“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:12-13
In the previous reflection, we spoke about the opening words of Jesus “Farewell Discourse” with His disciples, at the conclusion of the Last Supper. He opened this length and final teaching by giving them a commandment “That you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:34) He went on to say that by THIS, meaning love, this would be how they would be identified as His disciples.
Jesus then expands on the idea that we are to love one another, in the same way that He has loved us. And in John 15:12, Jesus says “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” This reiterates when He said earlier in John 13:34. When He continues this time, in John 15:13, He doesn’t tell the disciples only to love one another, but He takes it much further. He says “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Love requires sacrifice. It requires a divesting of something (time, effort, money, emotion, etc.) and for that to be projected onto someone else. There is no love without sacrifice. And, one could argue, there is no self-love, because that is narcissism. There is self-respect, and this stands opposite to self-loathing. Love requires divesting something and transferring that onto someone else.
Love also means that there is no agenda. When there is an expected outcome, there can be coercion, or exchange. Love means to offer something without expectation of return, or outcome or even acknowledgment. It is giving that expects nothing in return.
Jesus says that the greatest expression of love is for someone to make the ultimate sacrifice, to die for someone else. And Jesus didn’t just say this. He did it. He had washed the feet of the disciples to show that even the Lord came as a servant, even the Teacher could bend and wash the feet of the disciples. Thus, the disciples, who were going to be the leaders of the Church, were to always remember that they are servants also, and express love through service. Now, He upped the game even more and was about to show by His death on the cross that the Son of God was willing to die for His people. And by example and by extension, this is what He was calling them, and is calling us, to do. To love to the point of being willing to die for someone else. That is the highest expression of love.
This is actually one of the reasons why in our Divine services, we pray for those in civil authority (police officers, fire fighters, first responders) and the men and women who serve in our armed forces. These are jobs where one might actually be called upon to die for someone else. Thus, they receive a special prayer and recognition in our services.
No divest oneself of everything, including life, expecting nothing in return, most of us cannot even conceive of this level of love. And yet this is the highest level of love that Christ describes for us, and it the kind of love that He demonstrated for us when He died on the cross.
In just about every circumstance, this kind of love is not needed. Love involves some sacrifice, but generally not the ultimate sacrifice. Love might involve sacrificing time to help a friend, or sacrificing some desire because someone else may desire something different. It might involve sacrificing money or sleep or food, or something else that benefits another person. Our sacrifice should be made with joy and with purpose, without anger, or guilt or compulsion. In Acts 20:35, we read the words of St. Paul, who said “In all things I have shown you that by so toiling one must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
There was a popular song back in the 1990s called “Greatest Love of All.” It is still fairly well-known. It says that “The greatest love of all is easy to achieve. Learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all.” The greatest love of all is to die for someone else. Most of us won’t be required to do that. A long step down from that is the next greatest love of all, which is to serve someone else, to give someone else. The song says “I found the greatest love of all, inside of me.” This rings true if one acknowledges that the greatest love of all is God, and indeed He is to be found in each person. Otherwise, the greatest love becomes, again from the song, “At least I’ll live as I believe,” which could be faith in God, or self-promotion, depending on one’s belief. To live as we believe is to love others in the same way Christ loved and loves us.
Heavenly Father, You set a very high bar for us when You died on the cross and showed us that the greatest love of all is to sacrifice oneself for someone else. Help me to have a heart of love, with eyes to see those who are in need, with humility to sacrifice for them, with hope that whatever sacrifice I offer manifests Your love and is pleasing to You. Thank You for loving me, for dying on the cross for me and for teaching me what it means to love. Help me to love in the way that You love. Amen.
The greatest love of all was shown by Christ on the cross. The greatest love is shown by us when we serve others and sacrifice for others.
