Please, Don’t Let Me Go (John 20:19-31)

Douglass Church - Douglass Blvd Christian Church

“Love your neighbor as yourself," as an ethical system, does have the drawback of relying entirely on me as the reference point—which, frankly, feels like something of a flaw in the system. I mean, what if I don’t love myself very much at all? What if I happen to be self-destructive? Does the golden rule relieve me of any duty I have toward another person beyond what I might expect from myself? The golden rule doesn’t work for nihilists.

That’s a problem, isn’t it?

Jesus, seeing that more is needed for the ordering of a new world, comes up with a different standard. No longer do I get to treat people the same way they treat me or even treat people the way I would like to be treated. He raises the ethical bar on us. According to Jesus, I'm duty-bound now, not to love my neighbor as myself (which is inadequate, given the many ways we fail so often to love ourselves), but to love my neighbor as Christ has loved me.

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Sermon text: web | doc