Love Is Gritty, Love Is Hard, Love Is an Empty Tomb

Brad Sullivan

7 Easter, Year A

May 28, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

John 17:1-11

Love Is Gritty, Love Is Hard, Love Is an Empty Tomb

I had a conversation with a nine year old last week about this Sunday’s gospel passage.  I read it to him and then asked him what he thought.  He said that it sounded like Jesus and the Father saying, “If we get to be in heaven for ever, why don’t the people on earth get to?”  Meaning, “why shouldn’t the people on earth get to be with us in heaven forever as well?”, and of course, we do.  That was Jesus’ life’s work and his prayer for his disciples which we heard today, that they would be one and he and the Father are one. 

The Father, and the Son, and the (not mentioned in this passage) Holy Spirit want us to be one with them and each other just as they are one.  There’s nothing better in the world, nothing better in all of the universes than the unity of Jesus and the Father and that’s the unity Jesus is praying for us to have!  That unity with each other and unity with God is being with God in heaven forever, and I don’t mean because we have unity with God, then we’ll get to be with God in heaven forever.  I mean having unity with God and each other is right now being in heaven with God forever. 

Heaven is all around us.  The Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven is here, now, in the very air we breathe, for in God we live and move and have our being.  Jesus was praying for our unity with each other and God now, for eternal life now.  “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”  Knowing Jesus, following in his way, believing in him is eternal life, lived in this world, in this life, and continued on after death, in the next life, for there is nothing better in the world, nothing better in all of the universes than the unity of Jesus and the Father, and that’s the unity Jesus is praying for us to have!

At the same time that Jesus was praying for his disciples, praying for us, however, did you notice how much he was talking about himself?  Glorify me so that I may glorify you?  Much of John’s Gospel has Jesus talking about himself.  There is very little teaching about God’s kingdom, few moral lessons, no parables…almost all of Jesus’ teaching involves an explanation about who he is and why people need to believe in him.  “I am one with the Father, I am the good shepherd, I am the vine, I am so humble and yet so awesome.”  Ok, that last one was made up; in John’s Gospel, we don’t get the humble, self-effacing Jesus we see in Mathew, Mark, and Luke.  Jesus is constantly talking about himself and kinda saying how great he is.  This is a bit of a side bar, but John’s Jesus often sounds to a bit to me like the rapper Eminem in the rap song Without Me:  “This looks like a job for me, so everybody, just follow me, cause we need a little controversy, and it feels so empty without me.”

I realize in saying that, I just secured about 7 more years for myself in purgatory, comparing Jesus and Eminem, (he’s a child of God), but  often, as I read John’s Gospel, I am struck by how much Jesus sounds like a rapper rapping about himself.  Rappers that I have heard tend to rap about themselves especially early on in their careers, as if to introduce themselves:  “here’s who I am, here’s my story, here’s why I’m legitimate and worth your listening to, and here’s the story within me that is screaming to get out.”

That’s kinda what Jesus was doing in John’s Gospel.  Jesus was constantly telling people about who he was, how great he was, and how much they needed to believe in him.  Of course that’s what he was doing, because of who Jesus was and because there were so many false narratives out there about life and about God.  The narrative about Jesus was screaming to get out of him.  The narrative about what life truly is, about who God truly is was screaming to get out of Jesus, and he only had that one life, that one chance to tell the narrative of God, the narrative of love.

Jesus had one chance, and he didn’t want to blow it, so he taught people how to live, how to love, he taught about God’s kingdom, he showed them what life was like in God’s kingdom so they could live out God’s kingdom, and he taught about himself, because at the heart of God’s kingdom is Jesus.  The heart and soul of God’s kingdom is the new Eden, the new creation where we walk with God and each other, naked and unashamed, and the heart and soul of that new Eden is Jesus.

So Jesus did talk about himself because he wanted everyone to know and share in the eternal life  of the new Eden which is unity with him and the Father. Remember, there is nothing better in the world, nothing better in all of the universes than the unity of Jesus and the Father, and that’s the unity Jesus was praying for us to have!

That unity, known by another word is love, and not just sappy, hallmarky, pop song love.  Love is the cross.  That’s where Jesus was going just after the prayer he prayed for his disciples.  Love is sacrifice for the sake of the beloved.  Love is gritty; love is hard; love is not pouty or jealous, boastful or rude.  It makes a way for the beloved; it does the hard work of seeking peace and working through resentment.  Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing; love repents of wrongdoing and seeks to heal past hurts.  Love rejoices in kindness and truth, and love prefers having a good relationship to just being right.  Love bears the good times and hardships.  Love believes in the beloved.  Love makes its home in hope, and love endures all things for the sake of the beloved. 

Love goes to the cross for the sake of the beloved.  Love kneels at the foot of the cross to mourn for the beloved.  Love is tears and joy.  Love is laughter and pain.  Love is sticking by the beloved through sickness and death.  Love is caring about someone through their anxieties, doubts, and fears.  Love is not wanting more and more, not demanding what is deserved, but being content with enough so that another can also have enough. 

Love is also an empty tomb.  Love is new life, new creation.  Love is joy in each new day, each new moment.  Love is setting aside the past to be made new in the present.  Love is trusting in Jesus’ resurrection, trusting in his narrative about God, and life, and himself.  Love is eternal life, knowing God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. There is nothing greater in all the world, nothing greater in all of the universes than love, and love is the unity of Jesus and the Father, the unity and gritty kind of love that Jesus is praying for us to have, for us to be in heaven forever with him and the Father.