NewCreation

Homily for Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C

Welcome, my sisters and brothers, to this, the homily for the fifth Sunday in Easter. In this Sunday's Gospel we're continuing our circling around, finding our way into being inhabited by Jesus's resurrection life. You remember two weeks ago we had Peter being brought to the point where he could recognize his betrayal, being allowed to become aware of how he was known, and then being encouraged to be inserted back into the life of the community and following Jesus as the way in which he was going to be able to shepherd Jesus's sheep. Then last week we were taken into the business of hearing His words, understanding ourselves known by Him and following Him once again. And this week we're going to be taken back into another element of how the risen life makes itself present amongst us, this time in the commandment to love. Let us show a little bit how that works in this very short passage. Let's remember what happens immediately before the passage and immediately after the passage. Immediately before today's passage, which starts "when he had gone out" — that's when Judas had gone out — Jesus announces his betrayal to the beloved disciples and then gives him a piece of bread which he's dipped into his dish. So verse 30 says, "so after receiving the piece of bread, Judas immediately went out, and it was night." So Judas receives the piece of bread; Jesus is effectively giving himself away to Judas as Judas goes to betray him. So it's the giving himself away that's going to be turned into the betraying. So that's immediately before our passage. And immediately after our passage we have Simon Peter saying, "where are you going? I want to go there with you and I'll never let you down, I'll lay down my life for you." And Jesus tells him, "will you lay down your life for me? I tell you, before the cock crows you will have denied me three times." In other words, this passage is set between the two different forms of betrayal: Judas's betrayal, which might be described as going over to the other side, and Peter's betrayal, which might be described as playing for one's own side but in a sufficiently incompetent and muddled way that you screw it up. Both are forms, if you like, of betrayal. But the point is that in the midst of them, the midst of these two movements, that is the space in which Jesus is being glorified. So "when Judas had gone out, Jesus said, 'now the Son of Man has been glorified,'" referring back absolutely to the immediate past moment in which he has given himself away to Judas under the form of bread. "And God has been glorified in him." In other words, this is going to be from now on the opinion, the reputation of God. I'd like to spend a little time with you with this word "glorified," because we tend to make it a bit mystical, and no doubt it should have some mystery about it. It's the word that comes from opinion, reputation. It's what you think of someone. The Son of Man being glorified is the Son of Man being given the true reputation, the reputation that he deserves. And where is that true reputation to be found? In his giving of himself away in the midst of betrayal. And he's saying, "And God has been glorified in him." It's not just "I'm being held up for this." This is now for you the sign of who God is. God is shown principally in us giving ourselves away in the midst of darkness and tribulation. That's how you will know who God is. That's going to be the fullness of God's glory. It's going to be brought to its fullness amongst you this night. And of course it refers to later events in that night, when Judas and the palace and priestly guard come to find Jesus, and they seek him, they want to know where he is, and when he says "I am" they fall back. In other words, they fall down as people fell before the name when it was uttered by the great high priest at the end of the atonement rite. It's the theophany, it's the revelation of who God is. God wants to make God's self known to us as the one who occupies the place of betrayal, shame, on the way to death. And that that is what Jesus is doing, so as to give God God's reputation, and to allow Jesus to receive the reputation that comes from God, so that we will know that this is who God is. So the next line: "If God has been glorified in him" — actually the word "if" is not in the Greek. The word in Greek is "and," so it's probably better if we translate it as "God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself." So I'm going to be giving God what's proper reputation, and God will give me back my reputation. He will show you that this was what God was all about, which of course we're going to get in the resurrection. "And will glorify him at once." So this is going to happen now, straight away. The fullness of God's glory is going to be revealed in this handing over, in this dark space. Now he switches from the third person to the second person, talking to "little children." This is actually the only use of that phrase in John's Gospel. We get it in John's Epistles, but it's the only phrase here. It's a tender term. "Little children, I'm with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you: where I am going, you cannot come." He'd had conversations earlier with different groups, Pharisees, Jews, and one of the recurrent One of the themes was: "I am going where you cannot come" — and of course he's referring, which they didn't understand, to his going to his death. But what he means is his going to his death as a creative act, to occupy the space of death so as to take it out of the useful tools of running our lives. It's his assuming death from within, which only he can do. And then he says: "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another." Now please notice this is not, as it were, an additional commandment — this is much more like a takeover commandment. In the discourse in which Jesus is presented here, he's actually presented to us very much as Moses's farewell speech in Deuteronomy. And according to people much more expert than I, there are many parallels between Moses's farewell speech and what Jesus is doing here in showing God's glory. But here he says: "I give you a new commandment" — not that you love God above all things, but that you love one another. "Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." In other words, the definition of the new commandment is to notice something that has been done for you. "Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another" — in the degree to which you become aware of what I am doing for you, so you will be able to love one another. And this is really very striking, because it's not a moralistic commandment at all; it's much more like an illustrative commandment. Here I am opening up the way for you — now that it is open, you'll be able to run along it. And please notice that the first example of this is him giving himself away as a sop to Judas, to the one who betrayed him. He's talking about loving even Judas. "Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." And then he says: "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." In other words, it's not if you obey certain commandments or if you keep certain regulations — it's because you will obviously be giving yourself away in the midst of rough, turbulent humans, as I did. And as far as you do that, you will have peace amongst yourselves, and people will recognize that you are following me, because that's what I've done. "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Again, just stressing the fact that it's someone doing something for us, and as we allow ourselves to be formed by the reception of what is being done for us, so we will be able to love. ...will be recognized as being like him. But it's that way around. This is the absolutely key part of how the resurrection life comes upon us: not as a series of commands or a series of moralizations, but as a taking us into an awareness of being loved, of what he has done for us, so that we can begin to relax into being loved and to love each other without envy or fear or ambition or rivalry, because we know that he gave himself away so we can give ourselves away, and that it's as we do that that we will no longer be obstacles, blocks to each other, and we will find ourselves on the inside of the resurrection life, which is what our celebration today is all about. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.