The Command to Love -- Lectionary Reflection for Easter 5C (John 13)

 



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.”
******

              It's Eastertide, but the lectionary takes back to Maundy Thursday. Here in John 13, we gather with Jesus in the Upper Room, where Jesus has shared a final meal with his disciples (how large a group and who is present is not known, but I like to think it's more than Jesus and the twelve --- sorry Leonardo). By this point in the story, the meal has ended, and Jesus has washed the feet of the disciples. According to John, Judas has just left the building intent on fulfilling his own mission. Since Judas didn't leave an accounting of his actions, we're left to the Gospel accounts. It's possible that Judas wanted to push Jesus toward taking a revolutionary stand against the Romans. Whether or not that was his intent, the Jesus-led revolution against the Romans failed to occur. While the Synoptic Gospels envision Jesus's final meal being a Passover dinner, John offers a different understanding. This is a pre-Passover meal. That's because, in John's telling of the story, Jesus' death on the cross takes place on the Day of the Passover (Jn. 19:14). Whatever the time frame, for our purposes, the focus here is on the command he gives his disciples. Before he gives his Farewell Discourse, in which he speaks of the promise of the Holy Spirit, we're told that with the departure of Judas, Jesus (the Son of Man) is glorified. The Farewell Discourse goes on for several chapters before Judas returns, this time with the authorities ready to arrest Jesus (John 18:1-14). That, however, is not the focus of this reading.   

         The connection to Easter is this word about the Son of Man (Jesus) being glorified, while God is glorified in Jesus. John wants us to know that God’s glory is revealed in the life and ministry of Jesus. We see this message present in the prologue to his Gospel, where 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 go back to the wedding at Cana you’ll see that Jesus was 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 both controversial and important. It is controversial because it emphasizes maleness, but it's important because it carries an eschatological patina. When the Gospels speak of Jesus being the Son of Man, standing behind that declaration is the word from Daniel 7. These words suggest that what is about to take place has eschatological, even apocalyptic, implications. John chose this title for a reason. It suggests, in John's own way, that what happens next has eschatological implications. It is through Jesus' death and resurrection and ascension that God's glory is fully revealed. 

          As Jesus experiences this process of glorification, he gives the disciples a new commandment or mandate. That command/mandate has to do with love. Jesus had already demonstrated the way of love when he washed the feet of the disciples ((Jn. 13:1-16). The action of love and service is further defined by this new commandment: “I give you a new commandment (mandate), that you must love one another.” Yes, love one another – “as I have loved you.” How had 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 have disagreements over doctrines or practices. We have used the Bible to support numerous forms of injustice. We have killed each other because of assumed heresies. Servetus was executed in Geneva. Anabaptists were drowned as punishment for advocating believers’ 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 that serves as a good reminder that Christians have failed to show 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). [On the message of 1 John 4, see my book The Letters of John: A Participatory Study Guide, pp. 69-73].

               Gail O’Day suggests that 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.” May we live into this confession as we seek to live into Jesus' commandment. 



Image AttributionSwanson, John August. Washing of the Feet II, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58580 [retrieved May 10, 2022]. Original source: www.JohnAugustSwanson.com - copyright 1999 by John August Swanson.

Comments

Popular Posts