Day 23: If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love
Still smiling, with his arm around John’s shoulder, Jesus gives him a big squeeze, pulling him in close as he looks around the circle. Fishermen and tax collectors were an unlikely community, and they often struggled to love each other. Sometimes they were less than civil to each other. Jesus loves each one, and they know it well. He considers what it will take for them to stay in this community of love when he is gone, and he wants to keep it simple… easy to remember. He lets go of John, and slapping him gently on the back, says to the group,
“If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love.”
He has so much more to say, but he stops to let the words sink in. Maybe he even repeats it, emphasizing “my commands.” Jesus can see the disciples mentally processing the difference between the rules of the Jewish religious system and the invitation to live in a new way of justice, mercy, grace, and love that Jesus has modeled for them over the last few years as they have lived in constant community.
Vineyard Metaphor
As we noticed in our last meditation, the process of photosynthesis is beautifully complex and symbiotically necessary for the fruitfulness of the vine. Remember that carbon dioxide, which is a toxic gas, enters through the stomata into the energetic chloroplast cells. Inside the chloroplast cells the carbon dioxide molecules encounter water molecules. As the energy of sunlight pierces the leaf, it mingles with the water and the carbon dioxide inside the chloroplast cells, and a miraculous transformation happens. The toxic carbon dioxide is metabolized into sugar and oxygen in the presence of water and sunlight. What a transformation! Carbon dioxide changes from a toxin to a life-giving substance. Sugar circulates through the phloem system of “veins” to feed the vine and produce sweet fruit. Oxygen is released into the atmosphere as a byproduct that sustains life outside the vine.
The transformation requires the toxin to fuse with the lifeblood of the vine (water) and the life-giving energy of the sun inside an efficient and hard-working cell, capable of holding all that together for long enough to metabolize the toxin and produce life-sustaining sugar and oxygen.
Reflection and Meditation
In some ways this transformation is a metaphor of what happens when we keep Jesus’ commands, when we obey his teachings. Imagine being the diligent, obedient chloroplast cell. All the toxins of our world, things like injustice, addiction, pride, greed, envy, and lies, enter our life and threaten to destroy us. They pierce our soul like the carbon dioxide enters the chloroplast. As God’s truth, like sunlight, permeates our soul and meets with the life-giving water of the Vine, the toxin is transformed. When we obey the simple command to love one another, to love our neighbor, cursing is met with blessing, and justice is accomplished. Generosity and truth abound, grace and mercy flourish, and God’s love is manifested in us.
Pause and reflect on this beautiful metaphor of transformation.
Are there toxins in your world that have threatened to destroy your soul? Take a moment to name them.
As you consider the toxins you have just named, ask God to show you one truth that would shine a light on one toxin. Meditate on that truth.
If you have suffered injustice, for example, perhaps meditating on the truth of Isaiah 30:18 “…the Lord is a God of justice” would bring a life-changing ray of sunshine into your soul.
Offer God your obedience to love your neighbor, to bless and not curse, to act justly, to show mercy, to walk in humility.
Breathe in the sweetness of the transformation that happens in your soul.
Rest in the love of God.
“When we work for Christ out of obligation, it feels like work. But when we truly love Christ, our work is a manifestation of that love, and it feels like love.”