Love Protects

Where I am going, you cannot come.

Where is it that Jesus is going that his disciples cannot go?

Union with God in heaven, that’s the traditional understanding. 

In this case it would be a “not yet.” His disciples have more to do on earth. Heaven is not for them yet.

Their union with Christ happens directly, then and there. And this union is what the disciples are living. They commune with Christ every day.

We too can be united with Christ in the here and now. Through our taking in of his spirit into our own, there is communion with Christ right here and right now. 

But full union with God in heaven is a future reality that awaits us just as it awaited the disciples who communed with Jesus. 

There is another level to what Jesus is talking about, though. Yes, the disciples cannot follow Christ in his eventual ascension to heaven right now. But Jesus is talking about something more earthbound too, here. 

Where is Jesus headed more immediately? What awaits Jesus before his ascension? 

Death on a Roman cross. That is where Jesus is going very soon, to the cross.

And Jesus is saying, you can’t follow me there. The cross is not for you to go to, not yet anyway. This is my cross to bear.

Now, there’s no doubt a few of his disciples would have followed him to the cross. They would have fought to the end. Peter mentions in Luke 22 this very thing. Luke 22:33 – Peter says, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death!” 

But Jesus says, no. Where I’m going you cannot go. I’m going to the cross, and you can’t follow me there right now.

I think this second, more immediate level to Jesus’ statement, where I’m going, you cannot come is tremendously important. Often, as interpreters of the Bible, we immediately go to the spiritual meaning, to the heavenly understanding, to the transcendent level, as in the afterlife. In the process, we forget about the situational context, what is going on in the here and now of Jesus and his relationship with the disciples. We forget the historical reading of these stories. 

In the gospel of John especially, Jesus seeks to protect his disciples from the fate he must face. Keeping his disciples safe and sound so that they are able to take his good news and share it when he’s gone, that is a crucial part of Jesus’s plan.

One of my favorite chapters of the Bible is John 17. The whole chapter is literally the Lord’s prayer. The one we recite every week is what our Lord used to teach us how to pray. John 17 is our Lord’s own prayer, a truly heartfelt one. He offers this prayer while in the Garden of Gethsemane just before he’s arrested. In it, we see his utter love for his disciples. 

There’s a verse in John 17 that is especially poignant. It shows Jesus’ profound desire to protect his disciples. Here’s what it says:

While I was with them, I protected them in your name, the name you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost.

Hereafter, Jesus will continue to protect them. Most notably, Jesus protects his disciples via the cross. 

Jesus famously says, No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Out of love, Jesus lays down his life for his disciples’ and followers’ sake, to protect them, to save them.

In John 10, Jesus refers to himself as the good shepherd. The shepherd takes care of his sheep, protecting them, keeping them safe. The good shepherd will even lay down his life to save the sheep. John 10 mentions the shepherd laying down his life for the sheep three times, emphasizing its importance. Of course, Jesus’s disciples and followers are the sheep, and Jesus indeed dies to protect them.

We all claim and hear the claim that Jesus’s death means our salvation. But consider how Jesus’ death meant his disciples’ and followers’ protection. His lonely death on the cross meant that they did not have to die following him to the cross. Jesus took the bullet of the cross that would have otherwise been theirs, too.

That’s the way Jesus wanted it. And love moved this plan, that the disciples would flee to safety and he’d bear the cross alone. He laid down his life for them to be safe. That’s what love does.

Love protects.

I Corinthians 13 tells us this. The love chapter, explaining what godly love looks like, says in verse 7, in the NIV translation, begins, Love always protects…

With this idea in mind, let’s read the rest of our passage from John 13:

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 

Simply put, Christians, protect others. 

Other Christians? Yes, whether they are from next door, another state, South America, crossing borders, or on the other side of the world, Christians are to love other Christians. 

But not just other Christians. Love thy neighbor, Christ commanded, connecting it to love of God. Love neighbor, period, regardless of one’s named faith. 

And who are our neighbors? Whoever is in front of us or among us. The one picking our crops is our neighbor. The one trucking our food in is our neighbor. The clerk at the grocery store is our neighbor. The one handing us our food and bussing our tables at a restaurant is our neighbor.

To love our neighbors means to seek to protect them from harm.

Not just other Christians or our non-Christian neighbors, but even our enemies. 

Let me say a few words about the radical command Jesus gives for us to love our enemies.

That the golden rule, that we should treat others as we want to be treated, would be applied to enemies, loving our enemies as ourselves, was next level when it came to the demands of religious practice.

No other command has affected the Western ethos and ethics more. 

Police and military officers, who often confront “bad guys” or “the deemed enemy,” what are they taught to do in their work? Do your job, yes, arrest suspected criminals or subdue enemy combatants, but do so ethically, seeking to ensure the humanity of even those being arrested or subdued. This is the code of conduct. Is it always followed? No, but consequences await if not. 

So, the Christian value of loving enemies has a corollary even in the ethics of law enforcement and the military as well. Love in this case means seeking to protect and treat everyone ethically, the way you want to be treated.

In some sense, the West is full of Christian nations. The Christian value called the golden rule, treating others the way we want to be treated, runs deep and has its corollaries in our law and ethics. We mustn’t lose that!

I’ll close with the last verse from our gospel lectionary reading.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Here, Jesus gives us the tell-tale sign of a Christ-follower. Want to know who is a Christian? Look for the love in them and for others. Those who love are part of my sheep, Jesus suggests. Those who love, follow me; and those who follow me, love, Jesus says. Those who love, love God and love me, Jesus makes clear.

Want to be a Christian individual? Love everyone!

Want to be a Christian people? Love everyone!

Want to be a Christian nation? Love everyone!   

Without love, Christ abides not. With love, Christ abides.

That’s the good news. It’s also the difficult work. But without that good, hard news, we can’t be who we say we are, followers of the one who laid down his life to protect us all.