Love each other—Like I love you -- Lectionary Reflection for Easter 5C
John 13:31-35 New
Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
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We
remain in the Easter season, but the lectionary takes us back to John’s story
of the pre-Easter Jesus. This time we’re
in the upper room. Jesus and the disciples are having that final meal that has
given birth to the Maundy Thursday remembrance that underlies our Eucharistic
celebrations. According to John, Judas
has left the building intent on fulfilling his own mission. The meal that remains undescribed by John is
over. Jesus has washed the feet of the disciples, showing them what it means to
be a disciple and a servant of God. We know from what follows that this was not,
from John’s perspective, a Passover meal. That’s because John places the
crucifixion on the Day of Preparation for the Passover (Jn. 19:14). Passover
begins Friday evening. But, even if the
chronology is a bit different, John assumes a meal at which Jesus gives final
instructions to his disciples. This Farewell Discourse will go on for several
chapters before Judas returns, this time with the authorities ready to arrest
Jesus (John 18:1-14).
One of
the central themes of John’s gospel is the revelation of God’s glory in the
life and ministry of Jesus. In the prologue to his Gospel, John declares that “the Word became
flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the father’s
only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Along the way we have caught
glimpses of that glory as Jesus performs signs, like the time he turned water
into wine (John 2:11), which was the first sign. If you back to the wedding at
Cana you’ll see that Jesus was at that point somewhat reluctant to let the
light shine too brightly. It was not yet
his hour, but his mother thought otherwise, and so a sign revealed his glory. In
this case, we are told that at this very moment the Son of Man has been
glorified, and with him, God has been glorified. The use of the title Son of Man
is important. It carries an eschatological patina.
What is
occurring at that moment in time, through this meal and Jesus' actions,
including washing the feet of the disciples, Jesus reveals his glory. Part of this
revelation is the decision on Judas’ part to betray Jesus. What is meant as
betrayal becomes a moment of revelation, for the betrayal leads to the cross
and the cross leads to the tomb and the tomb gives way to the resurrection. As
Gail O’Day puts it: “Who God is, who Jesus is, and who they are to each other
and to the believer is fully revealed in Jesus’ death, resurrection, and
ascension” (New Interpreter's Bible, IX:732).
As
Jesus experiences this process of glorification, he has words to share with
those closest to him. Among these important words is a new commandment or mandate
(it is this new mandate that gives rise to the term Maundy Thursday—Maundy derives
from a Middle English term that translates the Latin mandatum). Having already exhibited his love for the disciples by
washing their feet, he now gives a further definition. Jesus declares to them:
“I give you a new commandment (mandate), that you must love one another.” Love
one another – “as I have loved you.” How has Jesus loved them? By washing their
feet; by becoming a servant. If they love one another then the world will know
that they are Jesus’ disciples.
Many
like to sing that folk hymn “They will know we are Christians by our love.” If
only this were true, or at least truer than we have experienced it. Christians
aren’t always a loving people. We have a long history of excluding and even
killing those who disagree. We have used the Bible to support numerous forms of
injustice. We have killed each other because of assumed heresies. Servetus was
executed at Geneva. Anabaptists were drowned as punishment for advocating
believer’s baptism, a practice that was believed to undermine Christendom. I’ve
been to the spot where Thomas Cranmer and two other bishops were burned at the
stake. There’s a marker right there in the middle of Broad Street in Oxford. It
is a good reminder of Christians failing to share love for one another. If
we’re willing to enact such brutal policies toward those who are part of the
community, it should be no surprise that Christians have been willing to do the same to those who stand outside the community. Indeed, Christians have
visited upon others, what the Romans did to Jesus! Nonetheless, love is our
mandate. Tom Oord has been a tireless
advocate for the principle that love should be at the center of Christian
theology.
If love is the center of the biblical witness and the core of Christian experience, it should be the primary criterion for theology. Love should be the orienting concern and continual focus for speaking systematically about theology. We should discard ideas or theories that undermine love. [The Nature of Love, p. 2]
What is revealed here is expanded in another Johannine text
(whether from the same hand or not is irrelevant). In the first letter of John, it is written:
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves
is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God
is love” (1 John 4:7-8).
Turning
again to Gail O’Day for some guidance, it is good to be reminded that the
command to love is not new. The command to love is found revealed in the Torah.
But what is new, according to O’Day, “is that the commandment derives from the
incarnation (see 3:16). The ‘new’ turn in the commandment of 13:34 is that
Jesus’ ‘own’ are asked to enter into the love that marks the relationship of
God and Jesus. The participation in this relationship will be evidenced the
same way that Jesus’ is: by acts of love that join the believer to God (cf.
14:14, 21, 23; 15:12)” [NIB, IX:732].
Jesus
is being glorified with God. This glory has been revealed in acts of love.
Those who “believe” or entrust their lives to God through Jesus participate in
the love that binds Jesus with God. By participating in this love, they show
themselves to be his disciples. Yes, “they will know we are Christians by our
love.”
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