John 13:31-35 Love One Another
John 13:31-35 (Evangelical Heritage Version)
31After Judas left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify the Son in himself and will glorify him at once.”
33“Dear children, I am going to be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34“A new commandment I give you: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you are to love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Love One Another
I.
It was Holy Thursday evening. Jesus was celebrating Passover with his disciples. Towel wrapped around his waist, like a common servant, the greatest among them moved from one disciple to another, kneeling down and washing their feet. The Passover meal got underway; the ceremonial foods on the plate were dipped in the bowl of saltwater and eaten as the story of the Exodus from Egypt continued to unfold.
It wouldn’t be hard to imagine that at most Passover meals there are conversations on the side from time to time while the story is retold. This particular evening, as the meal progressed, Jesus said: “Amen, Amen, I tell you: One of you will betray me” (John 13:21, EHV). Who would be the betrayer, they all wondered. Pieces of matzah, unleavened bread, were regularly dipped in the dish of saltwater between the ceremonial foods. To answer which of them would betray, Jesus said: “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread, after I have dipped it in the dish” (John 13:26, EHV). Judas Iscariot received that particular piece of bread. Soon after, Judas left—leaving behind the One he had called Master and Rabbi; leaving behind three years of his life to choose a destructive path.
That’s what comes right before today’s Gospel. “After Judas left, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him’” (John 13:31, EHV).
It would be only a matter of hours before the betrayer identified by Jesus would greet Jesus with an insincere kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane. Shortly after that would come the trial spread over several different courtrooms, as those who accused Jesus tried desperately to make their trumped-up charges sound realistic and righteous. Then these remaining Eleven would stand at the foot of the cross and watch their Lord suffer and die; they would see his lifeless body removed from the cross and placed in a tomb.
“Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him.” Agonizing hour after agonizing hour must have made them wonder about Jesus’ statement. How could any of those things be seen as Jesus—the Son of Man—being glorified?
II.
Later they would come to understand what he had meant. “Now” was the right time for the events of Holy Week to proceed. Those events would put into context what Jesus was about to tell them.
“A new commandment I give you: Love one another” (John 13:34, EHV). Was that “new,” really? Jesus once needed to explain God’s Moral Law to a so-called “expert.” To summarize the commandments that talk about our relationship with God, Jesus used Deuteronomy 6:5, and quoted: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37, EHV). Then he quoted Leviticus 19:18 to summarize all the rest of the commandments: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39, EHV).
If Jesus quoted “Love God and love your neighbor” before, was the commandment so “new”? If Moses had written “Love God and love your neighbor” millennia earlier, was the commandment really “new”?
These days people often think of love as syrupy and mushy; it’s all about emotions. That wasn’t the kind of love described by Paul in today’s Second Reading: “Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. It does not brag. It is not arrogant” (1 Corinthians 13:4, EHV). Paul didn’t stop there, but kept going and going as he talked about love. What stands out is that love isn’t an emotion, love is action—love is work.
“Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39, EHV). So Jesus quoted from Leviticus. But how well do you actually do that? It’s all too easy to be the opposite of what James said (James 1:19): we are slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to become angry. All too often, we display the opposite of “love your neighbor as yourself.” Peter even had to be shown in a vision in our First Reading how to show love to Gentile believers.
III.
Jesus said: “Just as I have loved you, so also you are to love one another” (John 13:34, EHV). I wonder what the disciples thought when they first heard these words. They didn’t have the context of all that Jesus would go through in the next few hours yet, but they still knew that their attempts to love one another didn’t compare with the love Jesus regularly and continually had displayed for them.
We do have that context. When we look at Jesus’ new command, we wonder: How do we do that? We’re supposed to love as Jesus does? We aren’t really going to measure up to that kind of love.
Look again at what Jesus says. Look carefully at his side of the equation. His love for us isn’t something we are going to match, it is describing what he did for us.
The Eleven were going to witness Jesus’ love in his hours of Passion soon after they left the upper room and the Passover celebration. Throughout the season of Lent, you and I, Jesus’ disciples of today, reviewed Jesus’ selfless acts of love for all people in his suffering and death for the sins of the world.
Jesus didn’t go through all that just for Peter and James and John, or even all of the Eleven, or even for all those heros of the faith from the Old Testament, and all the heros of the faith that followed after in the New Testament. Jesus went through all that for you and for me. Jesus went through all that for all believers of all time. That is awesome news.
But take the selfless love of Jesus a step further. His love wasn’t just for Old Testament believers, or believers of today, or believers of the future.
Jesus’ selfless display of love was also for Judas, who walked out of the upper room, accepted the bribe, and betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Jesus’ love was for Pontius Pilate, who tried to wash his hands of responsibility for Jesus’ wrongful conviction and execution. Jesus’ selfless love was for the Roman soldiers who mocked him and spit on him; those who divided his clothing among themselves; those who pounded the nails and set the cross.
Jesus’ selfless love was for all those who still mock him and spit on his love today. It was for those who still refuse to listen to the gospel, even now. It was for those who willfully turn their backs on him and walk away.
Not one of us deserved it. But Jesus poured out his selfless love for all people.
IV.
Before he gave the Eleven the “new commandment,” Jesus said: “Dear children, I am going to be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come” (John 13:33, EHV).
They couldn’t go to the cross to make the payment for the sins of the world. Neither could we. None of us could display the total, selfless love that was necessary to make the payment that lets us stand before the righteous God and be declared innocent in his sight. It was Jesus who had to do all that.
Only a few minutes after he said this, Jesus told them: “In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2, EHV). The Eleven couldn’t go with Jesus at his Ascension, either. After the work of salvation was completed, Jesus would go ahead of them to prepare their mansions in heaven. He is preparing your mansion and mine, too.
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am” (John 14:3, EHV). The Eleven have departed this life for their heavenly mansions. Many of our own loved ones and friends have made their journeys, as well. He will come back for you and me one day, too.
“Just as I have loved you” (John 13:34, EHV). Jesus continues to share his selfless love with us. Week after week his Gospel is with us. “Do this in remembrance of me,” we are reminded each time we receive his body and blood, in, with, and under the bread and the wine to strengthen us and keep us firm in our faith until our heavenly mansions are ready to receive us.
Jesus said in another place: “In the same way let your light shine in people’s presence, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16, EHV). When you love one another, as Jesus said in today’s Gospel, it’s noticeable. Reflecting the love of Jesus in your life can lead others to want to learn and know more and more about the Jesus who has shown such great love for you. Your opportunity is to tell them his love is also for them.
Now that you have received Jesus’ love, love one another. Amen.
