This lectionary text is part of John’s larger witness of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse, which begins with the intimate meal Jesus shares with his disciples in chapter 13. In this Farewell Discourse, we journey with Jesus and the disciples as he seeks to deepen the disciples’ understanding of the power of his love found in his connection with God. In Jesus’ love, “community” is formed as the living expression of God’s love for the world.

In verses 9–17, Jesus unfolds the prior vine and branches metaphor used to express the relationship he is calling the disciples to have in him. When the branches connect with the vine, they produce and bear fruit. Without the vine, branches cannot produce the fruit for which they are created. Through this metaphor, Jesus wants the disciples to understand their capacity to produce and bear fruit. This fruit only comes when they dwell in the depth of love Jesus is preparing to show on the cross.

What is the fruit they will bear? The ability to offer love for one another in the same way Jesus loved them. Note that the language in verses 12 and 17 is the same language used in chapter 13:34–35. Following the meal, Jesus says to the disciples, “I give you a new commandment to love one another just as I have loved you.”

There is an essential message seeking to be heard in this commandment offered three times in this discourse. “To love one another as I have loved you,” only has potential when we find the capacity to abide in the love Jesus shares with us from God. The text clarifies what it means to love like this in the words “to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” To love like this is to be there for the other, to do for the other, even if it means giving things up for ourselves. When we abide in Jesus’ love for us, it is in that sacred relationship that we find the presence and gift of grace flowing into our lives. Through the presence of grace, we can experience and see ourselves and others as people of worth. It is through this grace that Jesus can say “I do not call you servants any longer…but I have called you friends.” It is this grace that allows us to live into wholeness as a new creation in Christ and will help us see all others as friends. Friends for whom we are willing to sacrifice as Jesus sacrificed for us, because that is what loving the friend means. When our congregations are willing to live in this new way of viewing people and embrace the blessing of our unity in diversity, amazing things happen.

The word “abide” gives a sense of security, of knowing we can trust Jesus as our friend. It also represents a feeling of closeness, of knowing that we are never alone.

Humans are created to be with God and one another like the branch with the vine. When Christ-like love draws us deeper into relationship, mutual respect, and trust, the essence of worth becomes an expression of love between brothers and sisters in Christ.

We dwell in God’s love through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus which shows the depth of God’s love for us. In love, Christ pursues us. As Jesus said, “You did not choose me but I chose you.” This continues to be the miracle in this enduring story of love. Christ pursues us because God wants to be in relationship with us where true love flows inward and outward. And when this joy of God is in us, our joy is complete!    Worship Helps 5/6/2012