Greater Love Hath No Man Than This

Today I read John 15, where Jesus continues His talking to the Apostles during the Last Supper. The majority of this chapter is the Savior telling the Apostles that the world will hate them and trying to prepare them for this eventuality. To be hated, it is strange to think about. I don't think most of us understand what it means to be truly hated. We read about it in stories and see it in movies, but how many of us really have someone truly hate us? It's actually pretty rare I think for the common individual. Those of you who have served a mission have a greater chance of having run into it than others. The only way I can describe it is a profound lack of the Spirit. It's quite creepy.

But especially as a missionary they do not really hate you, they hate what you represent, which is oddly enough, Jesus Christ. They don't look at it that way, but it is in fact what is happening. They hate the church, deeming it un-Christian. I have often wondered just what is there in our religion to be upset about? I have met some people that didn't like Latter-day Saints because of polygamy and I was able to talk with them and explain that we do not do that anymore. But people that hate Latter-day Saints, I just don't get it. We have the Book of Mormon, so what? Others use the Apocrypha, but that doesn't give me license or cause to hate them for it. They are upset that we believe we can become as God is one day. I guess they feel it lessens God somehow. I've not been able to get one of the people who expressed their hatred of me for being a Latter-day Saint to have a rational conversation about it with me. Go figure.

On the flip side of this equation, Jesus also tells His Apostles that greater love hath no man than he give his life for his friends. Every time I read that verse I am taken back to when I lived in Southern California one summer living with a college roommate and his family working on their turkey ranch. I was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting, the father of my roommate was the bishop, and impress upon us the love our Savior has for us. I thought about it for days. The good thing about working on a turkey ranch is a lot of the work you do day to day is very rote and leaves the mind free to think. I finally decided the best way for me to impress upon the ward our Savior's love was to share two stories. One was from my own past where I feel into a pond in the middle of winter and could not get out and my brother and a friend risked falling in themselves to save me. I did not let on though that it was me in my story, I just told it as two brothers and a friend. The second story though I told a much more personal version of the plan of salvation and focused on the personal relationship of the Savior and myself as Him being my older brother.

In both stories a brother was willing to give his life for that of his younger brother. When I fell through the ice on the pond we were all three on the ice but I had them leave before I tried to move because I was the furthest out and on the weakest part as it turned out. But Jesus did in fact give His life for us, and He did it for each one of us, make no mistake about that. He could have stopped it, could have turned back at any time. He had the power but He did it willingly, which is as it had to be. He did it because He loved us. I don't see how any one of us will be able to meet Him again on the other side of the veil with anything less than tears and worship.

The other part of the chapter that stood out to me is where Jesus states that He will not refer to His Apostles as His servants anymore, but as His friends. He says this is because He has shared with them His Father's plans, which He would not do with a servant. It reminds me of Joseph Smith. If you will notice as you read the Doctrine and Covenants the Savior calls Joseph different things. At the beginning Jesus refers to Joseph as, my servant. But as time goes on He starts to refer to Joseph as, my son, until finally he becomes Joseph, my friend. In the past I wondered if the change was in Joseph of Jesus, what I mean is, did Jesus really change how He thought of Joseph or did Joseph change his relationship with Savior through his obedience and prayers? I have come to believe that the change was on Joseph's end. I think the Savior always viewed Joseph as His friend but as Jesus is telling His Apostles, a friend does His will perfectly and is taken into confidences about the Father's will. It is my greatest hope that one day when I meet Him again that Jesus will welcome me home as a friend, not a servant. That is what I work for, each and every day. I hope you are doing the same. Until tomorrow.