31
When Judas 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.”
For the fifth Sunday in Easter, the lectionary continues its
backward glance into the life/ministry of Jesus prior to his crucifixion. This
began last week with the "Good Shepherd" emphasis and will continue
through the remaining Sundays of Easter. The readings appointed for the latter
Sundays of Easter are designed to do two things.... (1) to teach disciples (us)
that the pre-crucifixion life/ministry of Jesus has just as much relevance to
us now *after the resurrection (and Ascension) as before. Nothing has changed.
As was noted last week, he didn't "use to be" the Good Shepherd, he
*is the Good Shepherd. (2) The other thing the readings are designed to
accomplish is to whet our appetites for Pentecost. Jesus IS the Good Shepherd,
however, as he says in this reading: Where I am going, you cannot come (v33)…
at least not right away. Things are the same, but they're also going to be different...
and that difference entails the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Church
to lead it into all truth. So, even though Pentecost is still some weeks
off, the readings already give a glimpse of what lays up ahead.
As usual for John's gospel the reading is packed very dense
with options worthy of exploration, but I am most drawn to the latter part
about the new commandment to love one another. To begin with, there
isn't a lot new with this commandment. In the Torah (Lev 19:18) we find
the basis of Jewish ethics: You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge
against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am
the Lord. At least in one way, the command to 'love' was nothing new. Those
who are into language details may even point out that the word for 'love' is
the same in the Greek, agape. So if the *command to love isn't exactly
new, WHAT IS?
The first thing
that's new is the point of reference. The Torah commands love of neighbor as
self. That is an incredibly high standard, as most of us on our best days could
probably admit that we really are '#1' in our own eyes. Hence, even to come close
to this ideal would inevitably lead to a radically changed world. Try to
imagine what it would be like if everyone loved their neighbor as themselves.
But in his typical way, Jesus manages to ratchet up the prescription of Torah
even higher. The new command isn't a repeat of the old one. Christians aren't
called simply to love others as themselves... Jesus says we are to love
in the same way as I have loved you (vs34). By the way, this is as good
a place as any to emphasize the point that the sort of love being discussed is
not primarily an emotion. The defining characteristic of agape love is
not a feeling, but rather ACTION. Jesus talks about love a lot, but he
does much more than talk. He literally gives his life to the
world—including many millions of people that he never even met personally. This
clearly puts the emphasis of this love on what is done on behalf of the
other.
The second thing
that's new about this commandment is that it creates new community. In order to
get the gist of this you have to go back to Exodus 19 and the scene around Mt.
Sinai. Moses had brought the commands of God before the people: So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people
and set before them all the words the LORD had commanded him to speak. The
people all responded together, "We will do everything the LORD has
said." So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD (vss 7-8). This scene in Exodus is highly significant, as it is here
that the people ceased being nobodies and became God's covenant people in the
national sense. Fast forwarding into the New Testament era, St. Peter will tell
his readers But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him
who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (1Pet. 2:9). In
other words, just as the command of God creates community at the foot of Mt.
Sinai, the command of Jesus creates community... a completely, even radically,
new community, not based on ethnicity or bloodline, but on faith.
The third thing that's new about this commandment is the worship setting.
Jesus issues the command on the night in which he's betrayed. This reading even
appears on the lectionary for Maundy Thursday, the commemoration of the
institution of the Lord's Supper. This is a perfect example of how the
Christian life cannot be neatly dissected in terms of 'worship' vs 'living.'
Jesus gives an ideal moral imperative to love as he has loved, but he does so within
the context of the covenant community at worship. The two go together of
necessity. We cannot go in peace to serve the Lord, until we have first
gathered together in worship around Word and Table and received The One who
comes to us in his body and blood.
The fourth thing that's new about this commandment is how open-ended it
is. The old commandment was to love the neighbor. Of course the parable of the
Good Samaritan (Luke 10) has much to teach about the true definition of
'neighbor,' but here in John 13 Jesus simply keeps it wide open: love one
another, whoever that may be. And it
finishes pretty open-ended as well: By
this everyone (Gk pante, ALL) will know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one another.” The implication is pretty clear. In its narrowest sense,
love/service for neighbor is about doing for those who are most like us. But in
typical fashion, Jesus challenges us to get beyond those and that which are
most like us to include ALL. After all, that's what he did.
Cheers,
T.M.
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