Easter 7(C): Love is a Risky Business

Easter 7(C): Love is a Risky Business

John 17:20-26

By: Anne Moman Brock

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. The Beatles

Reading this text feels a bit like deciphering Beatles lyrics from some of their later albums. There’s a lot of “me in you and you in me and all of us in this together” kind of thing going on. Add on top of it that Jesus is praying to God — the Son of God who is God, the Father and Son who are also One. I get a psychedelic feel from this passage, something that the Beatles represented well!

Jesus gathered the disciples together. He fed them, and he washed their feet. Jesus lovingly called out Judas and Peter. Then he started preaching to his friends. He still had so much to say to them, but he didn’t have much time left to continue on, nor did he think would they understand even if he did have time (16:12). As his speech comes to an end, he turns to God in prayer knowing that he was soon to be arrested in the garden.

The speech before this prayer was for his friends to hear, but this prayer was for God. And the passage for this week comes at the very end of that prayer — that heartfelt, earnest prayer to God the Father. A prayer that acknowledges the role each of them play in this act of ultimate love and grace.

In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus prays, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible. Take this cup of suffering away from me. However — not what I want but what you want” (Mark 14:36). In John, however, Jesus is overwhelmed with love and hope for these disciples and others who believe in him. And, he’s not just praying for those who currently believe, but also for the future believers — the ones that he will make himself known to over time (v. 26).

What is Jesus’ concern for those to come? It’s not about dogma or right belief. It’s not about who’s in and who’s out. It’s not about proper behavior or perfect speech. Jesus’ concern is that they know their oneness with God which fills them fully and completely with the love of God.

I can see where he’s coming from. I was a youth minister for 13 years and as much as I wanted those kids to know how to find scripture passages in the Bible and recite the fruits of the Spirit and recall John Wesley’s main points, that didn’t always happen. They had to be reminded who John Wesley was. We had to sing through the goofy song to remember the fruits of the Spirit. Page numbers were called out to help friends find the right spot in the Bible. They didn’t always get the lessons I was trying to teach.

However, no matter what they did or didn’t learn, I had one primary purpose to my vocation — that each and every person who walked into that room knew how much they were loved. I wanted them to be saturated in God’s love so that when they went away to school or left to find a new job, they would always be reminded of their inherent goodness and of God’s deep abiding love for them. I wanted them to be so saturated in God’s love that when life got really hard, they would know to whom and where they could turn. I wanted them to experience in human form — through staff and volunteers — the unending, powerful love of God.

I see what Jesus longs for… a community of believers that understand God is in and through them, a community of doubters that understand they are in and through God. I see what Jesus longs for… a community of misfits that somehow know deep within what it means to be in God and God in them. Perhaps we have a different starting point, but I don’t think Jesus’ longing was that far off from the longing of the protestors in the 1960s or the activists of today. We are one humanity; we are one in God. Jesus was saying it then; we’re still saying it today.

Jesus understands why he was sent — to make God’s love known to all people. Jesus understands why he will die — because he made God’s love known to all people. It’s a risky business suggesting that all people are worthy of love. It’s risky to claim that God is present in each and every human being. It’s risky to suggest that we — God, Jesus, and I — are one. It’s so risky that it led to his death.

Jesus moves from this prayer into the garden knowing what will come next — betrayal, denial and suffering. However, Jesus keeps moving forward knowing it will be hard and painful. Jesus keeps moving forward knowing that his mother and the disciple whom he loved will grieve. Jesus keeps moving forward knowing that this love being made known to all people must go the full distance. And so he does, knowing he’s in God and God is in us.

After thirteen years of youth ministry in the United Methodist Church, Anne Moman Brock is now in another form of ministry with Lake Institute on Faith & Giving, part of the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. She is a graduate of Christian Theological Seminary. Anne lives with her husband and two dogs — an 11-year-old husky and a 1-year-old chocolate lab — in Indianapolis, Indiana. You can find more of Anne’s musings on running, quilting, infertility and writing at http://www.annebrock.com.