Judas has left. He has gone to do
his evil work. Jesus still has some time before the police show up to arrest
Him. And He spends most of that time sharing His heart with the faithful
eleven. Today, we'll look at one of the commands that He gives to these friends
of His.
A new
commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you,
you also are to love one another.
Jesus' new command is clear
enough. In fact, He is almost repeating Himself. Just a few moments before
saying this, Jesus talked to these men about serving one another, and He gave
them an example by washing their feet. Serve one another. Love one another.
What's the difference? While serving one another is to be an act of love, the
command to love is a bit broader. To love someone stresses the affection you
are to have for the other. There is to be some emotional connection. The
command to love highlights a sense of devotion to that person's well-being. So,
while there's lots of overlap between serving and loving one another, there are
important differences.
Jesus uses Himself as an example
for both commands. Just as we are to serve others as He served, we are to love one
another as He loved. And that foot washing reveals something important about
how Jesus loved.
It's important that you see that the
foot washing is not just an example of one way to love others. When Jesus
washed those feet He was doing more. By those specific actions Jesus was
explaining what He expected of those men – and us – when it comes to loving one
another. Listen again to how John describes what Jesus did. This translation is
a little more literal.
He laid aside
his outer garments… When he had washed their feet and took up his outer
garments … He said to them …
That sounds fine, but actually
something's off. The language is wrong. Back then, if someone took off some
piece of clothing, like a robe, there were certain words that would be used to
describe that. John doesn't use those words. He uses different words, words
that don't quite fit. Why? It helps to know that the words he used here he used
before. Listen to something back in chapter ten. Jesus is speaking.
For this reason
the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up
again. No one takes it from me, but I
lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have
authority to take it up again.
Jesus is describing His dying and
returning to life. What words does He use? He uses words translated as 'lay
down' and 'take up'. John uses those same words when he describes Jesus washing
those feet. Listen again.
He laid down his
outer garments… When he had washed their feet and took up his outer garments …
He said to them …
We have the same words that Jesus
used to talk about His death and then His resurrection, words that don’t quite
fit when talking about robes and such. According to the way that John describes
what happened, Jesus is acting out what He is about to do on Good Friday and
then on Easter.
So, what’s going on? Along with
being an example of serving others, the foot washing is an acted parable. The goal
of this parable is to help us understand how Jesus loved. He did that by dying,
by laying down His life. The cross. And He did that in the expectation of
taking up His life again. The resurrection.
Here’s the point. We are to love
one another. And we are to do that in the same way Jesus did. We follow His
lead. His loving us included laying down His life. And that's how we are to
love one another. We are to lay down our
lives so that we can love one another. So, you see, Jesus has given us the
model to follow, not just in terms of the kinds of things we are to do, like
washing feet. He has given us a model to follow when it comes to how to do
that, the costliness of that love. Jesus calls us not just to do loving things.
He calls us to die so that we can love others well.
That might sound extreme. But this
isn't the first time that He has talked in this way. There are plenty of times
that Jesus talks about dying as a part of following Him. This is what He said
back in chapter 12.
Truly, truly, I
say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains
alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Jesus expects us to die, to die
for each other so that we might love each other.
This idea of death is not just
about our bodies. The dying that Jesus calls for also applies to our desires
and dreams, our schedules, our priorities, our plans. It covers a lot of
territory. Loving others, His kind of loving others, will require some dying.
His kind of dying is not possible without it.
One response to all of this will
be saying something like, 'That's hard.' I would commend anyone thinking like
this. It shows that he’s getting it. But I would actually disagree with him. I
think that it is more accurate - and more helpful - to say, 'That's impossible.'
For people like us to be able to love the other people in this room with the
kind of love that is ready to die - that's more than hard, much more than hard.
But, at the same time, I also think that it can happen and that it has
happened among us – but not because we have been able to gather our resources
and get it done. No, we've had outside help. We have been able to love each
other in the way that Jesus has commanded because the Spirit has given us what
we've needed. He's the outside help.
We can love because of Him. And
that should be encouraging. But His aid is not automatic. His outside help will
not show up unless He sees certain qualities at work in us. I'm thinking of
three.
The first: faith. To adopt this
kind of living, to be ready to die in order to love these other people – that puts
many precious things at risk. It is costly in time and energy. And isn't it
clear that certain people are just too hard to love? But Jesus did not offer a suggestion.
It is a command.
'…just as I have
loved you, you also are to love one another.'
So, to obey His command in the
sense that He means it, we will have to trust Jesus that He knows what He is
talking about. We will have to trust Jesus and put all those precious things at
risk. We will have to trust Jesus and spend time and effort we don’t think we
have. We will have to trust Jesus that loving in this way is right. The Spirit
will give us what we need to love one another as He sees us trusting Jesus in
these things. Faith.
Here's a second quality: hope.
Remember that when the Bible talks about hope it is so very different from what
most of our neighbors think. Hope is not wishful thinking. Hope is waiting for
Jesus to keep a promise. And He makes lots of promises. When it comes to dying,
He makes a promise. What did He say about the grain of wheat that dies? '… if
it dies, it bears much fruit.' What is Jesus promising? 'A fruitful life' –
that’s just church words. Let’s translate it. Jesus promises a life that is
worth living, a life overflowing with lots of good things like peace and joy
and such a gentle spirit. He promises insight into God and life, insight into
now and forever. Jesus also promises restoration. All that is risked and lost by
loving in this way will be restored to you, with interest, some in this life
and some in the life to come. What is laid down will be taken up again. Jesus
promises. So, we are to love each other in hope, in the expectation that Jesus
will keep His promises. As the Spirit sees that in us He will act. Hope.
Then, the third quality is love. We'll
need to love Jesus. Without loving Him, any apparent acts of love for others
are actually something else, something selfish. Real love for others is simply
the overflow of a love for Jesus. Without that love for Him we cannot love
others as He loves. In this we follow the same pattern of His loving. Jesus’
love for us is the overflow of His love for the Father. Again, as the Spirit
sees this love in us He will act. Love.
So, there are three things required
of us if we're going to be able to obey this new command. And taking that
seriously will mean that we will be in desperate need of God's grace. We can't
trust. We can't hope. We can't love. Left to ourselves we will utterly fail -
utterly fail. But there is grace. The Father is ready to give it to all who
need and who come to Him in their need. We can love like Jesus did – by the
grace of God.
To be sure, we will stumble and
fall in our attempts to love one another. We will sin. But that's why the
Gospel includes repentance. When we acknowledge our sin, there is forgiveness.
But not just forgiveness. There is also change. The Spirit uses our 'failures'.
They can be like little pop quizzes. We stumble and think selfishly instead of
loving the person that the Spirit has put in front of us. But then, He points
out that selfishness. And that's where the quiz shows up. What will you do? You
pass the quiz by admitting your sin. Repentance. But then, in a surprising act
of grace, the Spirit doesn't just put you back where you were before you sinned.
He blesses you. He sees your knowing and doing. He sees your repentance. And He
blesses you. Grace. We make progress even as we fail in this loving one another
thing.
Now, why does Jesus command this
kind of love? As you know by now there are many ways to answer 'why' questions.
I'm going to answer this one in two ways. Jesus commands this kind of love
because this is how life is supposed to be. If Adam had never sinned we'd be
living in this way. We’d be loving in this way, ready to die for each other.
And when Jesus comes back we will be living in this way and loving this way. This
isn’t some weird Christian thing. It's reality. It's life, life as it was
intended. So, working on this makes sense. This loving one another is how we
were intended to live. Investing the effort makes sense. And that's why Jesus
commands it.
Here's the other way I'm going to
answer this. And this answer comes right out of the text.
By this all
people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Living and loving in this way is
a statement to the world. It is a statement that we are disciples of Jesus. And
it is that statement because Jesus came to restore what was lost in that Garden
long ago. Jesus has come to establish a new kind of culture with a new kind of
humanity. Our lives together are to be a revelation of what living is supposed
to be like and what, one day, it most certainly will be like. Jesus wants us to
be His Church. And one part of what that means is that we are to love one
another like He loves us. And as we learn how to do that the world will notice.
We don't have to worry about getting their attention. That's not our problem.
We are to work on loving one another. As we do that, we'll get their attention.
The Spirit will make sure of that. And Jesus will get the honor He deserves.
Loving others is doing evangelism.
So, what do we do now? I hope
that the answer to that is obvious. We need to pray. Remember, doing this is
impossible. And what do we pray for? How about praying for faith, hope and love?
Pray for the grace to be able to make progress in these qualities. And there is
something else to pray about. There are times when we will see one of these
good people in need and we are to drop everything, go and love that person,
doing all that we can to meet that need. But there are times when we should not
do any of that. There are times to say ‘Yes’. But there are times to say ‘No’.
And it isn't always easy knowing which is when. There will be plenty of times
when we really do need to die to our desires so that we will love another of
the saints. That may be difficult and costly. But we will need to do it. But
not always. And Jesus is the best example of that. Sometimes He said ‘Yes’ and
sometimes He said ‘No’. So, that's something to pray for also: the ability to
know.