His name was Josef Shultz. He was a German soldier on duty in Yugoslavia during the Second World War. One day he heard his name called out along with seven others. The soldiers hitched their rifles, assuming they were going out on another routine patrol. They were led to a hilltop where they found eight Yugoslavians, standing there, three women and five men. When the soldiers were about fifty feet away, they realized what their mission would be.
After they had lined up, their sergeant barked out, “Ready!” and they lifted their rifles. “Aim,” and they got their sights. Suddenly in the silence that followed, there was the thud of a rifle falling on the ground. Everyone stopped and watched as Private Shultz then walked toward the Yugoslavians. His sergeant called him back but he pretended not to hear him.
Instead, he walked to the mound of the hill where he joined hands with the eight Yugoslavians. There was a moment of silence, then the sergeant yelled, “Fire!” and Private Shultz died, his blood mingled with that of the innocent women and men. Found on his body was an excerpt from St. Paul that read, “Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.”
That is quite a command Jesus gives us in today’s gospel. “Love one another as I have loved you.” He then adds, “No one has a greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Even so, the thought of doing what Private Shultz did may seem so unreal to us. As one husband observed, “I can hardly lay down my newspaper to listen to my wife. How am I supposed to lay down my life for someone?” Yet, Jesus isn’t imposing an impossible mission on us.
Granted, not everyone is loveable nor are we always in a loving mood. While very few of us will ever have to literally lay down our lives, all of us are being called to love one another through smaller deaths to ourselves. This we do when we put aside our preoccupations for someone else like the parent giving undivided attention to a child. We die to ourselves through common acts of courtesy when we let someone go ahead of us in line, listen to someone pour out their troubles, or when we do a favor for our neighbor.
Jesus tells us that we demonstrate our love for him when we keep his commandments. To him, love isn’t a matter of affection but of action. Don’t think of the commandments as a list of do’s and don’ts that restrict your freedom. Instead see them as avenues for demonstrating your love. Compare them to the little signs lovers do for one another, like the husband who buys flowers for his wife on special occasions or the wife who surprises her husband with his favorite meal.
Love is a matter of giving. Not only of self-giving, as Private Shultz demonstrated on that Yugoslavian hillside, but also of forgiving.
Being human, we sin against one another and against God. In doing so, we hurt one another, even members of our family. For that reason, we must be willing to forgive, not just once, but many times over. Unless we are willing to forgive when the need arises, we cannot expect our love to survive, much less thrive.
A couple in Australia found themselves in a heated argument one day. Suddenly the husband broke through the tension, walked over to his wife, tapped her gently on the arm and said, “Hey, tell me something. Tell me something.”
Reluctantly, his wife’s snarl relaxed into a half smile before she volunteered her half of the equation. “I love you,” she said and they embraced. That little exchange, repeated many times during their 40 years of marriage symbolized for them a powerful decision that no issue was so big that they would allow it to come between their love for each other.
Could you say the same about your marriage? Are there issues that keep you apart from God and one another? Issues that threaten the bond of love that joins you together as a family or us as a faith community? Forgiving others isn’t always easy, yet that is the promise we make in the Lord’s Prayer whenever we ask God to forgive us. Is our pride so big or so important that we are willing to risk the loss of love that sustains us or the loss of God’s forgiveness?
Love is also a matter of thanksgiving. Love is the one thing all of us are able to give God, and we do so when we gather here for worship. When we have nothing else to give to God, at least we can still give thanks to show that the love we have received is indeed very much appreciated.
“This command I give you: love one another.” Notice, it isn’t a suggestion; it’s a command. Love one another. There are no qualifications, conditions, or limitations.
Love one another…even the mean-spirited, the grouchy, the ungrateful, the unreasonable. Jesus didn’t give us an impossible mission for each time we seek to be self-giving, forgiving, and full of thanksgiving, we are fulfilling this mission entrusted to us.