As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And 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. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. (John 15:9-17, NRSV)
Who are you?
It is a question we get asked all the time. And how do we answer that question?
Well I am a pastor, a father, a husband, a brother, a friend, a musician, a blogger, a social media junkie…
But do these really say who I am?
We can use all kind of words to describe who we are, but there is one identity that is where who we are really lies.
In the 15th chapter of John, Jesus is telling the disciples that they need to abide in Him so their joy will be complete. Now remember that Jesus is saying this hours before He is arrested, put on trial, beat, and crucified. And also before He knows what will happen to the disciples. That their joy would be complete! And they may know that Jesus loves them. They did not choose Jesus, but Jesus chose them. Just like you. Jesus chose you. So abide in His love.
Philip Yancey writes about identity in What’s So Amazing about Grace?:
Not long ago I received in the mail a postcard from a friend that had on it only six words, “I am the one Jesus loves.” I smiled when I saw the return address, for my strange friend excels at these pious slogans. When I called him, though, he told me the slogan came from the author and speaker Brennan Manning. At a seminar, Manning referred to Jesus’ closest friend on earth, the disciple named John, identified in the Gospels as “the one Jesus loved.” Manning said, “If John were to be asked, ‘What is your primary identity in life?’ he would not reply, ‘I am a disciple, an apostle, an evangelist, an author of one of the four Gospels,’ but rather, ‘I am the one Jesus loves.’”
What would it mean, I ask myself, if I too came to the place where I saw my primary identity in life as “the one Jesus loves”? How differently would I view myself at the end of a day?
Sociologists have a theory of the looking-glass self: you become what the most important person in your life (wife, father, boss, etc.) thinks you are. How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible’s astounding words about God’s love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees?
Brennan Manning tells the story of an Irish priest who, on a walking tour of a rural parish, sees an old peasant kneeling by the side of the road, praying. Impressed, the priest says to the man, “You must be very close to God.” The peasant looks up from his prayers, thinks a moment, and then smiles, “Yes, he’s very fond of me.” [pp. 68-69]
Could you answer the question who are you with “I am the one Jesus loves!”
Because you are! It is not for anything that you have done, or will do, and in spite of all the things you have done and will do, Jesus loves you.
Jesus is very fond of you, because you are the one Jesus loves!
aSacredRebel 