Word to the Wise
Friday, May 23, 2014 - 5th Week of Easter - Fri
[Acts 15:22-31 and John 15:12-17]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.......It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.....
We still have a ways to go in our journey through the paintings representing the Farewell Discourse, but already, having seen some of the work, the ones that come into view seem to remind us of other, perhaps earlier, works of the artist! Two "echo pieces" come into view today.
The idea of laying down one's life for a friend might send us back to chapter 12 where Jesus speaks of the seed falling into the ground and dying so that something new can come forth. There can be no love greater than this, but it can only happen if one is willing to die! Our common experience should nudge us here. To truly love someone else, we have to be willing to die to our own self! Jesus' own example goes to the full meaning of this!
The second work speaks of bearing fruit that will "remain." (That word again!) Didn't we just see a piece that speaks of the vine grower who "prunes" vines so that they will bear greater fruit or else they are cast off? What about that other one that speaks of the vine and branches and says, "apart from me you can do nothing?" However, there is one little new thing here: the disciples [and we] are told to "go and bear fruit." We cannot just be satisfied with being a branch, as pretty as our leaves may be! There is an evangelical task to "bear fruit" - to bear witness! While we think we may be experiencing an "echo," it is actually a step forward.
Slowly but surely, the Farewell Discourse exhibit is nudging us toward the future, but we still have ways to go. AMEN