Jesus is speaking in what we sometimes call the farewell discourse. Jesus will be leaving soon. They will be left to carry on.
A Quaker author/ pastor wrote about graduation day and used the text in Gensis of Adam and Eve. You know the story, banned from the garden. He said it is their graduation day. They now discern good from evil. So now they can leave home discerning for themselves. Complete with clothes made of skins. Gulley said when he graduated, same thing happened to him. His parents took him down to the Danner’s Five and Dime and bought him 2 pair of jeans and 3 shirts. Good parents, cloth them and prepare them.
So it is graduation day, literally for some. For others it is more of a metaphor for our formal schooling ended so many years ago. Yet, our hard knocks life lesson school is only beginning.
Jesus reminds the disciples he is leaving. There is something they would not have unless he left. He is giving them the ministry of absence. The Holy Spirit will be with them, reminding them who he was and is and is to come. The Holy Spirit will continue teaching and nudging us.
So the followers of Jesus who came to be knows as Christians will remain after he is ascended. How will we know they are disciples? How will they know we are following Jesus?
We know that old saying, the proof is in the pudding. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Try it out, you may see for yourself, it is true and it is good.
But how will they know we follow Jesus? Will it be in the clothes we wear or the clothes we do not wear? That was the case for some and still is for others. Is it the jewelry we wear? Is it in the cross necklace? Is that the sign, the proof? We can all give examples of this doing the opposite of proof.
What about our bumper stickers? Is that how you will know?
Jesus tells us how others will see they are followers of him. It is in the love. The outward and visible sign of faith is in the action of Love.
Can you see love? I have seen in. I have seen it when someone leaving a building holding a door for someone with their hands full. I have seen it when someone helps someone in their apartment or house. I have seen it when generosity is a part of their DNA.
I have seen it when parents help their child launch into independence.
I have seen it when grandparents hold the grandchild.
How will they know?
There will be a contrast between those who help their own kind only and those who are inclusive and compassionate. They will know.
How will they know? Will it be the ones who said a little formula about beliefs and going to heaven or the ones who saw who was thirsty, hungry, a stranger and gave clean water, food and welcome to them?
How will they know?
Faith will show in how we treat one another.
Watchman Nee, a Chinese evangelist, tells of a Christian he once knew in China. He was a rice farmer, and his fields lay high on a mountain. Every day he pumped water into the paddies of new rice. And every morning he returned to find that an unbelieving neighbor who lived down the hill had opened the dikes surrounding the Christian’s field to let the water fill his own. For a while the Christian ignored the injustice, but at last he became desperate. What should he do? His own rice would die if this continued. How long could it go on? The Christians met, prayed, and came up with this solution. The next day the Christian farmer rose early in the morning and first filled his neighbor’s fields; then he attended to his own. Watchman Nee tells how the neighbor became a Christian, his unbelief overcome by a genuine demonstration of a Christian’s love for others
March 2008. A Starbucks barista (server), 51-year-old Sandie Andersen, donated a kidney to a regular, longtime customer, in order to save her life. 55-year-old Annamarie Ausnes stated during a talk with Andersen that she needed a kidney transplant. The only problem was that her husband and son were not matches, meaning that they could not donate their kidneys to her to save her.
Without hesitation, Andersen offered to have a blood test to see if she matched the customer. The great thing is that she ended up being a perfect match. Andersen donated her kidney to Ausnes at the Virginia Mason Medical Center. In a few weeks, she was expected to be 100% back to normal. WOW!
How will we know?
Years ago, a young mother was making her way across the hills of South Wales, carrying her tiny baby in her arms, when she was overtaken by a blinding blizzard. She never reached her destination, and when the blizzard had subsided her body was found by searchers beneath a mound of snow. But they discovered that before her death, she had taken off all her outer clothing and wrapped it about her baby. When they unwrapped the child, to their great surprise and joy, they found he was alive and well. She had mounded her body over his and given her life for her child, proving the depths of her mother love. Years later that child, David Lloyd George, grown to manhood, became prime minister of Great Britain, and, without doubt, one of England’s greatest statesman.
How will we know?
A pastor went to the hospital to visit Maggy, one of his members. She was in the last stages of her life because of cancer, and was heavily medicated, and unresponsive. He went to support her family, who was taking it hard. When he got there, he was surprised with what he saw. Her daughter, Kimmy, had taken the sheets and set them aside. She was putting lotion on her mother’s body, and was starting at the feet. This was an expensive lotion, and was more than she could afford. As he walked in, Kimmy gave a mischievous smile and made him promise not to tell her children. Her kids gave it to her for Mother’s Day, since, in their words, “you never do anything for yourself, Mom.” As Kimmy put it on her mother, she was unresponsive. Maggy, nor anyone else, would never know the difference. But this is the nature of a self-sacrificial love. So what if these acts of love go unappreciated, or unnoticed? So what if no one ever knows these precious acts? God knows and sees these acts. They are not unnoticed, but are precious and valuable in His sight. Acts like these care for others and their needs. It puts others first. These acts of love show the mercy and love of Jesus, and are motivated by them. They point us to Him.
How will we know?
They’ll know we are Christians by our love for each other. Let us close the service today and stand if you are able as we sing,
“They’ll know we are Christians by our love”.