“An exercise in missing the point!”
August 27, 2020 Pastor Erin
“’Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now, I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?’” ~John 13: 33-35
In this poignant passage, Jesus is saying goodbye to his disciples. His ministry is coming to a close, and he knows that soon, he will be arrested and killed. Now is the time he is able to share final moments and words of wisdom with his followers and closest friends. He is looking to prepare them for what is to come, but also equip them with their mission, their most important task, to love one another. Through that love, the world will know who they are and who they follow.
Three years of teaching, three years of showing the disciples who he is, through healing, exorcisms, miracles, and storytelling. This homeless Rabbi has welcomed anyone who would follow him, broken bread with those society would shun, worked tirelessly to lift up the downtrodden and to empower the powerless. A message summed up in these powerful words, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Just to make sure they “get it,” in three sentences, he tells them three times to love.
This is a well known and, no pun intended, well loved verse. It’s powerful, in illustrating to us, almost 2000 years later, what our call as disciples looks like. And most stop at the end of this verse. But what comes next? We see Simon Peter spectacularly missing the point. He glosses over what Jesus has just said, and asks, “Lord, where are you going?”
I wonder, how much of Peter’s question is concern where Jesus is going, or fear that he won’t be with them and that change is coming. I wonder, where in my life, have I missed what Jesus is telling me, more concerned with worry for the unknown. I have heard it often said, “the only thing constant is change.” We have been experiencing drastic changes this year in our lives and in our churches. But through this, we have seen many churches come alive and respond in new, creative, and loving ways; living into Christ’s words, focused on relationship, grounded in love.
May I keep my focus on the words of Jesus as the guide for my life, for his words, his teachings… are the point!