There is something about portraying a character in a skit or play that gives you a deeper understanding of them. I portrayed Thaddeus, one of the disciples, in a skit about what the disciples may have thought during the Last Supper.
Sitting at the table, and hearing Jesus say this to me, would have been one of the most profound statements of love I could imagine.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
John 15:12-17 (NRSV)
Lent at St. John's
