Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. -Mark 16:6
Dear members and friends,
The command of Jesus is quite simple and solid, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13:34) And, this is something that we have been hearing and learning as early as our first class in Sunday school. One thing that grasped my attention this week is strangely not the word “love,” but “one another.” I have heard and preached myself about the importance of loving others as oneself. Yet, in his teaching in John, Jesus emphasizes loving one another. The importance of this teaching to me is that loving others cannot be one way street, but has to be a mutual relationship. And, that is the very reason why implementing love taught by Jesus is extremely hard! It requires both parties in the relationship to be not only aware of, but are willing and capable of loving the other as Jesus has loved us, which means love as agape.
The message of the death and resurrection of Jesus, spiritually speaking, could be about how we can enable ourselves to implement love as taught by Jesus. It requires the death of the old love(s) we were born and raised with in the material world, and thus consequent birth of new love(s). Through this new love we would unite with God by being able to love one another with the same love that Jesus has shown us. Acknowledging and accepting the necessity of the death of old loves are well illustrated by how much Jesus suffered before, on his way to, and on the cross. Yet, as Jesus’s death on the cross was not the end, the death of old loves are not the end either. As the love within us creates a reality in which we live, new loves would create a new, more vivid and experiential reality in the presence of the Creator along with clarity and calmness toward matters and events in the world.
Blessings, Rev. Junchol Lee