The gospel of John has a long section during the Last Supper where Jesus does some of his most profound teaching. In some way, I almost view it like the Sermon on the Mount from the gospel of Matthew, but it’s more private to his disciples. He takes this time, the last time they would all gather for a meal together – and no doubt, they’d had many over the years – to say the last things he wants to say. Some things they would be ready for, some they would not. Most certainly, some they would not understand, maybe, for many years to come.
That’s how the human mind works, though, especially in adults. It takes a long time for some things to set in. We joke and blame our stubbornness, which is sometimes true, but we also need time and repetition because, the longer we live, the more information we’ve gathered in our minds.
In verse 13, Jesus says something they could not understand the profoundness of, because they did not know that their teacher – their rabbi – their Savior – would do that very thing the next day: Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13) In this moment, Jesus moves his disciples from servants to friends, saying in verse 15, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” Some people dislike calling Jesus a friend, saying it devalues his place as Lord and Savior, but, looking at this place in John 15, we see the context of Jesus calling his disciples friends is him sharing what his next act on earth would be – to give up his life. We call Jesus our Lord because he rose.
We call him Savior because he died. And he calls his disciples friends because now they know it all – he’s shared with them the Father’s plan for Jesus, his purpose for coming to earth. It wasn’t just to teach us. It wasn’t just to perform miracles. It was to give up his life. Sacrificially. When I try to wrap my brain around what sacrificing for others truly means, I automatically think about how sacrifice is so hard for me because I am a selfish person. I don’t want to give up something because I like it. It means something to me. A small child doesn’t want to share that toy because it’s his . . . because he’s enjoying playing with it and isn’t ready to give it up. When we talk about sacrifice today, we think in terms of giving up something we have no desire to give up. That’s why it’s called a sacrifice, right? Jesus had a desire bigger than what he would give up. He would give up his life, but even before that, he gave up the comfort and beauty of heaven all so that he could be with us. Not just on earth with us for a few decades, but with us forever in heaven.
Jesus didn’t want to go through the physical agony of the cross (his prayer in the garden reveals that), but I do believe he wanted to be with us, so much so that he sacrificed what needed to be sacrificed for that to happen.
The call to sacrifice looks different for each one of us. Sometimes, we are called by God to sacrifice something we have made an idol out of, something we have prioritized above him. In fact, I would say that is often the case. The question is, how passionately are we pursuing Jesus for the sacrifice to feel worth it. When we haven’t encountered the incredible power of knowing Christ – the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings – it’s much easier to turn to the things in this world we love the most and decide they are worth more than Jesus is. After his death on the cross, Jesus’ second most important mission was to reorient our hearts to what they are meant to be centered on: Him.
Ask the Lord if there is any reorienting you need to do in your heart. Maybe some things need to be “re-ordered” – put in the right order – so that the sacrifices he calls you to make will be much easier. But one thing is sure: when our hearts are pointed in the right direction, we live the life God calls us to live. In Christ, Pastor Stephanie
