John 15:9-17
No Greater Love Than This
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
John 2:18-22
Jesus Will Rise After His Death
18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Jesus said it was good that a man lay down his life for his friends...Jesus' words were a greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends...And that is what He did...Jesus died so that others may live...By dying on the cross Jesus paid our sin debt...Flowing through Him was this great faith in God...He knew God was there, and He appears not to fear losing His life, because of God...(He does seem anxious in he Garden of Gethsemane, the night before His death)...But He knew God would take care of Him ("take care of", maybe the wrong words)...He knew God would be there for Him...He knew God LOVED Him...Jesus values life, but He valued other's lives as much as He did His own...
Jesus had told others that if they destroyed God's Temple He would raise it again in three days...And that would be a miraculous sign...And so, He dies on the cross, believing that God would resurrect Him...The Christian symbol is the Cross...A suffering sign, but a sigh of Great Hope...A sign of LOVE...