No Greater Love

In John 15:13, Jesus is quoted as saying, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Although some people such as police officers, fire fighters, military personnel, and health care providers who care for infectious patients heroically die in service of others, I suspect what Jesus meant by laying down one’s life was to set aside one’s preferred way of life in order to serve others.

Most people are willing to make sacrifices for people they love within their intimate circle. For example, parents sacrifice their time and resources to care for their children. Spouses often move to a new city or give up their own dreams to support their partner’s career. Close friends listen to each other’s woes when they’d rather be curled up with a good book or movie.

After Jesus died and was resurrected, it appeared that he expanded his definition of “friends.” In conversing with Peter, he did not say “feed your friends,” he said “feed my sheep.” Now, it appears, no one has greater love than to lay down one’s preferred way of life for those who belong to Christ—which, of course, includes everybody.

Today, people the world over are being asked to sacrifice their personal freedom—to lay aside their personal preferences about where and how to work, recreate, shop, and pray—to contain a virus that is killing friends and strangers alike. We are being called to summon great love to lay down our life as we have known it to save the lives of others.

Although unleashing this force of love will require tremendous sacrifice, I think we will be astounded at the outcome. Our priorities will be reordered, we will appreciate that we are only as healthy as any other person on the planet, we will rediscover the joys of creativity and simplicity, and the kingdom of God will flourish as we affirm the value of all people and share earth’s resources. In retrospect, we will discover that the pandemic is a school in how to enter into the greatest love of all—to lay down our preferred way of life for each other.