Notes on John 15: 9 – 17

This passage is one recommended for Remembrance Sunday and so we read it with this in mind. Our first thoughts centred on verse 13 “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” The obvious conclusion is to align this in some way with a soldier’s sacrifice for his country during war. However, this gave some of us some unease, as this verse actually applies to Jesus’ death and cannot really be applied to that of a soldier at war. Verse 13 is dependent on verse 12, Jesus’ commandment to love as He has loved; and also verse 14, where His disciples are spoken of as His friends. Jesus’ great teaching in this passage is love; it is this that gave us feelings of unease about using the passage for Remembrance Day, as war is totally opposed to love! How then can we use this passage on Remembrance Day?

We felt that perhaps we could look at the solidarity of soldiers and the solidarity that comes to a nation facing annihilation by another. This would mean another understanding of the word love which is more like comradeship. Remembrance Sunday is difficult, as some of our congregations still remember WWI, not to mention WWII. These were wars where conscription was used to build the armed forces, and we cannot belittle the sacrifices made by many people during those wars. Today we do not have conscription and choices are made about whether or not to join. We were worried that a few years ago the armed forces were advertised as if they were a University course, not about killing. This has stopped now, but our forces have a very difficult job none-the-less, as they are expected to keep the peace in some areas, which is not really what they are trained for. Some of our congregations may have relatives in the armed forces and may be worried about their being in Iraq or Afghanistan. We have to balance any thoughts we may have about war today with congregations’ memories and worries. Perhaps we could look at a message of no vengeance? Maybe look at how Taize was formed and why? One suggestion was to use the reading from Micah about beating swords into ploughshares, alongside this passage and place the emphasis on hope, by concentrating our message on a better life in Christ. We could concentrate on reconciliation and the role our troops have in bringing peace now.

We next looked at whether we would think about the passage differently for a Sunday which was not Remembrance Sunday. Yes, we would have a different focus. We thought perhaps we might use verses 13 – 15, with an emphasis on carers looking after relatives or friends. All Christians give up their lives to Jesus, receiving new life. We need to concentrate on not what might have been but the new life we are given. Jesus gave up His earthly life in two ways; first His life as a citizen of Nazareth probably a carpenter, secondly His physical life through His death on the cross.

In looking at how we might interpret this passage on a different Sunday from Remembrance we realised that verses 1-9 are important. Here Jesus tells the disciples that to produce “fruit” they must abide in Him just as He abides in God. To produce fruit they need to keep Jesus’ commandments and love each other. The analogy with fruit is apt. To produce fruit a plant needs to be pollinated. We need the input of other Christians to pollinate us (Church). The fruit of a plant contains the seeds for new growth, so we must produce fruit to grow the seeds of future Christianity. Fruit needs to ripen before it is ready to burst with seeds and spread them. The fruit of the Spirit is ripened through love and by staying close to Jesus. In other words we must meet with other Christians to grow spiritually; we cannot be isolated. Verse 9 exemplifies the oneness between Jesus and God. In Verse 10 we rebel against God by not accepting His love. Verses 10 & 11 could be seen as examples of Wesleyan perfection: it is difficult to love an unseen Spirit, but we must live as if we loved God so that we may become perfected in love.

Jesus’ use of father to express relationship with God can be a problem for some people. How would we tackle this? Jesus being fully human had to live by the mores of His time; He could not express Himself any differently. The Spirit of God is expressed as female, but God has no gender, however, we are obliged to express ourselves through language which although not acceptable, cannot be helped. Some of us are too old to change but we still need to be sympathetic to other susceptibilities. We believe that this will alter as the years pass and maybe there will be another way of talking about God that does not include gender.

Verse 16 “I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask Him in My Name” is a stumbling block to some people, because they have asked and not received. But on closer examination we thought that it was significant that it was only after fruit had been produced that the father would give anything asked for, and we had to ask in Jesus’ name. In other words we must give ourselves up to God’s will. In His prayer in Gethsemane Jesus asked to be delivered from His death but put himself into God’s hands. This is the sort of prayer we must make. When we pray we usually have an idea of how we want the prayer to be answered. Sometimes our prayer will be answered but not how or when we expect; it is only later we realise how our prayer has been answered. We cannot tell God what to do, but that should not prevent us from telling God what we would like to happen. After all, Jesus did! Sometimes people pray for physical healing and are disappointed. Sometimes the healing, that God provides is in the way of reconciliation and spiritual healing; preparation for the life to come. Is it perhaps easier for older people to be reconciled to lack of physical health than for the young? We must be sensitive to this. We believe that, when we die, we go to live with Jesus. By constantly praying for healing we may delay living in God’s care!