Love and Leaving
John 13:33, 36-38
"My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later."
Notice here how Jesus says, 'I love you, but I am leaving.' Simon Peter immediately asks, 'Jesus are you really?' Peter loved God so much he did as he was told. The command of God to love each other in verse thirty-four is not a sloppy love. This is not a sickening sort of love. It is not a love that makes desolate those who see it as in Matthew 24:15. Maybe the focus should not be on the command to love one another but rather on Christ. He just said he was leaving in the verses prior. Only Simon Peter seemed to hear that fact. Could it be Simon Peter knew that without Jesus other people's love amounted to nothing. For by Jesus the whole house holds together according to Isaiah 6:4. At the sound of his holiness, the whole house shook and was filled with his glory. There is only one word for love in this English language. In that day, there were many. This is because love is an action and cannot be appropriately described by a feeling or by the words from your mouth. How can you say you love me, but you are leaving? Simon Peter says, 'where are you going to go?' This is not puppy love; it is much more practical. His denial was already arranged for the protection of those who would not understand. This is why the rest of the disciples only heard the part about loving each other and Simon Peter heard the rest. When he heard, he understood.
Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you." Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
Sometimes Christ's denials are also love. He may keep us from having what we want now because of his love. But do not dare deny his divinity or his suffering in front of many or even himself. When it comes to the life of Christ, God is very concerned. Those who deny him, he also denies before Christ and the holy angels seen in Matthew 10:32-33. This is why Ananias and Saphira dropped dead at Acts 5:1-11. See, they lied to the Holy Spirit about their use of the land and of the profit given to the church. In reality, they kept some for themselves. You might be saying to yourself 'that is such a severe punishment.' Look, the administrator of their judgment was Simon Peter filled with the Holy Spirit who had once denied him. When you know him, you will understand. Now, I know the Scripture does not explicitly state what I have just explained, but there are a lot of questions to which we will not have the answers in this life. When you get to Heaven, you will just have to ask Christ yourself.
God's actions towards this man turned believer and his wife is one of love and divine justice. It is as much love as the believers preaching about him in his apparent absence. John 3:16 says, God so loved the world that he gave his son. In the same way, he will give his Son to be the Judge on that day the world stands before him condemned or forgiven based on his book of life. It is his life just as it is his book. It takes just as much love to judge the world, ourselves, and each other. It takes just as much love for judgement as it does to love others as Christ has loved us. If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged with the world in 1 Corinthians 11:30-32. Love is of God. Thus, the judge and the administrator thereof is the Lord. This is why if you love him, you will feed his sheep in John 21:17. If you knew him in that other house, do not dare deny your knowledge of the Holy One. When the door is shut in the end and the other virgins have joined the rest of the house, that is when his love will be most apparent.
This love will be made perfect in our weakness as 2 Corinthians 12:9 asserts. Is not the love of Christ on display for the world and the building up of the church here. Were there not ten virgins, five wise and five foolish in Matthew 25:1-12. Even so, there were ten disciples left in that upper room, excluding Peter and Judas. So it is with the church that ought to resemble the Kingdom of Heaven. After the resurrection, Simon Peter is the one caring for the other disciples at the beach of John 21:1-3. The number of disciples who wrote New Testament books is five plus Peter. Could it be that the five who were wise were also the five who had been foolish with no oil. The only difference between these disciples and those of the kingdom is that when the master returns at midnight and the door is shut it will be too late to return.