The beginning of the Easter story is very personal and individual. Each of Jesus’s close companions, Mary Magdalene, Peter, Thomas, has to discover, or rediscover, the risen Lord in their own way. As the ripples spread, this process becomes less of an individual quest – people are coming to Jesus in larger groups. It’s necessary to provide some structure and order for what is now a substantial and dispersed community (as we heard Paul and Barnabas doing last week). And as the community grows the challenge of what binds them together becomes greater. What do they hold in common, what is an essential part of their identity as followers of Jesus, and what is incidental and unimportant?
It quickly became apparent that much of what held the Jewish community together was not essential, particularly the rigorous traditions regarding food and ritual cleanliness (Acts 15:1-2, 22-29). What was essential took centuries to determine, and in some ways that process still continues. Changes in human society raise questions that demand new answers. What made sense in a feudal society doesn’t in a democracy; what was central when everything revolved around agriculture is no longer relevant in a world dominated by machines, then electronics, and even AI; the moral principles that applied before modern medical treatments existed are unhelpful in our day.
It is perhaps inevitable that the church, as a human institution, has always struggled with this reality. At worst it has attempted to impose common norms by violence, from killing heretics to engendering horrific wars of religion. However the Easter story isn’t about imposing rules to enforce common practices. It’s about identifying the behaviors that keep us aligned with God’s intent for us, as the “apostles and the elders” in Jerusalem found they needed to do.
Jesus had already pointed the way when he told his disciples “Whoever loves me will keep my word”. (John 14:23-29) Last week we heard him giving the “new commandment” to love. But in today’s passage he isn’t repeating this instruction – rather, he is making an observation, explaining how faith works. The love that we have for him makes it possible to keep his word. This is why he goes on to say: “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words” – because such a person is not capable of keeping his words. Love is what makes it possible.
Love is the force that Jesus personified. That love gives peace: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” It removes fear: “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” This love comes from God, now present in the center of our lives, in the “new Jerusalem” described by John in his vision (Rev 21:10-14, 22-23). That’s why Jesus says “If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.”
There is no temple in the new Jerusalem. There is no need for a special place that links the human and the divine. There is “no need of sun or moon to shine on it (our new post-Easter world) for the glory of God gave it light”. The risen Lord, the Son and the Father, is with us wherever we are. He is always light, even when we are in darkness.