One of my favorite movies is called "City Slickers." It is the story of three guys from New York City who are going through midlife crises and decide to go out west on a cattle drive to find themselves. Billy Crystal plays "Mitch," a cynical advertising man whose life has become extremely predictable. He has a lovely home, great kids and an adoring wife. But he feels there's something missing, and he can't figure out what. So he goes on this cattle drive hoping to find the meaning of life. On the way, he meets a real no-nonsense cowboy named Curly, played by Jack Palance. Curly doesn't have much use for city slickers - he thinks they are soft, fat and self-indulgent. One day, he and Mitch are talking and Curly says, "You want to know the secret of life? The secret of life is Just One Thing. You stick to that and the rest doesn't mean anything." Mitch asks, "But what is that one thing?" Curly replies, "That's for you to find out."
In today's lesson from the Gospel of John, Jesus wants to leave his disciples something they can hold on to as he prepares them for his departure. He has been their teacher, mentor, pastor, rabbi for 3 years. He is tired and he knows that he is about to be captured and tried. He has just one more opportunity to give his disciples his final words about what it means to do ministry in the world. And so he sets out to explain one last time all the things that he wants them to remember. But how would he do it? They had been so many places together; done so much together. They had fed thousands of people, healed the sick so that the blind could see or the deaf could hear. They had raised the dead and comforted the grieving. They had spent so much time together, and now he was going away. And he thinks about all of this and says, "the secret of our lives together is Just One Thing."
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.
Just One Thing. That's it. That's all there is to it - that we love one another as he has loved us. In this single commandment, Jesus has distilled all of his teachings and all of his ministry. He distilled thousands of pages of the Old Testament, and hundreds of pages of the New Testament. Jesus had just one commandment for his friends: love each other.
Sometimes we who are "professional Christians" - i.e., the clergy folks you pay to lead you in prayer and worship and study - sometimes we make things too complicated. There are thousands and thousands of pages of commentary that have been written about these 8 verses of scripture. There are hundreds of priests and pastors who are preaching on this very passage today. But the fact of the matter is that Jesus didn't want this to be complicated; he wanted it to be very simple, so simple the disciples would always remember it after he was gone. The disciples, who were no longer his servants, but now his very best of friends, would always remember what he told them after he was gone. This is the root of all of the Gospels. This is the root of all of Jesus' ministry. This is the root of the grapevine that is our common life together. It all comes down to one thing: love. God's love for Jesus empowered him to perform miraculous and wondrous things. Christ's love for us empowers us to do the same. As the Father loved him (that is, unconditionally, eternally, without reservation), so Jesus loves us. It is a love we do not ask for; it is a love we do not deserve; it is a love we do not choose. Instead, he choses us. Christ's love for us is total and unconditional, and through it he completes us. His joy in us completes us, it makes us whole. Our response to his love for us is our love for one another. The same kind of love that he gives us, we are to give, and accept, from one another. That's what it means to be a Christian community.
If God's love is what animates Christ, and if Christ's love animates us, then God is the sole source of all love, the source of our feelings between one another, and among one another, and even between us in here and those outside whose names we do not even know. Jesus' commandment is to love.
But then he says something more. He says that there is no greater love than to give up one's life for one's friends, and of course he did that soon after his final meal with his disciples. To sacrifice one's life for another is of course the highest sacrifice we can make. But it is not the only way to give up our lives for the sake of others. School teachers dedicate their lives to teaching others. Lawyers dedicate their lives in searching for justice. Parents dedicates themselves to their children. Musicians dedicate themselves to bringing other people joy. These are just a few of the ways we love one another and give up our lives for the sake of the community we share. All of us serve the Lord by serving one another. It is the outward and visible expression of our love. We are called to love, and love unconditionally.
In the end, I believe that Jesus would say that Curly was absolutely right - the secret to life is Just One Thing. When we distill everything that Jesus ever did or said, it all comes down to his single final commandment to us who are his friends. And this is his commandment, that we love one another as he has loved us.
Thanks be to God.
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