3 min. read
In this season of Lent, approaching the remembrance of Christ’s cross event, I’ve been reading The Gospel of John. It will rock your world, if you’ll let it!
John paints the cross as a scandal that cannot be endured. And yet in this scandal of the cross we discover Christ’s glory: the revelation of God’s ethic and standard of what it means to be a disciple. We also discover what God’s love for others looks like.
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It’s a hard pill for me to swallow. Why does Jesus disown himself to the point of death? Why would any who follow this God be called to disown themselves just the same? It might have something to do with how God loves others, and how we are to live with and into others.
Quick Lesson On the Trinity
The Holy Spirit functions in the life of the Church by always pointing to the Son.
The Son, throughout scripture, is continually pointing to the Father. (“Father” is simply who this God is in relation to the Son in the Gospel of John. God has many names and characters, this is the one used here).
And notice what John – ever the thoughtful observer – is showing us (in John 8:50): the Father is always drawing attention to the Son through the Spirit.
We have a beautiful picture of the Divine Identity always disowning self and drawing attention to the other. The Father does not seek the Father’s glory. The Son does not seek the Son’s glory. The Spirit does not seek the Spirit’s glory. Each is continually seeking the glory of the other.
In John’s first letter, he eloquently evidences this cyclical pattern of life within the Triune God:
“There are three that testify: the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood, and these Three are One.” (1 John 5.7-8)
Loving Your Neighbor Is Often Scandalous
The scandal of the cross can only be accepted as an action of the Triune God. Tweet this
The cross of Christ is an action of self-denial in preference for others to which every Jesus-follower is called. Tweet this
God’s love for the other within God’s own life flows outward to us. We in turn must disown ourselves and love the other.
This might be loving our neighbor, not so much as we love ourselves, but as we would rather love ourselves. In an individualistic, selfish American society such a way of life will indeed be scandalous.
So Tell Me Something
Where else do you see tangible evidence of God’s love for others?