John 13:21-38 "When Following Means Staying"

When I accepted the call of God on my life, I joined the millions who have gone before in following Jesus. This is the call that gives my life purpose and direction. The words of Jesus and the commissioning Christ gives continues to shape my life more and more. I am sure the same was true for the disciples. I am sure that they never considered the adventures their lives would take before following Jesus.

And so when Jesus tells them that they have followed as far as they will go, I am sure there was a level of disappointment. They witnessed miracles, heard teachings, escaped angry Pharisees and even hid from bloodthirsty crowds. They had been through everything with Jesus, and when it seems like the adventure is really going somewhere, Jesus tells them to stop.

The 12 (now the 11, Judas took off) are not the only ones to have this experience. The Gerasene demoniac wanted to follow Jesus as a disciple, but Jesus made him stay in the town that had rejected him as dangerous in order to be a witness. He never got the full apostolic adventure. Only the 12 got that. And here, they are called to the task of loving one another no matter what, and given the promise that one day they will follow Jesus to the final destination.

Love is boring. I mean, love is boring compared to the adventure of laying down your life for what you believe in. People go to movies where lovers fight empires and slay dragons for each other. People do not generally go to see movies where people live out every day lives. And if you have, I'm sorry, your 20 dollars could have been better spent elsewhere. And so why did Jesus invite the disciples on an adventure just to drop them off with boring ol' love? Peter certainly felt a little ripped off by the idea!

Except love is not boring. The love that Jesus was talking about is far from boring or monotonous. It may be small, but it is significant. The love that Jesus told the disciples to employ was not about choosing a few friends and a spouse and a family to love, that would be boring. The love that Jesus gave the disciples was for God's world. This love was meant to be of service and crossing boundaries, or making new relationships and seeing lives transformed. This love is not for the faint of heart- this love is courageous and messy, complicated and yet peaceful. This is the love that Jesus gave us, and the task that all of us Christians have on our lives.