10. What is the message of Jesus?

John 17:25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Have I mentioned that the crucifixion of Christ, and his resurrection were events whose ramifications were so significant that we really don’t comprehend what happened?  Well they were.  There are four divergent, not competing, views of the death of Christ – Penal Substitution, Christus Victor, Ransoming, and Moral Influence.  Get a drink; coffee, tea or hot chocolate, and google those terms. 

Regardless of the view you may have of the death and resurrection of Christ it signalled the beginning of the end of Christ’s ministry on earth.  After his resurrection there were forty days that he continued to be amongst us.  Then he left so that the Holy Spirit might come.

John 16:7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

But, I digress.  Here we are on the night of the last supper.  Jesus is about to be betrayed, and handed over for torture and execution.  I believe his teachings that night were probably the most central to his message.  After all, he is about to be killed, and his followers will scatter.  It would be time to give the final instruction, the final teachings, before what would be a very traumatic time for the eleven gathered men.

And what were the messages that he gave?

They were not messages of condemnation; they were not messages of listen up you so-and-sos you need to behave, they were not messages of hate and pending punishment.  They were messages of encouragement and reassurance.  And once again Jesus gave a command.

John 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

His message was love, love each other.  Yes he was talking to the eleven apostles that remained, but would that not be his message for you and I?  Once again, this time on the eve of his death, Jesus teaches love. 

Jesus talked of love.

As we move, I move, through the season of Lent, is it not the time to ask how am I doing with Love?  I am told that Lent is a time to join in the suffering of Christ through self-denial.  I wonder what he says about that?  For we are commanded to love.