Love is Never Easy [Easter 5C]

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson

John 13:31-35

Love is Never Easy

This is basically Jesus on his deathbed. And he asks just one thing of his followers: love one another.

But love is never easy. It's just not. Being a naturally nice person doesn't make it easy. Being constantly surrounded by the most wonderful people doesn't make it easy. Being a good Christian boy or girl from a good Christian family doesn't make it easy. It isn't easy in a box; it isn't easy with a fox; it isn't here or there; it isn't easy anywhere.

That Jesus, THE Jesus, gives us a bunch of love commandments in the Gospels doesn't make it easy either.

There's that one time Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It's the second half of the greatest commandment, he said, the second part of the summary of the entire Law, he said. It's important. And it is not easy. Maybe a little easier than the first half of the greatest commandment: loving God with all of one's heart, and all of one's soul, and all of one's mind. That's a hard love commandment too – although God is more lovable than most people. And the truth is: some people have a hard time loving themselves, which lowers the bar on this commandment, and even then, even when the bar is lowered, it's not that easy.

And then Jesus says, in one of his most famous sermons, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Now that's not easy. I assume that was the moment during the Sermon on the Mount when people started quietly slipping out the back, when they pretended they had to take a very important phone call. Now it is possible that there could be a loophole in this one: we might be able to avoid an enemy. And everybody knows: the toughest thing about loving is when we actually have to do it. But still loving an enemy, even an enemy at a distance, is not that easy.

And then there is this: the love commandment in today's Gospel. Jesus says, “I give you a new commandment, that you should love one another.” And I guess because Jesus doesn't think that is enough of a challenge, he adds, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” That is not easy.

But some of you, listening out there intently, might be tempted to argue that today's love commandment is actually the easiest of the three. In today's gospel, Jesus is not talking about some hypothetical neighbor – who may or may not be the kind of neighbor who constantly complains about your lawn. Jesus is not asking them here to love their enemies. He is with his disciples, they are having dinner, and he tells them to love one another. And sure they argue at times; they have their differences. But they are all followers of Jesus. So how hard could it be?

I think you know. I think many of you know all too well how hard that can be, to love other Christians. It turns out Christians can do some pretty hurtful things, like send half of a congregation into exile, like steal a bunch of money from the church, like make violent threats against their brothers and sisters in Christ. So, yeah, love is not easy.

And it's not just here, Christians have a long history of breaking this commandment – all too often in the name of Jesus. Some of the big examples might include the Crusades – Christians killing Muslims, Jews, and brown-skinned Christians in Jesus' name. Or maybe the Reformations – Christians drowning Christians in Jesus' name. Or maybe Puritanical New England – Christians burning Christians in Jesus' name.

Those are the big examples, but there are little ways we fail to love every day that do not cause physical harm: an unkind word, a prejudiced attitude, failing to see the humanity in another person. Turns out, even without breaking one of the Ten Commandments there are many ways to mess this up. It has not been easy for us to simply love one another, let alone love one another as Jesus loves us.

But Jesus wasn't naive; he knew love isn't easy; love is never easy. Jesus offers this commandment to his disciples during their Last Supper. Jesus gives this commandment to his followers after he kneels and washes the feet of his betrayer, and before his disciples abandon him in the face of his public execution. Jesus gives this commandment to his followers after he feeds Judas the symbols of his body and blood and before he forgives his executioners from the cross.

The one who gives us this commandment knew better than anyone: Love is never easy.

One commentator writes about this passage, “Jesus himself has set the example. He calls on [his disciples] to follow in His steps.” He then continues, with what I imagine is a brilliant attempt at understatement, saying, “He is not asking them to do any more than He himself has done.”¹ Which is a good thing. I'm not sure more is possible. And Christian history suggests we're not even close to finding out.

“[T]o love one another as Jesus loves us,” one scholar writes, “is to live a life thoroughly shaped by a love that knows no limits, by a love whose expression brings the believer closer into relationship with God, with Jesus, and with one another. It is to live a love that carries with it a whole new concept of the possibilities of community.” ²

Love is never easy. And it only gets harder when it is held up to the impossible standard set by Jesus. And yet, this is the standard Jesus asks of us, actually commands of us: that we love one another as he loves us.

Today's gospel is basically Jesus on his deathbed; he will leave their dinner and walk into Judas' kiss; the next day he'll breathe his last. This is his last chance to instruct his followers. And rather than lecture them on an orthodox understanding of the Trinity, rather than offer a list of people they should shun or condemn, rather than give them a pamphlet of his top sayings so that they won't mess them up after he is gone, Jesus deems only one thing important enough for his last speech. He gives them just one thing: a commandment, to love one another.

They would be the first ones to carry on his work in the world, to be his Body, to proclaim his Gospel. Jesus' followers would be his representatives; he trusted them, now us, with the most important work in the history of the universe. And he wasn't that worried about their theology, he just wanted them to love.

It was their only identifying mark. There were no t-shirts, no cross necklaces, no white, plastic collars. There was love. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

It is so simple and yet so difficult. Love is never easy. It's just not. It's not easy to love a neighbor. It's not easy to love an enemy. It's not even easy to love those other followers of Jesus.

God knows it's not easy. I suspect it was not easy for Jesus to love Judas. And it's hard to believe, I know, but sometimes I'm not that easy to love. Probably sometimes you're not that easy to love. And for sure, sometimes that person sitting in front you, you know the one, is not that easy either.

Love is never easy. Actually sometimes it's really, really hard because some people are really, really difficult to love. And for Jesus just love is not even enough; his love challenges us to go beyond our limits; he wants us to love one another as he loves us.

But when it is comes down to it, that is all he really asks of us. And so, maybe we should try.

1The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel According to John, Leon Morris, 633.

2The New Interpreter's Bible: Volume IX, 734.