No Greater Love

posted by on April 25th, 2024 in Blog | Culture | Jesus

By Grant Dibden

The Navigators ministry started in the 1930s, when Dawson Trotman began to work with sailors in the US Navy. Daws spent many hours praying, studying the Bible, and memorising Scripture with a sailor, Les Spencer. Les in turn discipled one of the shipmates, and soon the two men were meeting with others and actively sharing their faith. By the end of World War II, thousands of men on ships and bases around the world were learning the principles of spiritual multiplication by the person-to-person teaching of God’s word.

The military ministry of the Navigators has also been a key part of the work here in Australia, and on Anzac Day we remember the endurance, courage and never-give-up attitude that saw so many of our troops killed and that kept our troops in the atrocious conditions of Gallipoli, and in the trenches on the western front or on the Kokoda track, in the siege of Tobruk, in the jungles of Vietnam or in the harshness of Afghanistan. We remember their sacrifice. And it’s why the reading often used on Anzac Day is:

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love hath has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:12-13

The context is the upper room with Jesus and His disciples during the last supper, and what Jesus shares is clearly very important because it’s among the last things He says to them. Obviously, Jesus is talking about His death in their place – which is so significant that He tells them to continue to share the Lord’s supper from then on to remember His sacrifice for them and for the whole world. But it’s more than just that. He calls for us to love one another in the same self-sacrificial way, to love each other as Jesus has loved us (John 15:12).

The men and women who gave their lives for this nation and their mates were showing the ultimate love for others. But these verses are deeper than even those extraordinary sacrifices because Jesus is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the second person of the triune God, who laid down His life for us!

We ought to be a servant of His, but He now calls us friends if we do what He commands (John 15:14), just as Jesus does what the Father commands (John 15:10). Now don’t misunderstand this. Obedience is what characterises Jesus’ friends, not what makes us Jesus’s friend. You are His friend because He loves you, shown completely and unsurpassably in His death for you, and how you respond is to do what He commands.

Jesus died so you could be His friend, when you can know the Creator of the universe – not know about Him, but know Him and He know you, deeply and intimately, where you can experience His love, to know you are accepted not because of how you live but because of what Jesus has done. And you can enjoy God forever as a friend where your joy is complete (John 15:11), not as a casual acquaintance. Doesn’t that fill you with wonder and thanks!

2000 years ago one perfect man, Jesus, gave His life so that all of humanity who trusts in Him will enjoy life for all of eternity. On Anzac day, we remember the sacrifice of the over 100,000 Australians who have died in wars. Their blood shed on behalf of our nation.

Lest we forget.

Speaking for Defence Anglican Chaplaincy in this video, Grant Dibden shares the story of Corporal Reginald Samuel Thorn’s sacrifice.  

Featured image (poppies on memorial wall) uses photo by Troy Mortier on Unsplash

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