawn a direct line from God the Father’s love to him, and from him to the disciples. Thus, the disciples are drawn together in the divine love of the Trinity: God the Father who loves the Son who loves the Spirit.
The disciples are made an integral part of the love narrative that God has created.
And Jesus commands that they continue to sustain this love among themselves until he returns. He commands the same of us too.
In the context of John’s Gospel, we can understand Jesus’ words to have comforted his disciples, both before his death and after his resurrection, when they knew he was going to depart this world and ascend to the Father.
But the urgency with which the disciples in John seek comfort from the love of God is surely something we can understand in the ups and downs of our own lives: the challenges we encounter in our relationships and families, the hopes we hold for this community of faith as it navigates a season of change.
God reminds us not only that he loves us--and has proven his love through the great works of the Trinity--but that we are commanded to love one another. Through our love for one other, Jesus continues to dwell among us until he returns.
We can understand, from today’s scripture, that God’s love is impartial, includes outsiders and has been made known to the world to bring joy.
Today’s scripture also makes clear that God reveals His love for us through the Trinity.
God the Father shows his love for us by sending his Son, whom he loves, into the world to partake of this created order of being.
God the Son is the sacrifice that is offered and received for our redemption. There is no greater love than he who lays down his life for his friends. And Jesus lays down his life for us. And because the Father loves Jesus, Jesus loves his followers and commands that we love one another.
God the Spirit reveals the inclusiveness and impartiality of God by visiting those who are outsiders and leading them to baptism, through which means they are initiated into the Body of Christ.
Through the workings of the Trinity, today’s scripture invites us to become part of the love narrative that God has created.
Amen.