“No Greater Love Than This”

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Meditation on John 15:9-17

Feb. 27, 2013

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           “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

      “‘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 15:9-17

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     Jolanta Staron grew up in a tiny village in Poland. Growing up, she heard that her mother and grandmother had saved their “friends.”

    Jolanta and her brother and sister received Christmas packages from some of these “friends” for many years—boxes filled with M&M’s, toys, clothing, and other goodies—without Jolanta and her brother and sister ever meeting the “friends” face to face.  Every year, the packages came, and bits of the story were told again.  But important details were left out until Jolanta was older.  Details waited until she and her brother and sister could understand the full significance of what her Polish Catholic grandmother, Francisca, and their mother, Helena, had done when they lived in Sokal, Poland, during WWII. How they had quietly risked their lives so that others who were despised and rejected might live.

    When Jolanta was a child, she didn’t know the “friends” were Jewish.  Those who hid Jews during the war didn’t talk about it when so much prejudice against Jews lingered even after the war.  Jolanta grew up in a tiny apartment crowded with extended family and was shocked to learn that her grandmother and mother, who barely had enough food for themselves during the war, had hidden, fed, and cared for 16 men, women, and children for 20 months as the Nazis terrorized their city.  Six thousand Jews lived in Sokal before the Nazi occupation in 1939; only 30 survived by 1944; 13 of them had been hidden in Francisca’s tiny hayloft above her pigsty; three more (a man, his wife, and their young son) were hidden in a hole dug beneath her kitchen floor.

       Judy Maltz grew up in New Jersey. Every year she helped her parents and grandparents prepare packages for Francisca’s family at Christmas time.  She enjoyed filling the boxes with M&M’s, toys, clothing and other goodies.  Judy had never met Francisca or her family. And she never questioned why her family sent Christmas presents when Judy’s family didn’t celebrate Christmas.  They were Jewish!

       Every year, bits of the story were told again.  Some details waited until Judy was old enough to understand the enormity of what Francisca and her daughter Helena had done, how they had risked their lives so others who were despised and rejected might live.

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        The cross awaits Jesus as our Lord speaks in John of what it means to love as God loves.  Jesus tells His disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.”  But love without obedience to God’s commands, is not the love of Jesus. Christ says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”  Abiding in His love will bring the blessing of Christ’s joy for Jesus says, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”

        Those who confess Christ as Lord and Savior, but do not have Christ’s love for others and do not live in love, are not keeping His commandments or abiding in Him.  

      Christ’s love is one that is willing to take risks and lose everything.  A love that holds nothing back.  That has no fear.  That seeks to gain nothing for oneself, but only to do what God requires.

     This kind of love is rare in a world that tells us we don’t have to love everybody all the time.  Some people don’t deserve our love.  And love doesn’t have to last.  We can choose to love with certain conditions or for only a little while, when loving is beneficial for us. Most of us would hesitate to love if it meant putting our own families in danger.

      Yet Christ commands us to love as He has loved us. This love He speaks of is possible if we abide in Him.  If we cling to Him heart, mind, and soul and seek the Spirit’s power to follow in His footsteps. This love requires faith.

      Jesus tells us there is no greater love than the love he has shown us—a love that led him to the cross.  Christ became for us the one despised and rejected, so we, who deserved God’s wrath, might live.

     

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      As Judy’s family prepared the packages for Francisca’s family every year, her grandfather would take from his wallet the picture he always carried of her.  She was the “angel,” he said, who saved the entire family.

       Francisca’s granddaughters, however, remember her as no “angel” in the traditional sense. She wasn’t overtly religious. She was tough, didn’t “take any punches from anybody,” and liked to sniff tobacco. But she was a woman with compassion and the courage to live by her convictions.

     Why did she do what she did—when so many of her Christian neighbors assisted the Nazis? The key is in the word Francisca used to describe those she helped. She called them simply her “friends.”

    As we continue our Lenten journey together, seeking to draw nearer to God and walk in Christ’s footsteps toward the cross, Francisca’s story reminds us of the extraordinary love and grace God has shown us.

     Francisca died in 1960 without ever having revealed her secret. Jolanta did not hear about the courageous thing her mother and grandmother had done until she and her family moved to the United States in the 1980s. The Israeli government contacted them when they recognized Francisca and Helena in 1986 as “Righteous Among the Nations.”  

    

      Jolanta and her sister finally met Judy Maltz and those who had survived because of their grandmother’s bravery. A few years ago Judy decided to make the documentary film, “No. 4 Street of Our Lady,” so the world would know.  They traveled together to Francisca’s former home in Poland. Jolanta and her sister were seeing it for the first time. The “friends” wiped away tears when they saw the tiny, dark, smelly loft above the pigsty and the hole dug beneath the kitchen floor. Sixteen people had huddled, trembling in silent fear for nearly 2 years as the woman who was their angel risked her life so they who were despised and rejected might live. 

 

      “For there is no greater love than this—to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

     My friends, let us pray.

Holy God, we thank you for your amazing love that led you to provide the sacrifice for our sins through your only Son.  During Lent and always, move our hearts to gratitude for what you have done for us who do not deserve your love.  Remind us that we are saved not by our works but by Your grace through faith, which is also a gift from you.  Move us to cling to you heart, mind and soul, and abide in Christ, so we might keep your commandments. Build up our faith and give us courage to take risks and love those who are despised and rejected as you have loved us.  In Christ we pray.  Amen!