In his poem Flood: Years of Solitude, Dionisio D. Martínez raises a glass:
“To the one who sets a second place at the table anyway.
To the one at the back of the empty bus.
To the ones who name each piece of stained glass projected on a white wall.
To anyone convinced that a monologue is a conversation with the past.
To the one who loses with the deck he marked.
To those who are destined to inherit the meek.
To us.”
Bob Dylan famously asked “How does it feel to be on your own?” and Martínez captures the experience perfectly in the opening lines of his poem by conjuring up for us “the one who sets a second place at the table anyway” and “the one at the back of the empty bus.”
Jesus spoke to his disciples about the fact that he would shortly leave them. Firstly, he was about to be killed and they would be left bereft as a result. Secondly, after his resurrection, he would ascend and return to God his Father. He would be gone, yet he would not leave them, and would not leave them orphaned. His discourse at the Last Supper is intended to show how those two seemingly contradictory things can both be true and how, as a result, they would not find themselves in the situation described by Martínez.
Jesus promised that, following his ascension, he would send his Spirit to be with his disciples and be in them (John 14:15-21). That is what happened on the Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is sent to act as a helper for them. The Greek word used is paracletos. There is more than one way of translating this – ‘comforter’ or ‘helper’ (providing whatever is needed to fulfil God’s plan), ‘advocate’ (one who will speak up for us), or ‘intercessor’ (one who will pray and mediate between us and God).
The Holy Spirit can be all of these things for us. Jesus has sent the Spirit to us and so we can ask for his comfort and help in our need, for his advocacy with God when we need to repent, and for the Spirit to give us the words to pray to God when we don’t know what to say. Jesus knew that life would be tough for the disciples after he returned to the Father, so he provided for them at their point of need and does the same for us too.
The Spirit is Jesus with us and in us forever, as well as the one who continues to reveal Jesus to us. As the disciples found after Pentecost, when we have the Spirit of Jesus in us and reminding us of all that Jesus did and said, we are increasingly able to live as Jesus did.
This is where Jesus’ words about his commandments come into play. Jesus said, ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments’ and ‘They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me’. What are his commandments? When Jesus was asked to give his summary of the law, he said: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Then, at the last supper, he said: ‘I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’
Therefore, his commandments are simply that we love; love God, love one another and love ourselves. And these commandments are taken up and repeated throughout the New Testament. In the first letter of John we read: “The command that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love his brother also.” (1 John 4: 21) Similarly, St Paul talks about obeying the law of Christ. How does he describe the law of Christ? “… the whole Law he says is summed up in one commandment: ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself.’” He goes on to say that we obey the law of Christ by bearing one another’s burdens.
Christianity then has a simple core, which is love. It is not about a lengthy list of do’s and dont’s. It is not about a detailed set of laws covering each and every eventuality. It is not about rules and regulations. It is not about those things, but it is about love. At the heart of all the laws and commandments which the Bible contains there is love and if we are not loving in the way in which we understand and apply the laws and commandments found in the Old Testament then we work against the thing which is at their heart, which is their spirit, which is love.
When he summarised the law for the Pharisees, Jesus was saying that there are three loves; love of God, love of neighbours (by which he meant particularly those in need and those who are our enemies) and love of self. All three are legitimate but all three are not equal. The greatest commandment is to love God with all that we have and are. The second is to love ourselves and to love others in the same way that we love and accept ourselves. The second follows from the first because it is only in a love relationship with God that we are able to accept ourselves as we really are and therefore are able to accept and love others as we accept and love ourselves.
As ever, we see this lived out by Jesus. In John chapter 13 we read about the occasion on which Jesus demonstrated his service of his disciples by washing their feet. John tells us that: “Jesus knew that the Father had given him complete power; he knew that he had come from God and was going to God. So, he rose from the table … and began to wash the disciples’ feet.” It was because Jesus knew and accepted who he was that he was then able to love and serve his disciples. When we know that we are unconditionally loved by God then we are set free for the risk of loving others in the same way.
The particular kind of love that is at the heart of Jesus’ life and which is at the heart of the Bible is a love that serves. Jesus said: “The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them.” Likewise, Paul says to the Galatians: “let love make you serve one another.”
This gives us another reason why we will not be alone although Jesus is no longer with us in the flesh. That is because he is also to be found in those we love and serve. St Martin of Tours followed in the footsteps of Jesus by getting off his horse and cutting his cloak in two to give half to a beggar shivering outside the gates of Amiens on a cold day. That night, Jesus appeared to Martin in a dream to say that Martin had clothed him. Martin met Jesus in the beggar to whom he gave his cloak and we, too, will meet Jesus in those we serve.
We are not left orphaned by Jesus because he gives us his Spirit within us, because his Spirit reminds us of all that he did and said so we can live in him and become like him and, when we do so by loving and serving others, we discover that Jesus also comes to us in the form of those we love and serve. In this way, we can be swept up in Jesus and surrounded by him; receiving his Spirit, living the Jesus life of love, and receiving him in those we love.
Gillian Welch sings a song called ‘Orphan Girl’ in which she is “an orphan on God’s highway” with “no mother no father / No sister no brother.” She prays:
“Blessed Savior make me willing
And walk beside me until I'm with them
Be my mother my father
My sister my brother”
That prayer comes true as we receive Jesus’ Spirit, the Advocate, who is given to be with us for ever. Amen.
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Gillian Welch - Orphan Girl.
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