Show Notes
I have a memory burned in my flesh and haunting my psyche. Every day, around about 1968 or ‘69, Mr. Johnston would gather all of the seven- and eight-year-old boys for PE, assign captains, and then make them pick teams. I was never picked first. Sometimes the captains would publicly argue over who would have to be stuck with me... Never first, but also not last. That was usually Matt, or maybe Duncan.
Matt and Duncan always played Batman and Robin at recess, and even then, Duncan always got to be Batman and Matt always had to play Robin — but at least Batman likes Robin. Routinely, someone would yell, “Get Matt and Duncan,” and a crowd of little boys, all trying to be the chosen, would chase Duncan and Matt behind the backstop, knock them down, and start kicking — only to walk away when Batman and Robin had been humiliated and left in the dust whimpering.
I remember standing on the side of that crowd, utterly frozen. I wanted to be chosen; I wanted to be one of the guys. And yet I wanted to choose Matt, to go lie in the dust next to Matt. And I began to wonder, “How does God choose?” How does God pick His friends? Do we have to try out for His team? Does He choose us based on our choices... and if so, who made those choices? Choices are made by choosers, so who makes all the choosers? And what is Hell? Behind the backstop in 1968, it already felt like hell.
John 15:12-14, Jesus is walking from the Upper Room to a garden named “Gethsemane” and then on to a garden on Mt. Calvary. He’s just told them of the True Vine, Vinedresser, and Branches, when He says, “This is [the commandment of me], that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends IF you do what I command you...” This must be how He picks His team.
In our worship service this week, I said. “Let’s pick teams.” I asked those who do what Jesus commands, to raise their hand and then go to the right side of the room at my command. Then I asked those who don’t do what Jesus commands to raise their hand. We ran into a problem, for most people raised the same hand both times. We hope that the Judgment of God would judge between people, but it seems to cut people, all people... cut each one of us in two.
John 15:15, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
I hate being a boss, but love being friends. So, I’ll often explain myself to “employees,” because I want them to trust my intentions; I want to be friends. I want them to agree with me because they trust me (That’s called, “faith.”) Jesus doesn’t want robots, slaves, or employees; He wants friends.
And did you notice in the passage that Jesus just called them “Friends”? And yet at dinner, He had told just them, “You will all fall away [scandalizo: be scandalized, sin] because of me this night.” And yet again, He will soon tell them (just 13 more verses), “I have said these things to you to keep you from falling away [scandalizo: ‘being scandalized,’ sinning].” They do fall away, yet they all come back, as if His word in them were some sort of homing beacon or imperishable seed.
For three years, they had chosen to leave everything and follow Jesus. At times, it seemed like the best choice they had ever made. As the chant of the crowd changed from “Hosanna” to “Crucify, Crucify,” they would each re-evaluate all their choices and choose to abandon their friend. Jesus knows this. He turns and says...
John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you...”
That must’ve sounded so strange and yet so familiar. God chose Abraham. God Chose Israel. God Chose Judah. And they all had a tremendously difficult time choosing God. God tells the people of Israel to choose but informs them that they cannot, for their hearts have not been circumcised. Joshua tells them to choose to serve
More from The Sanctuary Downtown / Relentless Love
“The mere idea of you, the longing here for you. You'll never know how slow the moments go till I'm near to you. I see your face in every flower, your eyes in stars above. It's just the thought of you, the very thought of you, my love.” My wife and I have spent a lot of time on romantic vacations listening to those words sung by Billie Holiday or Nat King Cole.
Sometime around 1968, I learned about germs in school. They can be found in dirt and most of all, in the very pinnacle of depravity: poop. So, I began to wash my hands... a lot. I washed and washed, but I am a producer of human excreta, and so is everyone I know. So, it felt as if I was never finished. I was driven to cleanliness and then to the doctor, for my hands were red, raw, cracked and bleeding — open wounds susceptible to germs! I had been better off with no knowledge of “germs” and “not germs.” The doctor looked at my hands and said, “Stop (Shabat in Hebrew)! Stop washing your hands.” They hurt like hell, but it was hard as hell to stop.
John 18:38-40: “Pilate said to [Jesus], ‘What is truth?’ After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, ‘I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?’ They cried out again, ‘Not this man, but Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas was a robber [lestes: a taker].”