Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.
John 14:21 (NIV)
He Shows Himself
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. Jesus says that to men who are about to lose sight of him, and what he attaches to it is a promise that he’ll show himself to whoever does it.
Two verbs, having and keeping. Having his commands means knowing what they are, and plenty of people get that far by the time they’re thirty. Keeping them is where a week actually goes: the call you make because you said you would, the apology you deliver in February for something you did in November and have been hoping would fade on its own.
The promise runs past approval and into company. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. When Judas asks him why he means to show himself to them and not to the world, Jesus says it again with a house in it: he and the Father will come to that person and make their home with them.
In the lab waiting room a girl of about fifteen tells the tech he’s got the wrong arm, loud enough that the man in the corner looks up. She’s right. She’s been in that chair every eight weeks for two years and she knows which arm gives blood and which one makes everybody late, and she says the true thing in the worst tone available to her. He switches arms and finds it on the first try.
The word Jesus uses is keeps. It covers what she did, the right thing done badly by a tired girl who has had enough of that room, and the promise stays attached to the doing.
He said he would show himself, and the showing goes to the people who did what he said, in whatever tone they managed that day.
A Prayer to Remember
Thank you for promising to come and stay, God, and for putting it in a sentence a person can check. I’ve been doing what you said for a while now with very little feeling in it. Let one of these ordinary weeks be the one where I see you. I’ll go on doing it either way.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
