Gospel in Art: If you love me you will keep my commandments

The Peasant Lawyer, by Pieter Breughel the Younger, Painted circa 1620 © Grohmann Museum at Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 14 May 2023
John 14:15-21

Jesus said to his disciples:

'If you love me you will keep my commandments.

I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you for ever, that Spirit of truth whom the world can never receive since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you, he is in you.

I will not leave you orphans; I will come back to you. In a short time the world will no longer see me; but you will see me, because I live and you will live.

On that day you will understand that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me; and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and show myself to him.'

Reflection on the painting

The start of our reading packs a punch: 'If you love me, you will keep my commandments'. Jesus makes the point that love and obedience (to God's commandments) go hand in hand. They are not contradictory. Love and obedience are two sides of the same coin. Love and obedience are two dimensions of the same thing.

In today's society we see law and love as being almost opposites. In fact, it is also a temptation we have when reading the Gospels that we simply categorise the Pharisees as being the ones strictly obeying the laws, but not loving; and we are tempted to see Jesus just as being all pro-love and anti-law. That is a wrong way to look at Jesus. Peter Kreeft sums it up well: 'Jesus was anti-legalism, but not anti-law'.

That brings us to the essence of that first verse of today's reading, that love is not first of all some fluffy feeling but it is an active part of our will. Love is a choice! That is why Jesus commands us to love, because he wants us to will it.

And to make it easier for us to love, Jesus promises us that the Holy Spirit will help us. The Holy Spirit is the advocate. A very narrow interpretation of what an advocate is in a legal framework is portrayed in this painting by Pieter Breughel the Younger. This composition proved already so popular in Breughel's time that no fewer than twenty versions were produced in the artist's workshop. We see a village advocate/attorney's office, with clients lined up to enlist his services. Humbly the villagers approach the lawyer's desk, offering up what they can in terms of payment: grapes, eggs, poultry… all used in trade for assistance in their legal matters.

The Holy Spirit is of course much more than merely a defender of his clients. But the parallel holds that the Holy Spirit walks alongside us to help us and to look out for us. The role of the Holy Spirit is all-encompassing: as our comforter, counsellor, helper, guide, advocate, intercessor, etc… there to help us to love more.

LINKS

Gospel in Art: https://christian.art/
Today's reflection: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/john-14-15-21-2023/