A Devotion for the Last Word
-John 13: 34-35 NRSV
We all know that first words, and first impressions are important. We’re taught that early on. To show up polished and presentable on a first date or job interview, to speak with clarity and kindness.
But I might argue that last words are just as important, perhaps even more important than first words. What is it about last words? Last words are important because they are what we will remember – about a person or event. They carry weight. They are our parting shot, our summary, or last ditch effort to make our point. They stick in our minds and our hearts, long after the conversation, and sometimes, long after a person is gone.
In John chapter 13, we read part of what has become known as Jesus’ farewell discourse, an account exclusive to the Gospel of John.
In this address, we hear Jesus’ last words – his last instructions to the group of disciples before his death. This is a really significant time for this group. It is an intimate gathering, a family meal. These are men he has spend months and years with, teaching, learning, instructing, eating together, living life in close proximity and depending on one another. These are the people who have learned to walk in the way of Jesus, and here now, as they gather in the Upper Room, ready to hear from Jesus, their friend and Savior.
These are Jesus’ last words to his followers, the time where he will bestow upon them his wisdom, his wealth, his estate, essentially. This is the passing of the baton and commissioning all at once. must offer them the simplest, most basic, and most difficult command of all: Love one another.
"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another."
In this moment, Jesus could have chosen to talk about a number of things: the time and place of his return, how his followers should worship him, what day we should celebrate his birth, whether we should sing from hymnals or projector screens, celebrate communion weekly, monthly or quarterly – you know, given us some more details on this whole Christian life thing.
Or perhaps he could have given us the final word of truth on an array of issues ranging from politics, race, gender, sexual orientation, how to care for environment, or what to do in times of war. But, no, he chooses to talk about love. Jesus believes that love, over anything and everything else, is the most important command, the very basis of life together.
He chooses to leave his disciples, and us, with love as the last word.
What kind of legacy is love anyway?
After all, John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus has just washed the disciples’ feet. They have just witnessed Jesus display acts of love that have stooped him to the level of a servant. And now they’re being told that this stooped love, this servant, feet-washing posture, is the last word? This humble, basic, even smelly act – this is what it’s all about, Jesus? Love- that sentimental, sappy thing?
Writer Aldous Huxley says this about love:
Of all the worn, smudged, dog’s-eared words in our vocabulary, ‘love’ is surely the grubbiest, smelliest, slimiest. Bawled from a million pulpits, lasciviously crooned through hundreds of millions of loud speakers, it has become an outrage to good taste and decent feeling, an obscenity which one hesitates to pronounce. And yet, it has to be pronounced, for, after all, Love is the last word.
Love. This word that we throw around lightly in pop songs and slogans. That we attribute to how we feel about a certain food or sports team. Tomorrow, on Valentine’s Day, we will see professions of love everywhere we turn.
But what is different about the love that Jesus offers and commands us to live out?
How do we live in world where we truly believe that love has the last word, that love wins?
Do we love just those who are easy to love? It’s easy to love those with whom you agree, those you like spending time with, people who affirm what you think and believe. But this love that Christ call us to is a call to love those who are the most difficult to love. The disciples were directed to choose love in the aftermath of betrayal and in the midst of uncertainty. To love those who have struck them, and beat them, who have abandoned and forsaken them. When the actions and words of others clearly come from mistrust and hate and discrimination. Choose love.
Perhaps even more difficult, we are called to those who can offer us nothing: no status, no return on investment, perhaps not even love in return. We are called to love not on people’s merits or for what they could offer, but simply and wholly because they are a child of God. Our calling as Christ followers is to make real that love that he has shown us, when we didn’t deserve it, when we could offer nothing in return.
Think for a moment about how Jesus loved. He met people wherever they were in life. He sought to understand them, to offer help and healing. He called out the best in them and challenged them to become better. He healed the sick, clothed the naked, forgave the guilty, delivered the oppressed, welcomed outcasts and made strangers into friends. In short, Jesus’ love is made real in concrete, tangible ways, specifically meant to meet the deepest needs of others. To love like Jesus, we must also take seriously the needs of others, truly know and be with people so that our love is a redemptive force, not one of self-service. Through our work of disaster recovery, we get a chance to offer the word of love, to make real God’s hope and redemption in people’s lives and hearts.
In the face of pain, to those who are the most broken and beaten, the love of God is the last word. It is rightfully the last word, the very best word we have.
With you on the journey,
How do we live in world where we truly believe that love has the last word, that love wins?
Do we love just those who are easy to love? It’s easy to love those with whom you agree, those you like spending time with, people who affirm what you think and believe. But this love that Christ call us to is a call to love those who are the most difficult to love. The disciples were directed to choose love in the aftermath of betrayal and in the midst of uncertainty. To love those who have struck them, and beat them, who have abandoned and forsaken them. When the actions and words of others clearly come from mistrust and hate and discrimination. Choose love.
Perhaps even more difficult, we are called to those who can offer us nothing: no status, no return on investment, perhaps not even love in return. We are called to love not on people’s merits or for what they could offer, but simply and wholly because they are a child of God. Our calling as Christ followers is to make real that love that he has shown us, when we didn’t deserve it, when we could offer nothing in return.
Think for a moment about how Jesus loved. He met people wherever they were in life. He sought to understand them, to offer help and healing. He called out the best in them and challenged them to become better. He healed the sick, clothed the naked, forgave the guilty, delivered the oppressed, welcomed outcasts and made strangers into friends. In short, Jesus’ love is made real in concrete, tangible ways, specifically meant to meet the deepest needs of others. To love like Jesus, we must also take seriously the needs of others, truly know and be with people so that our love is a redemptive force, not one of self-service. Through our work of disaster recovery, we get a chance to offer the word of love, to make real God’s hope and redemption in people’s lives and hearts.
In the face of pain, to those who are the most broken and beaten, the love of God is the last word. It is rightfully the last word, the very best word we have.
With you on the journey,
Chaplain Amy
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