‍SUMMARY KEYWORDS

jesus, love, god, meal, life, truths, people, loving, posture, telling, community, greatness, group, spiritual practices, die, shows, church, seek, position, kingdom.

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SPEAKER

Cheryl Fletcher

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Good Morning. I'm Cheryl. I'm one of the pastors here at Menlo Church and I want to give greetings to our campuses: Saratoga, Mountain View, San Mateo. And y'all right here in this room, so good to be together.

Well. Love is hard.

Love is hard. And I know I'm saying this to a community that loves fiercely. A community that loves well. Menlo Church, you love well. Almost every week, I hear stories of life groups that are gathering around people in their group who are maybe walking through tough stuff, or life groups that are getting around people and celebrating their wins with them, or providing for needs that they have within that group. This is a place where there's a lot of love. I know that many of you, I also hear stories of people just how you're practically loving coworkers, classmates, neighbors. But love can be hard. And I know for me, it typically shows up with the people that I love the most.

It shows up with the people closest to me. It shows up with the people I see most often— coworkers. It shows up with those who I come across in just my everyday, ordinary life. Love can be hard.

The early church leader Paul said this about love. He said a bunch of things that love is not, but he said two things that love is. He said, "Love is patient, and it is kind.” Love is patient. And love is kind. And that's hard, right? To know God is to know him and experience Him as love. That the God that we worship is a God who is patient and a God who is kind. One of Jesus's friends, John, he wrote it this way. He said, super clearly, God is love. Not God does loving things which he does not, God is, you know, sometimes love and sometimes isn't. No, God is love."

And we enter into spiritual practices. Some of you have jumped on our lent devotional on the YouVersion app; over 4,500 people have subscribed to that Bible reading plan, and you're seeking to meditate on Scripture and apply it to your life. You've stepped into the practice of community and communal worship by being here today or showing up at your life group and worshiping and opening God's word and studying it together and praying for one another. And you do this, at least I hope we do it. I hope I do it for this reason, not just to know more about God. But actually to become like God, right? We do these practices of Bible study and worship and prayer because we want to become people of love.

This was the desire of Jesus for His followers as he made his way to his death, a crucifixion, on the cross and ultimately to resurrection that we'll celebrate on Easter. But Jesus knew that his followers were going to need to love each other. To love the ones they were close to, the ones that they would spend a lot of time with, on mission together to love those near them and in their community. But Jesus also was aware that there were some things that were standing in the way of them loving each other. And I think those same things stand in my way of me loving those close to me, and maybe they stand in your way, and that's what we're going to consider together this morning. But before we do, let's pray once again, and if you feel comfortable, you might just open your palms upward as a physical and embodied way of just saying, "God. I want to receive from you."

Father, we need you. We need you to help us, I need you to help me. We receive your love for us. We receive your presence with us and enough. We receive you. n Jesus' name, Amen.

Well, on the night that Jesus was to be betrayed by one of his friends and taken into custody and hung on a across. He had a final meal with his 12 disciples, these were kind of the inner circle, these 12 guys. And at this meal, he drove home two really important truths to them.

Truths that he had been teaching them, truths He had been telling them. But at this meal, he would show them.

And before this meal, leading up to it, for us to be able to understand that moment, before we get to this table with Jesus and that group of guys, before Jesus unveils those two truths, I want to pull the camera back, if you will. I want to, I want to get a bigger picture. And if we look at the four biographies of Jesus—the first four books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and we layer them over one another, we get such a fuller picture of Jesus and this journey to the cross. We get a tapestry of Jesus's life. And so if we pull back and see what he was telling them, it will make sense what he was showing them.

So before this meal, before this table, Jesus repeatedly, repeatedly told these guys that he had to die, and that He would be raised—three times, explicitly, multiple times, and other ways. But three times, Jesus said very explicitly, "I have to die and I will be raised. I have to die and I will be raised. I have to die and I will be raised." And every time he tells them, they don't get it. The Bible actually says in some places, "and they did not understand." I've been there.

And what's fascinating to me is how they responded to this news. Almost every time Jesus says he's going to die, this group of guys started to debate. And it's not a debate about who's going to be the saddest, or how sad they're going to be. It's not a debate about how they can help Jesus or protect Jesus or any of that, no. They respond to Jesus's news that he has to die. They respond by debating their greatness. Six times, we see Jesus's followers throwing down about who is going to be the greatest among them, in Jesus's kingdom. Now, of course, to be fair, these guys really didn't have a concept for a Messiah who was going to die. They had no anticipation of a resurrection. Their understanding of being a part of Jesus's kingdom was being a part of a political overthrow of the current regime.

And I think they wanted to know that they were going to have a high-standing cabinet post, which one of us gets the best one, which one gets to be secretary of state, which one gets to be vice president, which gets to be vice ing, whatever. In their mind. If Jesus has to die, it must mean that they're going to battle and that that will then put them in positions of power. And they want to know which position they're gonna get. And they're debating which rank they might have. And what I love about Jesus, what I love about Jesus is he doesn't respond by telling them, "You shouldn't want to be great." You know, a lot of Christians don't need to be great.

That's my imitation of Christian. Jesus doesn't respond by telling them not to seek greatness or not to seek power, or not to seek a position. What Jesus does is he tells them, he tells them what he wants their posture to be.

And so Jesus brings a child into the circle at one point and he says to them, "Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, for it is the one who is least among you who is the greatest." Another point, Jesus refers to the leaders of that day. And he said, "Look at those guys, they lord over people, they bear down with personal power. Not so with you. Not so with you. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." And what Jesus does here for these guys, and he's doing it to me, and I hope he's doing it a little bit for you. What Jesus does is Jesus disrupts their understanding of status. You see, they see status as position, as a title. But Jesus sees status as a posture; the posture of serving, the posture of servanthood. Jesus disrupts their sense of power. They've seen power as lording over others. That's when you know you've arrived. That's when you know you're great, when people have to do what you tell them to do because you are in charge.

Jesus says, "Power will come with the vulnerability of a child. Power will come in serving. To receive the least of these is to receive the greatest of these, because the way of Jesus, God in the flesh, the way of Jesus is the way of love." And these followers are going to need to love each other. Because after Jesus's death, and His resurrection, and His ascension to the Father, he's going to send his spirit and he's going to send this group of guys out to represent him. And they're going to face disagreements and criticism within one another. Ever been to a church like that? Pretty much every church. So you're going to face disagreements, and they're going to face criticism from one another, and from others outside of their community. They're going to be beaten, they're going to be thrown in prison. And most of them will not just metaphorically surrender their lives for the way of Jesus, they will literally be killed for what they believe. So they're gonna need to love each other.

But it's hard to love those we're competing with. It's hard to love those we're competing with— which one of us is going to be the greatest, which one's going to have the best position, the most power, which one of us is most favored in this classroom, which one of us is most favored in this workspace? Which one of us is most favored in this family? This friend group, it's hard to love those we're competing with. It's hard to love those we're comparing ourselves to, wanting more than they have, or envying what they have, or coveting or wanting what they have. Or maybe even just puffing ourselves up with esteem because "so glad I am not like them. So glad I'm better than those people." Hard to love those we're comparing ourselves to. It's hard to love when we're trying to prove ourselves.

Probably one of my favorite of the followers of Jesus is a guy named Peter. And I love Peter because I relate to him so much. And you get the sense when you follow Peter's life, that there might have been some times when he was jockeying for position, right? When he's trying to prove he's worthy of what Jesus had called him to rather than just living into what Jesus had called him to. Peter's the guy who told Jesus he was wrong, "but you're not gonna die. I got the answers Jesus, I'm the Answer Guy." "I'm smart. I know things." Hard to love when you're trying to prove yourself. It's hard to love when you're keeping score, when the people closest to us aren't meeting our expectations, minus 50 points. When they aren't reading the lines that we've written for them in our mind, we haven't given them a script, but we expect them to know it. And they're not responding the way we plan on it, that's minus 192. When they don't get us, minus 200. When they want too much, minus 500. When they don't empty the dishwasher, minus 797. It's those things, right? It's those things. It's those things.

Paul, again, “Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs.” It keeps no record of wrongs.

So you got this group of Jesus followers, so concerned about their personal greatness, their status, their title, how they're seen as Christ followers, how they perform, where they fall into the pecking order of disciples, whether they are going to be respected and esteemed as they feel they deserve to be. This group, apprenticing in the way of Jesus, is competing and comparing and proving and keeping score. And when they come together to this meal with Jesus, Jesus knows this is their last meal together.

Jesus knows it's not time to just tell them, it's now time to show them. It's time to show them not the position of greatness, but the posture of greatness. You can find all of this in John chapter 13 and Luke 22. And what Jesus shows them is this: He shows them two things. He shows them how he loves them, shows them how he loves them. And he shows them how they can do the same for one another. He shows them a cup. He shows them a loaf of bread. And he shows them a towel. And in Luke, it says this: "When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles"—that's a word for leaders, they were going to lead in this early church—"Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And Jesus said to them, 'I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer.' They would have eaten it together before. This was a ritual. It was a ceremony. It was a meal that they shared to celebrate and remember God rescuing his people out of Egypt. And Jesus says, 'For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.'"

And Jesus took bread and he gave thanks, and he broke it. And he gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after the supper, he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant. That's a commitment deeper than any contract. This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." And of course, they did not understand any of this. They even got another argument about debating who was the greatest at this very meal. They didn't understand until they looked back and they realized what we realize: the power of Jesus was displayed in the vulnerability of Jesus, his body broken, his blood shed, his death for their life. His death for their freedom, the freedom that would come through the forgiveness and redemption and unhindered access to a relationship with God. That was accomplished because of Jesus's life, and his death, and his resurrection, and his ascension.

And when we come to this table, which we're going to do in a bit, when we come to this table, we do it to receive from Jesus, we do it to remember what he has done and is doing for us, to remember his grace, his ongoing work of transformation, his promise that there will be a day in the fullness of His kingdom when he returns and he makes all things perfectly right. That we, we will physically and literally share this feast with him to remember his covenant commitment to us, that He is our God, and we are His people. And that He will not forsake that commitment to us.

Jesus took a cup and he took bread. And at the same time, at this same meal, He took a towel. And he didn't initially tell them to be servants, he showed them. Jesus took the posture and offered the service that would have been done by a slave or a servant. It was practical, it was active love. Jesus washed their feet. He washed the feet of Peter, who would soon deny having any relationship with him. He washed the feet of Judas who would actually leave the meal and go betray him and have him sent to the cross. He washed the feet of John, who found his identity and his understanding of self by defining himself as one loved by Jesus. He washed their feet. He showed them that this is the posture of greatness. Someone once said that the greater the title, the bigger the towel.

And after showing the cup and the bread and the towel, Jesus did say this to Him. He defined what life with him looks like. He said, "A new command I give you: Love one another as I have loved you. So you must love one another. By this, everyone will know, by this, by love, by this, by this, by this. Everyone will know you belong to me. Everyone will know you follow me. If you love one another." John, who was at that meal, would later write, "Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth." And then, dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us. He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through him, not just for him, through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

What does it look like for you, for me to love those closest to us, those you see most often, those most dear to you, what is the practical action you can take that is truly loving, truly patient, truly kind? Let me say this: it's rarely giving advice. If you're a consultant, do that in your workplace. But for those of you who are the people who are close to you, it's rarely giving advice. It's certainly not taking control. If you find yourself—this is a check for me—if you find yourself feeling more powerful than present, that's probably a check in your spirit. More powerful, "I got the answers. I know stuff. I'm the thing. Look at me loving you." If you find yourself feeling more powerful than present, that's a check. I imagine that our act of love is more about us listening than it was about speaking. I'm much better at speaking than listening.

David Augsburger, author, says, "Being heard is so close to being loved, that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable." Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable. I was at a retreat this past week with author and Pastor Trevor Hudson, and he said something I can't shake. It was just on Friday. He said, "Crowds are made by great speakers. I'd like to be a great speaker. “Crowds are made by great speakers, but lives are transformed by great listeners." Do I want to be a great listener? Lives are transformed by great listeners. If we want to grow in the way of love, we'll have to ask the people closest to us. This will take courage. We'll have to ask them, "When do you experience love from me? And when do you not experience love from me?" And if they're courageous enough—because this takes great courage, more courage to answer the question than to ask the question—and if they're courageous enough to answer, say “thank you.” And then, zip it.

Say thank you.

Who is it that God is inviting you to love? I want to just take a minute.

Lord, would you put on our mind the person we need to move towards this week with patience and kindness, with listening and care?

A cup, a loaf of bread, the towel. The temptation will be to leave here and try to manufacture love. "I'm gonna go be loving this week, dadgum-it." But Trevor Hudson again, suggested this: he said that sometimes in the Christian community, he thinks that we may be focused too much on the spiritual practices and not enough on our posture. We want to get the technique right. But we need to get our heart right. I think Jesus knew this. He knew that we needed to get the order right, to put ourselves in a posture of love. John, again, his friends said, "We love because he first loved us." Of course, John had heard Jesus say, later in the same meal in John 15, Jesus says, "As the Father has loved me, this is Jesus, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept My Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you,” but first. No experience. Believe this mind-blowing truth: as the Father has loved Jesus, Jesus has loved you, has loved me.

For the past month after hearing a speaker suggest this and some books have, and reading mentioned the same thing, I've been trying to start my mornings with - in my sanctified imagination - gazing upon Jesus as he gazes upon me in love. I just say, "Alexa, set the timer for 10 minutes," then I don't have to look at anything. And I sit in a posture and I just seek to imagine Jesus looking upon me, not with what he wants to change in me, not with what he wants me to do, but with his love for me. Could we do that for just this last minute?

Would you just close your eyes? And imagine Jesus gazing upon you in love. "As the Father has loved me," he says, "So has he loved you." And his love never gives up on you. His love pursues you. His love finds you. His love adores you. Picture that.

Oh, Jesus, thank you. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for pursuing us. Thank You that You adore each person in this room. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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