Jesus said to his disciples:
“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love one another.”
Lectio (Reading)
Read the passage twice and get a sense of what it is saying. Pay attention to what strikes you.Meditatio (Reflecting)
Slowly read the passage again, pausing on words or phrases that stands out. Take time to consider the meaning. particularly in your life.This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Oratio (Responding)
Read the passage again, slowly. Consider how God has spoken to you and respond back to Him. You may want to consider how this passage is asking you to act differently.Life is the most precious of all of God’s gifts. We inherently know that without having to be told by anyone. No sane person wants to die. We know in the deepest part of our souls that life is not something to be discarded so easily. We cling to it and protect it, and we spend most of our time trying to improve the quality of it.
The incredible thing though, is that the devil has convinced the world that other peoples lives are not all that important. Whether it is old people, the sick, the unborn, many people have convinced themselves that it is loving and compassionate to snuff out the life of the weakest and most helpless around us. It is an abominable lie! The murder of babies in the womb is the greatest genocide in the history of the world, dwarfing all of the other forms of death in both brutality and immensity. Many more people die of abortion every year than all other forms of death combined.
We self-righteously look back on the Aztecs and gasp in horror at what they did. But today, our atrocities though hidden from view by our medical culture and abstracted away in sterile medical offices are far, far worse. Everything is clean and simple, but the death count of our current abortion industry (over 60 million dead babies), makes the Aztecs look like pikers by comparison.
Life CANNOT be thrown away, the lord will not hold blameless any one that does so. So what is Jesus trying to tell us in this passage? Is He too throwing his life away? Absolutely Not! the exact opposite. Jesus says that there is no greater sacrifice then to lay down our lives for those that we love. What is the difference? This is not Jesus recklessly forfeiting His life, but instead making a pure sacrifice, saying “I give my life in exchange for theirs.” Jesus took the most precious of all of Gods gifts and said that I will sacrifice this gift so that you ALL may live.
Jesus knows all this, and knows that His death will be the way that the doors of heaven will be opened, but He also knows that this death is going to be the most painful death that a man could ever endure, yet He willingly does it. It is truly an awesome sacrifice. Meditate today on how incredible this reality is, the gift of life that we have been given, and the sacrifice of Jesus, giving His life, so that we may live.
Contemplatio (Contemplating)
Take time to simply remain in the presence of God.Resolutio (Resolving)
Make a resolution that will improve your life, your relationships, or your faith. Make it small and attainable, and do it.Oh lord help me today to find a way to suffer for those that I love, and thank you lord for loving me enough to suffer so greatly for me.