Background of This Sunday’s Readings:
Last Sunday’s Gospel reading has
reminded us that the Father and Jesus are one (John 10:30). It means that Jesus
bears the quality of the Father. Jesus spoke of this self-identification with
the Father to explain why he identifies himself as the Good Shepherd, who lays
his life for his sheep – his people. It means that Jesus is the Good Shepherd,
who lays his own life for his sheep, because he and the Father are one – as he
shares the one power with the Father.
This Sunday’s Gospel reading (John
13:31-33a, 34-35) further explores Jesus’ uniquely relationship in unity with
the Father.
The setting is Jesus’ discourse during
Last Supper – shortly after Jesus washed his disciples’ feet (John
13:1-17). He said to the disciples, “Now is the Son of Man glorified,
and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify
him in himself, and he will glorify him at once”
(John 13:31-32).
The glorification means the death and the
resurrection of Jesus Christ to save us. Thus, when Jesus said about “glorification”,
it did not simply mean “being praised”.
It implies that glorification of Jesus, through his death and
resurrection, means glorification of the Father in Jesus. Thus, the
glorification of Jesus is not only to save us but also to glorify the Father in
him. Not to mention, Jesus was not seeking his own glorification at all. This was made evident when Jesus was speaking
to the Jews: “If I glorify Myself, My
glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me,” (John 8:54); "But I do not seek My glory; there is One who
seeks and judges,”(John 8:50). Ultimately, it is for the Father, whom he is
in one with.
Because Jesus’ glorification comes with
his own death, he had to foretell the disciples about his imminent death;” My children, I will be with you only a
little while longer,”(John 13:33).
This means that Jesus’ discourse during Last Supper, including today’s
Gospel reading , is his farewell speech to his beloved disciples. This is like
a dying person is peaking to his or her immediate family members while he or
she still can, before the last breath, passing on something important to his or
her beloved family members. If you have
been there for someone important dying, I am sure you have felt intense love
during this person’s words during his or
her very last hour on earth. This Sunday’s
Gospel reading can give us a very similar nuance.
As the end of his time before his
glorification is fast approaching, Jesus wanted to give his beloved disciples
the most important commandment; “I
give you a new commandment:
love one
another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another,”(John
13: 34).
In
Depth with This Sunday’s Readings:
Jesus’ new
commandment during Last Supper discourse echoes Jesus’ explanation of washing
his disciples’ feet earlier: “Do you realize what I have done for you? You
call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I,
therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one
another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you
should also do,”(John 13:12-15).
This indicates that Jesus washed his disciples’ feet earlier during Last
Supper because he wanted to demonstrate what he was about to tell, the new
commandment– to love one another as he has loved the disciples.
Of course, in the original Greek text, the love in
Jesus’ new commandment means “agape”
(ἀγαπᾶτε in John 13:34)– the kind of
love Jesus was expecting from Peter in his three-fold question if Peter loves (ἀγαπᾷς
) him (John 21: 15-17 in 3rd Sunday of Easter).
Whenever Jesus talks about love, he means “agape”.
Thus, the kind of love that Jesus commands comes with
self-sacrifices. And keeping this
command of agape is the essence of
our Christian identity as indicated in John 13:35. Therefore, our discipleship can demands us to
endure many hardships, which comes with our self-sacrifices, so that we may
enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22), as read in the first reading this Sunday.
Not
to Confuse Trinitarian Unity and the Divine-Human Unity in the Kingdom of God:
For those who endure challenges in following Jesus’
commandment of agape, the Kingdom of
God, as described in this Sunday’s second reading (Revelation 21:1-5a) is where
we are led to. This is where God live
with the humans in harmony, like a husband and a wife living in unity. This unity between the divinity and the
humanity in the Kingdom of God, juxtaposed with an image of the Sacrament of Matrimony, also reflects the union between Jesus, the
Son, and the Father in heaven (John 10:30). However, there is a caution here
not to confuse the Trinitarian indication in John 10:30 to this divine-human
harmony with a metaphoric symbol of matrimonial sacramental union in Revelation
21:2.
Theologically, the union between Jesus, the Son, and
the Father in Trinity, indicated in John 10:3, is on a different level from the union between
the divinity and the humanity, indicated in Revelation 21:2. A difficulty in interpreting John 10:30 was
also alluded in C. S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”, because dualism is a culprit of
having a hard time to accept Jesus’ divinity based on John 10:30 in light of Trinity.
Certainly, this kind of difficulty stemming from dualism can make it difficult
to appreciate a marriage-like union between the divinity and the humanity in
the Kingdom of God described in Revelation 21:2.
An image of the Kingdom of God in
Revelation 21:1-5a echoes an image from Revelation
7:17, “For the Lamb who is in the center
of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes”, which we read last
Sunday, as well as an image from Isaiah 25:8, “He will destroy death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears
from all faces; The reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth;
for the LORD has spoken”.
Approaching
This Sunday’s Readings from a Japanese Shin Buddhist View:
There will be a refreshingly new
start in the Kingdom of God, as everything in the old paradigm is gone,
including stings of sins we had. Also, gone are suffering, death and grief.
This is a new state attained through meaningfully enduring the paradigm of impermanence,
which characterizes the World in John’s Gospel.
What John symbolically describes as
the World is like what Pure Land School of Buddhism, especially Japanese Shin
Buddhism, describes as the “shigan/此岸 “of the River of Three Crossings or Sanzu River, (三途の川). In John’s Gospel, the World is described as
opposed to Heaven (the Kingdom of God). For example, “The true
light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in
the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him,”(John 1:9-10). In this, “he” means Jesus Christ, who
is the light, as John 8:12 shows, "I
am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but
will have the Light of life.”
The River of Three Crossings in
Japanese Buddhism divides the shigan/此岸 , world of the living Bonpu/凡夫 (ordinary
people with kleshas, not yet
attaining bodhisattva status and awakening) and the world of those who have
attaining Buddhahood by awakening or through passing the judgement upon death,
called “higan/彼岸”, which also means Pure Land, where there is no suffering. To put this in Christian view, the River of
Three Crossing in Japanese Buddhism is whatever the demarcation between the
World and the Kingdom of God.
In the Japanese Pure Land Buddhism view,
Pure Land is free from the cycle of transgenerational reincarnation (輪廻転生), which is characterized
with the Ten Spiritual Realms (十界), which includes the Six Lower Realms (六界), which includes hell (地獄), hunger（餓鬼）, animality（畜生）, and humanity（人界）. Thus, there is no more
transmigration of the soul once a person reaches the Pure Land, according to
Pure Land Buddhism, upon successfully enduring the suffering of life (one of
the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism) in the reality of impermanence in shigan.
This Sunday’s readings reflect Christians
hope to enter into the Kingdom of God through keeping Jesus’ commandment of agape, enduring challenges of
self-sacrifices, transcending everything in the World of impermanence,
including suffering and death. This important message from this Sunday’s
readings nicely echoes Japanese Pure Land Buddhism’s teaching on reaching Pure
Land by successfully crossing the River of Three Crossings (Sanzu River) by
attaining Buddhahood, which requires a meaningful endurance of a life of suffering
(dukkha) and passing the judgement,
through practicing the Dharma, which Gautama (Shakamuni) Buddha has taught.
For Japanese Shin Buddhism, besides
practicing the Dharma, as taught by Buddha (historical Buddha), following the
immeasurable light of Amitabha Buddha with Nembutsu/念仏, by invoking the word, Namu Amidabutsu/南無阿弥陀仏,with sincerely humility, can
lead us to Pure Land, successfully crossing the River of Three
Crossings. For Christians, the path to the Kingdom of God is attained by following this simple new command of Jesus:
love one another with agape as he has
loved, enduring sufferings and tribulations that the agape requires. Because Jesus is the Good Shepherd (John 10:11),
we, the sheep, must listen to and follow this Shepherd’s command as he leads us
to the Kingdom.
For Buddhists, Amitabha (Amida) Buddha is
the guiding light, while Christ is the guiding light (i.e. John 8:12) to the Christians,
to transcend the reality of impermanence, the reality of suffering, in “shigan” in Japanese Buddhism or the World
in Christianity.
It seems that the teaching of Jesus found
in this Sunday’s readings elaborates Buddhist teaching with agape, especially its transcendental and
salvific nature.
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