Message: Love, Love, Love / John 15:9-17 & 1 John 5:1-6

One of the most significant historical periods in the development of the Old Testament is known as the Babylonian captivity. It began about 600 years before Jesus was born when the Babylonian Empire destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, and many Jewish people were taken as captives to Babylon.

When the temple, where the Jews believed God resided, was destroyed, they felt devastated. But this tough situation couldn't break their faith. They tried to find their hope, not in a building, but in God’s Word. To better understand God’s will, they gathered, studied, and edited the scattered parts of the Bible. Throughout the process, they saw how much God loved those who were oppressed and God never abandoned them.

About 50 years after the temple was destroyed, the king of Persia, the new empire ruling the ancient Near East, allowed the Jews in Babylon to go back to Jerusalem. Not only that, he also gave them financial help to rebuild the temple. They were really excited about it.

When they finally arrived in their homeland after a long journey of about four months, they saw Jerusalem still in a miserable state: the temple and city walls were in ruins, and there were broken-down houses scattered around. Some of them were overwhelmed by memories of the massacres and violence carried out by the Babylonian army. The conditions for rebuilding the temple were not that good. Some Samaritans and other peoples even interfered with their efforts politically.

Nevertheless, the Jews worked hard together, and 20 years later, they achieved something that seemed impossible: they finished building the Second Temple from the ruins. During this time, Nehemiah, the political leader, and Ezra, the religious leader, returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. They were great leaders. Nehemiah restored Jerusalem politically and economically, including rebuilding the city walls. Ezra taught the Bible to the people, reminding them of God's steadfast love. Jerusalem, which had crumbled under imperial violence, was starting to become the promised land where God's dream was coming true.

However, this story was not recorded with a happy ending. When Ezra read the Bible aloud to the people, they noticed stories of how other peoples cursed them when their ancestors entered the promised land. They started to think that their suffering was because of different ethnic individuals among them. So, they segregated the foreigners in their land. What was worse, foreign women who married Jews and their children were also expelled. The wounds inflicted by the violence of the empires turned into swords against the vulnerable among them.

God allowed the Israelites to live in the Promised Land to fulfill God’s dream of establishing a place without oppression, discrimination, or injustice. Because of this, the Law emphasizes many times the importance of taking good care of strangers, widows, and orphans among them. God even commanded them, saying, "The alien who resides with you shall be to you as a citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God" (Leviticus 19:34).

Sadly, the Jews who came back from Babylon only paid attention to parts of the scripture that supported their hatred towards outsiders. They made the vulnerable within them a sacrifice for their sins. They completely ignored the proclamation in the Bible that everyone is made in God's image. Instead of finding their security in God, they tried to seek safety in their bloodline. They went from being the oppressed to the oppressor, breaking God's command to make a peaceful and hopeful land for everyone. For them, the land was no longer a gift from God. They treated it as their property to achieve their nationalism through ethnic cleansing.

Today's Scripture readings, 1 John and the Gospel of John were written by the same person. We've been reading from these books in the past few Sunday services and some of you might have noticed that these books talk a lot about "love." It's true that compared to other books in the New Testament, the word "love" appears very often in these books (57 times in John and 46 times in 1 John, compared to 15 in Matthew, 5 in Mark, and 15 in Luke). Why do you think that is?

Let me talk about the background of the books. They were written after the Second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD (or CE). Around 66 AD, the Jews rebelled against the Roman Empire. But within four years, the Roman army took control of Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple, which had stood for about 600 years. With the temple gone, Jews started to focus their worship on synagogues, which became an important place for them to experience God's presence.

The problem was that the Jews, who were suffering from the violence of the Roman Empire, became more exclusive. In particular, they started to mistreat Jewish Christians. The earliest followers of Jesus were Jewish, so they still followed Jewish traditions. However, after the destruction of the temple, Jews started to curse Christians in the synagogues. Christians who talked about God's salvation for everyone, not only Jews but also Gentiles, were called heretics by them. The Gospel of John and the Epistle of John were written in this situation where Christians were being persecuted by the Jews. For this reason, unlike the other Gospels, John does not specifically name the religious leaders who criticized and judged Jesus, but simply refers to them as "Jews."

What we have to remember is that, in the midst of this discrimination and oppression, John emphasizes "love" because love is the only way to mend a world broken by violence. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says. "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. [...] This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:10, 12).

So, what does the love Jesus talks about mean? Several words in Greek mean love, and they're often used interchangeably in the New Testament. However, the only word translated as love in today’s text is "agape (verb – agapao)". This word mainly refers to God's love for humans. 

In the Old Testament, the two words most used to describe God's love for humans are "hesed" and "aheb". Love as “hesed” can be understood as kindness, mercy, and compassion. God shows kindness and mercy to those in trouble because God is the compassionate One who suffers (passion) with (com).

Love as “aheb” is often used to express God's love that never gives up. In the book of Jeremiah, the word is used like this: (God says,) "I have loved you with an everlasting love" (31:3). Since the Exodus, the Israelites disappointed God many times. Instead of following God's commandments of love, they used them to mistreat the weak, which caused terrible results. However, whenever they turned back to God, asking for forgiveness and restoration, God accepted and saved them again. God always gave them a second chance. In other words, God's love as “aheb” is a love of forgiveness and patience.

Practicing God's "hesed" and "aheb" is definitely not easy, especially for those who are deeply hurt and traumatized by violence. Because of this, some of them give up on abiding in God’s love and try to find safety in ideologies, weapons, land, race, or wealth as if these were gods. And this keeps the world stuck in never-ending violence and oppression. Unfortunately, we Christians are also not free from these tragedies. Throughout Christian history, many church leaders have used the Gospel of John as a tool to justify anti-Semitism instead of learning and practicing God’s love from it. 

We are witnessing history repeat itself in the Promised Land, and now the conflict has spread to college campuses in the United States and Canada. What does it mean to live as a Christian in these times? Today's Scripture readings say the answer is "love." For Christians, loving is both a gift from Christ and a commandment from Christ. God loved us first with kindness, compassion, forgiveness, and patience, and because of that, we were saved. Now it's our turn to demonstrate that love in action. Standing with the oppressed and resisting violence with love is God's command to us. The only way to find the peace of Christ is through love, love, and love.

Thanks be to God. Amen.



Rev. Min Hwang

South Stormont Pastoral Charge

(Ingleside-Newington United Church & St. Andrew's-St. Mark's United Church)

Sixth Sunday of Easter

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