The Shomair Community Seder will take place at Rothchild Catering on Monday, April 22nd beginning at 6PM. Reserve a seat before Wednesday. 1 Corinthians 5:7b Messiah, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us. 8a Therefore; let us keep the feast… www.syknox.org/events
Rabbi’s Reflections – Saturday, April 13, 2024
Shabbat Shalom *|FNAME|*,
24 4 13 agape 14 – Conclusion
by David Harwood
Today’s meditation concludes this series on defining agape.
Let’s focus… Yeshua’s love is our pattern. Our definition goes on to say:
Yeshua loving us, and giving Himself up for us, exemplifies how believers are to love one another (John 15:12-13; Galatians 2:20b; Ephesians 5:2).
Agape is the emotion we call love. Contrary to the opinion of many people, emotions can be commanded. For instance, we’re commanded to love God, and our Messiah commands our emotions here:
“This is My commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: that he lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:12–13)
This is His commandment. We are called to agape one another like Yeshua loves us.
Who can do this?
It takes His life loving through ours. Paul had confidence that this would be the case.
and it is no longer I who live, but Messiah lives in me. And the life I now live in the body, I live by trusting in Ben-Elohim—who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20)
Yeshua loved us and, because of that agape, gave Himself up for us. This language, “loved … and gave Himself up for”, is reiterated in Ephesians 5:2,25.
Surely, He did not redeem us to leave us helpless. His life in us will love through us. Let’s believe for it. That’s a worthy exercise of our faith.
Please read this exhortation:
… walk in love, just as Messiah also loved us and gave Himself up for us as an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma. (Ephesians 5:2)
Yeshua’s love is consistently described as being so strong as to motivate Him to give Himself up for us. We are to walk motivated by the same agape that stirred Him to offer Himself “up” as a sacrifice.
Do we embrace Yeshua’s command? Do we value Paul’s exhortation? How are we supposed to do this?
Within everyday life that type of agape is demonstrated through honoring and serving others like Yeshua did when He washed His disciples’ feet (John 13:1-17).
The following is worth reading. Please do.
Now it was just before the feast of Passover. Yeshua knew that His hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them until the end.
While the seder meal was happening, the devil had already put in the heart of Judah from Kriot that he should hand over Yeshua. Yeshua knew that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was returning to God. So He gets up from the meal and lays aside His outer garment; and taking a towel, He wrapped it around His waist. Then He pours water into a basin. He began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel wrapped around Him.
Then He comes to Simon Peter, who says to Him, “Master, are You going to wash my feet?”
Yeshua responded, “You don’t know what I am doing now, but you will understand after these things.”
Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!”
Yeshua answered him, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with Me.”
Simon Peter said to Him, “Master, then not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!”
Yeshua said to him, “He who has bathed has no need to wash, except the feet; he is completely clean. And you all are clean, though not every one.” He knew who was betraying Him; for this reason, He said, “Not all of you are clean.”
So after He had washed their feet and put His robe back on and reclined again, He said to them, “Do you understand what I have done for you? You call Me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master’—and rightly you say, for I am. So if I, your Master and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example—you should do for each other what I have done for you.
“Amen, amen I tell you, a servant isn’t greater than his master, and the one who is sent isn’t greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them!” (John 13:1–17)
Washing feet does not take skill. It takes love expressed through humility. We can do this. We should.
As we do, let’s not neglect this activity’s foundation.
We can wash the feet of all we meet, but if we’re not motivated by sincere agape it is just splashing water around. Let’s love to the degree that we become a people who embrace humility for the benefit of those around us. After all, Yeshua’s agape is our pattern.
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
5 Nissan Shabbat 13-Apr-24 Parashat Tazria
Leviticus 13:55-59 2 Kings 4:42-5:19